Thinking of buying a Latitude 2100

[hedgeborn]

Any thoughts?

Other than the annoying 1024 x 576 resolution, it looks like the perfect netbook for me. Nice rubberized durable shell, ruggedized to survive K-12 educational use, 6 cell battery available, upgradable to 2 GB RAM, HD options up to 250 gb and a matte screen and not an inch of scratch prone glossy plastic anywhere on it.

Ships with Ubuntu 8.10

It's a little pricey for the specfications but I love that it seems to be built to last, unlike most of the cheaper netbooks out there.

Curious about what you all think of it, I'm close to pulling the trigger on this thing. How is Dell as far as Linux support goes? Reasonable to expect I could update Ubuntu without too much trouble?

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-latitude-2100?c=us&l=en&s=k12

http://i41.tinypic.com/33e4gog.jpg

[hedgeborn]

Bought one, got it a few days ago. Love it so far. Very nice piece of hardware IMO. A little overpriced for the specs but it is built like a tank unlike most netbooks I've seen.

[gargouille]

I recently acquired one and it seems to work really well with XP Home.

Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix seems to work really well so far, although this is the first day using it. It installed w/o a problem.

The 6 cell battery is worth the extra money.

The keyboard size is quite a decent size for a netbook. Although I tend to hit the touchpad from time to time when typing.

[hedgeborn]

Agreed, I got the 6 cell battery also. Well worth it. Keyboard it great as well, very solid feeling, just the right size.

I'm running the Ubuntu distro I ordered it with, works great so far.

No comment on the Windows XP :-\"

[hedgeborn]

Just and FYI:

I updated my Latitude 2100 to Ubuntu 10.4 NBR (clean install) and aside from having to tweak one bit to get the wireless working, it's been perfect. Runs very nicely.

[hedgeborn]

Just wanted to update this thread.

Still using the Dell Latitude 2100 and overall I'm extremely happy with it. Dell also has an updated/upgraded version called the 2200 now, which has a slightly faster atom and a 1024x600 screen instead of 1024x576.

Again, not the best bargain in the netbook world, but I think you will have a hard time finding a netbook that is as well built as this one and for me that is a key factor in my buying decision.

Though it is running a bit warmer than it used to since I switched to 10.04 :(

But it's manageable. Nothing extreme temperature wise. I just wish that someone would focus a little more on making Linux more laptop friendly. i.e. better energy consumption and lower temperatures. If Windows 7 can run cool as a cucumber on a laptop, why can't linux?