Buying a Linux Laptop in Alajuela

This is part 2 of my Costa Rica trip story. Due to an impending death of my trusty ASUS laptop (the real issue was the touchpad but it was on the to be replaced list for many other reasons including its age), I decided to see if I could find a suitable replacement.

Alajuela is the second largest city in Costa Rica with a population of around 500,000. Unlike Managua, the weather is decent and, possibly most important, I know my way around the city. The goal was to define some specifications and the look, on foot, to see what I could find.

First the specifications.

• Screen size in the range of 12-14 inches. The sick ASUS is 10" and is just a bit small. Over 14 and you have something that is just not a good travel computer.
• Long battery life.
• Close to or equal to full-sized keyboard.
• Runs Linux (which, these days, tends to be a non-issue but some laptops can be pretty strange)
• Built-in DVD drive.
• If possible, SD card reader.
• No "Microsoft tax". This is something that is pretty unlikely on laptops because they tend to come with customized versions of Windoze to deal with strange hardware but it was worth having on the list.

Something with a pointing device other than a touchpad was desirable but even the newer ThinkPads have one so I realized this was just not going to happen. Note that I have a couple of older ThinkPads (T22 and T23) which I love but they are quite heavy and offer battery lives of less than one hour.

Starting to Shop

My first stop was El Gallo Mas Gallo. I didn't expect a success there but they are only two blocks from the hotel and offer a reference point. They did have a 14 inch Toshiba that looked interesting. The vulture salesman rushed over. I told him I would like to boot up Linux from a CD on the system. Yeah, right. On to the next store.

The next one was a local computer store. I said that I was looking for a Linux laptop. The salesman told me how great Linux was and such. A surprise. He emphasized that "everything was in stock". I looked at his list of systems and picked a Toshiba to look at. He explained that system was in the bodega but he would have it in the store in the afternoon and would also get an ASUS that wasn't on his list. Sounded promising.

I returned in the afternoon meaning after 2PM as they were closed from noon to 2PM. Well, I seem to have had the wrong definition of afternoon. He explained that they might have it later or possibly in the morning tomorrow. And that the ASUS wouldn't be there for a week. Oh well. Alajuela is a big city—on to the next option.

The next store also had "everything in stock". They printed out a list of laptops for me. All except one had displays of 10 inches or less or 15 inches or more. I picked the exception. He suggested one of the alternatives. I pointed out the display size issue. He confessed they didn't have that one. Next.

The next store was less friendly. That is, they explained that "the way it worked" was that you bought a laptop in a box and then you could touch it. The idea of actually "trying it" was not on the agenda. Yeah, I buy all my computers, cars and girlfriends like that. :-)

Success

Heading across the center of town to continue my search in another area I passed by another El Gallo Mas Gallo. They have taken over a few business locations that were other tiendas in the area near the public market. This was a small location and I saw three laptops there. I went in and got assaulted by a typical salesman. I started talking about Linux and such and he quickly lost interest.

Most of their salesmen tend to be relatively young men that want to earn commissions but tend to have little interest in "anything complicated". He suggested I talk to this other guy—a 50-ish guy. So, I did. I told him my story with a bit of "evidence" that I knew what I was talking about. That included knowing that the Ministries of Health and Science & Technology run Linux and that I had interviewed Guy de Teramond, the then Minister of Science & Technology some years ago.

He was convinced. He suggested we go over to the other store where I had seen interesting systems. We walked over there and started looking at the choices. I was pretty interested in one but all the laptops were chained down, had dead batteries and no AC adapters were in sight. He headed off to look for an adapter and, as we rounded the end of the display, there was another system I hadn't noticed in the morning that looked very interesting.

It is a Toshiba Portégé A600. I had one many years ago. How long? Many. For reference, it has 16MB RAM and a 386 processor. They tend to be very portable, have good battery life and cost more than the "regular" Toshiba laptops. But, this one has a 50% off sticker on it.

My arithmetic indicated we were talking $900 which, while more expensive than the other choices, was within budget. 12 inch display, SD slot, DVD, 3GB RAM, 160GB hard disk with external SATA connector, WiFi. All that seemed fine. On the don't care list it also included Bluetooth, a fingerprint reader and a camera. It was clearly 50% off as it was last year's model.

My new friend headed off to get the system unchained and get the AC adapter. At this point, a few local (that is, for that store) El Gallo Mas Gallo sales dweebs were watching as was the security guard. It was like this was the first time they had seen a salesman actually try to help a customer. After a long discussion with the store manager, my friend returned with the AC adapter and a long extension cord. Apparently unchaining the system was not an option.

We hooked it up and I booted up my Kubuntu 9.04 DVD. It came up fine and even the security guard saw this as pretty cool. I was ready to buy it. But, there was the issue of the commission for my new friend. As this was not his store, they could not pay his commission. Time for Plan B.

Plan B was to move the computer between stores. He did the paperwork and then we returned to his store. Finished the sale there and one of the "I don't really help customers" dweebs from the first store delivered the system. I also explained I lived in Nicaragua offering my cédula and managed to avoid sales tax.

Installing Linux

That's the end of the sales story. For you Linux geeks, here are the "problems" I had getting it really up and running right.

I booted up the DVD again in install mode. Half an hour later I had a real Linux system. The "problem list" was minimal.

• Sound didn't work. I knew there would be an easy fix once I was on-line. There was:a one-line addition to a configuration file.
• Turning off tap-to-click on the touchpad. Nothing new—I have this fight with each new laptop.
• The Latin American keyboard. The default keyboard map is "very close" but I still have a couple of changes I need to make. For example, ¿ and ¡ are reversed but such things as ñ work fine. The accent keys are backwards such that á is actually labeled as à but that is pretty minor.
• While a working camera was not on my priority list, I decided to try it. It works fine.
• The fingerprint reader is just not on my "bother to try" list.

That's about it. Battery life looks like at least four hours no matter what and probably six if I am conservative. Also, while I didn't realize this when I bought the system, the screen has an LED backlight. Less power and longer life.