[100](?) Laptop review: Averatec 5400 series
   [101](?) Linux boots from RAMdisk,
   [102](?) Help --or--
          [103]Quota needs update, help!
          a place for everything and everything in its place...
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(¶) Greetings from Heather Stern

   Greetings, dear readers, and welcome once again to the world of The Answer
   Gang.

   A  world, I note, which has changed quite a bit in the last year. Last
   December it was like the Gazette was under a sort of shadow - our crew
   handled the transition to our new site with all the energy we could muster,
   but there's only so much life we few who run this could pour in - we had to
   wait for you readers to rediscover us.

   We were already a great team, but the effort bound us together in a way
   that's really rather hard to describe... except that I like the results. We
   learn from each other on the lists as much as we ever did, but it's more
   than that, we're closer as friends I think, and we back each other up on
   things. We don't always agree (you put 20 plus curmudgeonly and very smart
   people in a room together and watch the fun. Oh? You say that's your typical
   holiday party? You see what I mean then) and at times Real Life(tm) mugs one
   or another of us ... and we really are different people, in what can take us
   down or carry us forward ... but we try to do more for each other.

   It brings me great joy this year to still be bringing Linux Gazette to your
   browser's doorstep. I have to admit that for awhile even my own enthusiasm
   was failing; in past years I had done it for simply knowing Jim's "Answer
   Guy" pages would look far better when I put my hand to them. For awhile I
   had done it just for knowing there were uncounted readers out there looking
   for  our good bits every month. In my own harder times I did it simply
   because I had promised to, I couldn't let you people down, and what little
   energy I could gain from knowing I was getting at least one job done right
   was very much a boost to me. The ordeals we put ourselves through here have
   given me strength in my friendships and renewed hope for a lot of little
   things in my life, Linux just one of them. The world has turned again, and
   I'm glad to know that you people are out there, still reading this, telling
   your newbie friends that their Linux troubles are solvable, we can Make
   Linux Just A Little More Fun and even get a giggle now and then.

   That's part of what has seriously changed the face of LG though. The kind of
   people who were Linux newbies 5 years ago are not the same today. For one
   thing those people aren't newbies, but they still like to read about Linux
   and expand their knowledge even further. But the people who even thought
   about Linux then have a smorgasboard of choices now - and the newbies of
   today  are in many cases less technical - you can buy "a linux box" at
   Wal-Mart, on special at CompUSA, you might be leaping ship from the (amazing
   to me, why does Microsoft saw off its own foot like this??) myriad flavors
   of MSwin to be found nowadays. Whether or not they ever caught a virus, the
   crashes and the pain they encounter when they dare to change their hardware
   are just as stumping to them as the box of Red Hat or SuSE on the store
   shelves. If they're going to get their hands dirty anyway... they may as
   well try this Linux thing on for size.

   It won't fit all of them.

   That's the thing about a world of choices. vi versus emacs debate fans the
   world over know that when it comes down to someone being a power user, the
   fact they've learned all the deep magics is worth a lot more than what type
   of filesystem runs under the hood or what some geek thinks is an 'operating
   system'. If the system operates, that's what they like. And that's good. I
   made the choice to stick with Gazette the way that gave it its power, a
   monthly source of good knowledge and fun. It's been worth it, and I thank
   all of you, of whatever age, country, newness to linux or being such an old
   hat that "Red Hat" upstart's a whippersnapper, for joining us every month.
   Send us your tips and good stories. Have a great time with Linux.

   So it's the holidays now, and I'm giving you folks out there the same thing
   I give my dear friends and family every year, however rich or poor I might
   be. Presence.
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(?) Laptop review: Averatec 5400 series

   From Rick 

                                                Answered By: Ben Okopnik 

   Hi Ben, 

   Good article. My experience with laptops have had varied results. By that I
   mean, in many cases it has more to do with the distribution of Linux as it
   does with the hardware. I have a Compaq Presario 915ca (the specs on this
   can  be easily looked up). The only upgrade is to 512MB of RAM. In any
   event, I am currently running WinXP and 3 different versions of Linux (I am
   a bit of an OS junkie!) using a 3rd party boot loader. 

   Xandros recognizes everything out of the box, even the WinModem! I had 

     (!) [Ben] "Out of the box" functioning is nice to have, but I don't expect
     it - and once you don't, all distros become essentially equal. There is no
     difference between, e.g. the kernel used in Mandrake and the one in
     [104]Debian beyond possibly compilation choices and maybe a patch or two -
     which I can also get and use at need. There's certainly no difference in
     the standard toolkit, and there's no real difference in configuration -
     the tools may vary, but the end result is the same. I'm expert enough with