Portugal / Debian
Great Article!
I've been living in Portugal for many years.
There is plenty of second hand kit available, (see for example: http://olx.pt/ ) but I prefer to buy new as Portuguese Govt. legislation requires purveyors of hardware, white goods and many other items to offer a minimum two year guarantee.
Worten.pt is part of the large national SONAE group and, in fact, took over the old Dixon's operations in Spain a couple of years back. Economies of scale are now such that prices are very competitive on a EU basis. However, there are a good number of excellent IT retailers nationwide most with their own online shops.
One thing I like about Portugal is that 48hr Cash on Delivery is available here via the Post Offfice and offereed by most on-line retailers. This avoids having to use credit/debit cards and reduces fraud risks.
I also only use Debian on my three laptops(jessie) and my VPS(wheezy).and have been doing so for 10 years. I love rehabilitating "ex laptops" that people intend to dispose of with Linux.
I am writing is on an ex-Dixons UK, Advent Eclipse E300 (Intel Celeron SU2300 (1.20GHz)) which a local Expat was flogging 12 months ago. All the advice on the web was that it couldn't be upgraded. I managed to use a credit card to slide the case open, installed 4GB (supplied by http://chipsite.pt) instead of 2GB RAM, fitted a 120GB Kingston SSD ( http://chip7.aeiou.pt/ ) and did a fresh Debian 8 Jessie install. The UK keyboard remains, but I have a portuguese usb keyboard plugged and a language keyboard changer installed on the lower dock to allow use of both languages.
The machine boots in 20 seconds. It is lighweight,(no dvd), and ideal for travel. All for under 180€!
With my Portuguese smartphone 3G package providing hotspot access and the excellent national mobile coverage ( +-95% of the geographic area), I essentially have reasonably good quality internet access 24/7.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
