About to buy a new laptop

I’m about to buy a new laptop. I’m still happy with my Thinkpad T60p1 even though it needs a service to get rid of some heat problems and this annoying display issue, which has become worse lately:

Anyway, the new laptop is not for me but for my wife, so that there is less competition about the one we already have! 🙂

One option would be to get me a new laptop and let her inherit the T60p, but I have an 1600×1200 pixel display now and the Thinkpad T Series models with 1920×1200 pixels are outrageously priced! I need some really good new business for 2GooD Productions in order to afford it!

Miguel de Icaza observed that Lenovo finally offers Linux preloaded on some machines but I can’t find anything about that on their Swedish web site. It would be good to avoid paying the “Microsoft Tax” the next time a buy a Thinkpad!

When my wife found out that Dell offers their Inspiron 1525 with the design below, she wanted one of those, and who am I to argue? I’ll make sure the specs look alright and pray that I can get Ubuntu running on it properly.

blossom.jpg

(Image is Courtesy of Dell Inc.)

1 At least if I don’t think too much about the issues with the fglrx proprietary graphics driver from ATI.

Lock screen when I close the laptop lid

I’m quite sure that Ubuntu 7.0.4 (Feisty Fawn) with GNOME 2.18 locked my screen when I closed the lid of my laptop. Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) with GNOME with 2.20 did not until I made this change under the hood. The XML below can be imported with gconftool --load.

<gconfentryfile>
  <entrylist base="/apps/gnome-power-manager/lock">
    <entry>
      <key>blank_screen</key>
      <schema_key>/schemas/apps/gnome-power-manager/lock/blank_screen</schema_key>
      <value>
        <bool>true</bool>
      </value>
    </entry>
  </entrylist>
</gconfentryfile>