[Novalug] almost clueless hardware quandary

[Beartooth]

 	For ten years now, I've been hoping to be able to make my 
GPSs talk to map software simple-minded enough for me to use, 
*under* *linux*, on a laptop; I've kept thinking that chance 
would come, any year now.

 	It hasn't, and looks like it won't soon.

 	The best advice I can find seems to be to get a good 
solid single-purpose machine, while I still can with XP; I 
certainly don't want to have to deal with Vista.

 	The purpose will be to live in a car trunk (Is that a 
no-no?), or at any rate be used only on a passenger's lap -- 
perhaps on a passenger seat *while* *parked* if I'm alone -- with 
a y-cable connecting it to a GPS on the dashboard and to the 
cigarette lighter for power. I have such a GPS and cable (and 
even a bracket, if I can find it) -- with a serial plug on the 
computer end. So a machine that still has a serial port will be a 
help.

 	It should not cost a mint, but be as solid and durable as 
can be. It should have several GB of storage, and all the memory 
I can get -- this stuff is very graphic-intensive. (I have 
Garmin, Maptech, and Delorme suites.)

 	It may never connect to the Net; or if it does, only in 
the house, behind my router, for upgrades to the map software. 
(For connecting, I have a linux laptop -- maybe two, if I can 
ever get the EeePC configured.) So it need not handle all the 
usual apps.

 	Ideally, of course, I'd like to find an unused one from 
someone's surplus inventory; or failing that, one refurbished by 
a known good refurbisher.

 	(Parenthetical note : The IBM-refurbished IBM T-30 
Thinkpad that I bought last year at

http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1&catalogId=-840&langId=-1&categoryId=2576396

seems a reasonable point of comparison; in a rational world, I 
suppose I'd put back the XP it had when I got it -- if I could 
find that, and if I could bring myself to defile it. But it's 
serving a good if not frequent purpose now, as a loaner for house 
guests, and as a way for me to stay online while upgrading PCs. 
Better to just get another.)

 	So what am I looking for, and where? There seems to be a 
bewildering variety just of thinkpads, to say nothing of 
competitors; and I'm sure I've read here that not all thinkpads 
are created equal ...

-- 
Beartooth Implacable, Curmudgeonly Codger Learning Linux
On the Internet, you can never tell who is a dog --
supposing you care -- but you can tell who has a mind.