Hello, it’s looks like my 4 year old acer is about to bite the dust so I’m currently in the market for a new laptop. After doing a bit of research and reading this article Report: A Third of Laptops Fail Within 3 Years - PC World I’ve decided that I would like an asus. Now my questions,first I’ve found one that I believe to be pretty good (Asus - Laptop with Intel® Core2 Duo Processor - Merlot - U50A-RBBML05) anyone able to trump that? (I don’t necessarily have to have an asus if the price is right,also the only requirements are a Intel duo processor,an sd card reader,and a disk drive) and also has anyone installed suse on an asus before that can provide me feedback on their experience(s)? Thanks
I’m wondering about the Intel Graphics chip under Linux? Or are you planning to actually keep Windows?
If it were me, I would research a lot more:
- graphics - Intel GMA4500 graphics has had a very checkered history with Linux. I do not know if it is working yet under Linux.
- sound - saying an Azalia-compliant audio chip would not be enough for me to determine sound functionality under Linux
- wireless - Built-in wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n) is sufficiently vague such that I have no idea if it would “just work”, or work with some tuning, or work with a LOT of pain and tuning, or not work at all
IMHO you need to find out more detail.
Speaking of laptops, my wife and I were in a notebook show house/shop today, and the wife liked the HP Touchmart TX2-1310eg. She likes the touch screen idea, and she took a shining to this notebook (AMD Turon 64 X2, RM77 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 230GB HD, graphics ATI HD3200, 12.1" wxga screen (1280x800), DVD writer … ). The ATI graphics is not my favourite graphics supplier, so that graphics device needs more research. I also have no idea as to its wireless nor sound, so I would have to research that. I did note that the touch screen may be supported under openSUSE: SDB:Howto install OpenSuSE on HP tx2-xxxx laptops - openSUSE … I have to stay on top of my wife’s considerations, so as not to inappropriately pull out my Husband veto, when I think it may not be Linux compatible (as much as possible I ensure all PC hardware is Linux compatible BEFORE we purchase).
I have always Intel graphics on my old and new laptops using Linux. And i found it working smooth under openSUSE. I mean flawlessly, without any issues of driver, 3D etc. I never use ATI, Nvidia. And i prefer Intel because of good support for drivers under Linux. Every thing detect by the OS by default, nothing much to intsall later.
Actually i am not a heavy game fan, so i always prefer Intel card instead of ATI, Nvidia. Better work under Linux.
EDIT: Heard about this card too “Intel GMA4500”. But not so sure, because didn’t experience it.
SONY or HP better deal than Asus IMHO.
Take a read here for a summary of the Intel graphic problems:
DistroWatch.com: The status of Intel video drivers for Linux (and what it means for your favorite distro)
Thanks oldcpu for the link.
As we know, Linux has vast variaty of distros, may be this one some distro specific issue like in the above case Ubuntu 9.04 was the victim.
yes I’m going to have to go with mmarif4u I have an intel in my current laptop and it works flawlessly Though the one in this laptop that were speaking of I have not don’t have any idea of,so I’m gonna take your word for it (as your much more knowledgeable in the subject) also caf, I am going to be keeping windows as I’m going to school (finally 23!! ;))and the course requires both. with this all said is there a certain brand that carries more support for linux than others?
My wife has Intel graphics on her old Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M7400 laptop, and it works well. But one never knows and I follow a rule that I always check for Linux hardware compatibility first.
I DO recommend that you determine what wireless hardware that laptop has. That could be a MAJOR disappointment if it has wireless that is not supported well by Linux.
also mmarif4u, I’m gonna take your advice “getting a sony or hp” though I don’t really have a grand to spend on a sony so I found this hp (Newegg.com - HP Pavilion dv6-1362nr NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6600(2.20GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Laptops / Notebooks) that seems to be a good deal. Also, is there any literature around that list hardware that is compliant (or not) with suse? thanks
I have been a reseller for 5 + years and the best laptops on the market are DELL and GATEWAY being a partner with most of the companies and dealing with the support for each, DELL and GATEWAY have everyone beat hands down. asus has a few good products but if you want the linux end than purchase one of these two the suse distro works great on these machines.
Gateway M series and the T series and also the mini handles linux fine,
dell the vostro 1520 is a great linux laptop the inspiron 15 series and the 16 series are great choices as well the dell mini i got to test did not do well with linux.
most of the mini’s in my book are too small and i personally would go with a minimum of 15" monitor…
Good one, i have dv4 and working very well under Linux.
Sony has higher price compare to HP. I myself had did a search/research on this and then i went for HP.
As oldcpu mentioned, Wireless card is a tricky thing in Linux while choosing a laptop for Linux. So see the HCL to get some better idea.
Good luck.
Wireless is indeed tricky. But generally newer hardware tends to have more chance of compatibility issues. For me, back in the old days Broadcom wireless was a beast to setup. Now the condition has certainly improved.
I just ordered a HP DM3z during black friday. I currently own a HP tx1000 and aside from the nVidia chip defect the experience is overall very favorable. (eg Hardware wireless killswitch, working multimedia key, hardware touchpad on/off key, virtualization option in BIOS)