I'm going to be buying a laptop sometime in the next year (probably later rather than sooner, though) and I'm wondering what, in your experiences, are the best.
I'd like one that will run Linux, and run it well. As in, good wireless support and all. Battery life (and type) is also an important issue. Quality and durability is important. Price less so - it would be my primary computer for the next 2+ years, and I have money saved up for it anyhow.
While we are at it, is any distro better at laptop/wireless support than Mandriva? I've heard drakroam is good, and I've also heard good things about SuSE. Beatles or windy, any comments?
Laptops?
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The Beatles
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Oh my....
My ultimate dream of computing is a PowerPC running Linux, so I'd love to buy a PowerBook. However, that's likely out of the question.
I have great experiences with Toshiba laptops, in all respects, and bad experiences with Vaios. Currently, I run a Toshiba 5205-S704, and it's excellent except for one thing; it's got a slow disk. Also, never got wireless to work. But the remote control worked out of the box.
I definitely recommend you base your selection on this website:
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
Unless of course you can actually mess with a model you are interested in, in which case just lug along a Knoppix CD to test it out... that's the best solution, oftentimes.
Sorry, not much experience here...
[edit] In hardware, Apple is synonymous with quality. Dell is not, Sony is not.
My ultimate dream of computing is a PowerPC running Linux, so I'd love to buy a PowerBook. However, that's likely out of the question.
I have great experiences with Toshiba laptops, in all respects, and bad experiences with Vaios. Currently, I run a Toshiba 5205-S704, and it's excellent except for one thing; it's got a slow disk. Also, never got wireless to work. But the remote control worked out of the box.
I definitely recommend you base your selection on this website:
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
Unless of course you can actually mess with a model you are interested in, in which case just lug along a Knoppix CD to test it out... that's the best solution, oftentimes.
Sorry, not much experience here...
[edit] In hardware, Apple is synonymous with quality. Dell is not, Sony is not.
:wq
Err... I would have to disagree on the Dell. I have had several generations of their PCs and never had a problem... Of course I am running Windows XP and not Linux but still they should run fairly close. Even though they are mainly for gaming I would also look into buying an alienware computer. From everything I've heard about them they are top of the line, fairly cheap (I believe), and of course their cases are awesome. Now I'm not sure if they have a Linux standard PC but you could just repartition the hard-drive and then Install Linux.
Formerly LordBrockFreak
http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/Corban/
"We're closer now than we've ever been to finishing." ~The Beatles
http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/Corban/
"We're closer now than we've ever been to finishing." ~The Beatles
Beatles:The Beatles wrote: Oh my....
My ultimate dream of computing is a PowerPC running Linux, so I'd love to buy a PowerBook. However, that's likely out of the question.
I have great experiences with Toshiba laptops, in all respects, and bad experiences with Vaios. Currently, I run a Toshiba 5205-S704, and it's excellent except for one thing; it's got a slow disk. Also, never got wireless to work. But the remote control worked out of the box.
I definitely recommend you base your selection on this website:
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
Unless of course you can actually mess with a model you are interested in, in which case just lug along a Knoppix CD to test it out... that's the best solution, oftentimes.
Sorry, not much experience here...
[edit] In hardware, Apple is synonymous with quality. Dell is not, Sony is not.
I too think about (and would love) a PowerBook. I would love a dual boot OS X/Linux most of all.
However, I'm not sure how practical that is. I believe there is considerably less support for powerbooks in terms of Linux distros (although, this may be a myth). I'm not sure if there are as many packages for non-x86 architectures. And I'm not sure if it would have the level of hardware compatability I'm looking for. I also don't want to spend too much time messing around (like doing a Gentoo install or anything)
I'll take your advice on lugging around a Knoppix CD, just in case I do get a shot at trying it out. Not sure how receptive a store would be, though. Especially CompuStupid and the such. (Li-what?!)
Scratch Dell or Sony, right.
Corban:
Dell isn't really what you might call "famous for quality". Their laptops, for example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Inspiron).
I can probably install Linux and get X up on most computers. However, the problem with custom jobs like Alienware is hardware support.
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It's a lovely day in the woods today, but safer to stay at home
BECAUSE EVIL FREEN IS KILLING ALL THE TEDDY BEARS AT THEIR PICNIC
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windhound
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oh gads. mandriva's drakroam is /aweful/
it dropped my signal randomly and was generally just a pain in the rear.. maybe they've improved it in 10.2, though I somewhat doubt that..
Fedora's wireless support is generally awesome. you have to, ofcourse, use ndiswrapper to get it to use your wireless card. I'm almost always in a wireless bubble, so I (used to) tell Fedora to start up my card on boot and it finds a network with the best signal and keeps it. Never lost a signal till about two weeks ago.. I was in windows and mucking around, cleaning up, making it useable again, and somehow windows did somthin to the card's configuration.. no idea how, but it's never worked quite right ever since.. I'm doing a clean install of Core 4 stable in a week (yay) so that should fix it.. I've booted into windows several times without it doing anything, just this last time.. 's wierd..
Never buy a dell laptop. they are crud. pure crud. their lids get all loose and floppy after about 2 months of even light usage, and a friend of mine had problems with his since he got it (over heating (dell gave him a new model after about 5 months of arguing with them) and my roomate's dell laptop might as well be a desktop.. enormous thing.. P4 processor, twin cooling fans in the back, annoyingly loud for a computer, and always warm.. I've never heard anyone give a decent report about a dell laptop.. their desktops are a bit better though... just a bit...
get a Celeron processor if you want somthin cheap and light, Pentium M for power in a thin case.. do not get a P4 unless you're not going to travel with it.. they are 4x as heavy and 3x as thick.. (though, a warning that Celerons do not multitask as well.. they do one process fine, but ask it to do two and it will hate you.. heh heh)
IBM I believe has /the/ best warrenty program.. I did somthin incredibly stupid with my Thinkpad T42 about a month after I got it, I called them, they overnighted a box to me, I sent my 'puter back in the box, took them one day to fix it after they got it then they overnighted it back.. incredibly fast turnaround..
plus, Thinkpads are just awesome.. the only thing I've been ~ unhappy with is no linux distro packages an accelerated graphics driver for free with it.. mandriva will give you the driver if you buy their software.. so I've got a 64mb ati radion mobility and not enough power to play tux racer
display is good, just no acceleration, so no games, which I boot into windows for anyhow.. but thats a laptop in general issue..
battery life on my T-42 is about 2 hours, all depending on what you're doing with it (high processor usage == much shortend battery life)..
I like the indicators as well.. Toshiba and dell use little tiny lights on the front of the computer for battery/power/processor/wireless indicators.. IBM puts them on the bottom of the monitor's case... (plus, they are symbols instead of a row of dots)
the eraser dot mouse is spiffy, but some dell and toshiba models have it as well.. but all IBM models have it.. thats along with the touchpad.. which I dislike.. I dislike all touchpads.. annoying..
Toshiba? not bad. not great, but not bad.. they're durable enough, I'll give 'em that.. my brother has a Toshiba Satilite with a Celeron processor.. forget model and speed.. he's rough as hell with it, but it works well.. like I said, the multitasking with the celeron is pretty aweful.. run a virus scan and dont plan to do much else.. 'course, if you're in linux you dont exactly have that particular issue.. hehe..
I'm done. that was long.
it dropped my signal randomly and was generally just a pain in the rear.. maybe they've improved it in 10.2, though I somewhat doubt that..
Fedora's wireless support is generally awesome. you have to, ofcourse, use ndiswrapper to get it to use your wireless card. I'm almost always in a wireless bubble, so I (used to) tell Fedora to start up my card on boot and it finds a network with the best signal and keeps it. Never lost a signal till about two weeks ago.. I was in windows and mucking around, cleaning up, making it useable again, and somehow windows did somthin to the card's configuration.. no idea how, but it's never worked quite right ever since.. I'm doing a clean install of Core 4 stable in a week (yay) so that should fix it.. I've booted into windows several times without it doing anything, just this last time.. 's wierd..
Never buy a dell laptop. they are crud. pure crud. their lids get all loose and floppy after about 2 months of even light usage, and a friend of mine had problems with his since he got it (over heating (dell gave him a new model after about 5 months of arguing with them) and my roomate's dell laptop might as well be a desktop.. enormous thing.. P4 processor, twin cooling fans in the back, annoyingly loud for a computer, and always warm.. I've never heard anyone give a decent report about a dell laptop.. their desktops are a bit better though... just a bit...
get a Celeron processor if you want somthin cheap and light, Pentium M for power in a thin case.. do not get a P4 unless you're not going to travel with it.. they are 4x as heavy and 3x as thick.. (though, a warning that Celerons do not multitask as well.. they do one process fine, but ask it to do two and it will hate you.. heh heh)
IBM I believe has /the/ best warrenty program.. I did somthin incredibly stupid with my Thinkpad T42 about a month after I got it, I called them, they overnighted a box to me, I sent my 'puter back in the box, took them one day to fix it after they got it then they overnighted it back.. incredibly fast turnaround..
plus, Thinkpads are just awesome.. the only thing I've been ~ unhappy with is no linux distro packages an accelerated graphics driver for free with it.. mandriva will give you the driver if you buy their software.. so I've got a 64mb ati radion mobility and not enough power to play tux racer
display is good, just no acceleration, so no games, which I boot into windows for anyhow.. but thats a laptop in general issue..
battery life on my T-42 is about 2 hours, all depending on what you're doing with it (high processor usage == much shortend battery life)..
I like the indicators as well.. Toshiba and dell use little tiny lights on the front of the computer for battery/power/processor/wireless indicators.. IBM puts them on the bottom of the monitor's case... (plus, they are symbols instead of a row of dots)
the eraser dot mouse is spiffy, but some dell and toshiba models have it as well.. but all IBM models have it.. thats along with the touchpad.. which I dislike.. I dislike all touchpads.. annoying..
Toshiba? not bad. not great, but not bad.. they're durable enough, I'll give 'em that.. my brother has a Toshiba Satilite with a Celeron processor.. forget model and speed.. he's rough as hell with it, but it works well.. like I said, the multitasking with the celeron is pretty aweful.. run a virus scan and dont plan to do much else.. 'course, if you're in linux you dont exactly have that particular issue.. hehe..
I'm done. that was long.
Hobbs FTW!
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