As it happens, I was cursing dad's Lenovo laptop (and Linux and Realtek) last night. I like the machine in some ways. It is a better build than my ASUS and it make changing the drive and upgrading the RAM easy, proving an access cover for that. I don't think this ones A8 processor is the fastest in the world but it's ample for dad who rarely does more than email and web browsing. The main gripe I have with it is that I've never managed to get its wifi and bluetooth working. The last time I looked, it appeared these parts were unlikely to get supported. My workaround has been to use a RTL8821AU based combined wifi/bluetooth USB dongle but that has given me headaches from time to time.

Anyway, due to dad making an unexpected and generous offer I wasn't going to turn down I've got/will have some new things as well as a couple of upgrades coming up. As I will be getting a new Dell laptop, one debate I had was whether to pass my faster ASUS on to dad or to keep the Lenovo. I decided that, on balance, he was better sticking with the Laptop he likes and is familiar with but that I would fit it with an ssd and upgrade to 8GB RAM.

That went smoothly as did the fresh install of Opensuse 15.3 except I couldn't get wi-fi on the dongle working and neither my memory nor looking at the contents of the old hdd revealed how it had been working last time round. I started at about 10pm and I think it was about 2:30am when (thanks to instructions for a patch I found on line that I could apply to one source code) I finally managed to compile and install to get working wifi.

Anyway, a bit of an OT ramble but Joe may be pleased to know that this upgraded Lenovo is now on course for giving (I hope) a few more years useful service for dad here.