[PLUG] new laptop

[jeffv via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

After no end of grief from the Sys76, I made a trip to Micro Center for 
a new laptop. That place is like Disneyland for geeks. I found GUITAR 
cords. Looking for a 17" limited my selections, as did non-integrated 
graphics. The winner was an HP Omen (a 'gaming' laptop).

The power button is cleverly hidden next to the F12 key. Judging by the 
online questions, I'm not the only one who had trouble finding it. The 
BIOS is unfindable. Turns out you have to trick Windows into allowing 
you access (before you enter Windows). What kind of crap is that? 
Hopefully I won't have to get back in there (which I did to get it to 
boot from USB). Xubuntu installs usually run under 20min. This was 
closer to 15.

I completely missed the lack of number pad (no Adderall that day?). It 
has a few user-defined keys. The install found just about everything, 
giving me a choice of video drivers (xorg, proprietary, tested). So far 
the only thing I can't do is control the keyboard backlighting, which 
modulates through the colors. It's very good backlighting and the colors 
don't bother me. The only hangup is the lack of number pad (I miss the 
bottom right Enter key). If I find one, it will have specs that don't 
match up with this one. There was a 16" Thinkpad but 16 < 17. There 
exists a 17" Thinkpad, but it's something like $4k.

Looking forward to loading data and getting on with it.

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