Hi. I’m in the market for a new laptop and looking for recommendations. My criteria are pretty straightforward. I want a fast multi-core processor and good graphics performance for video playback and Compiz, 3 to 4 GB of memory, and most importantly, good Linux hardware support (especially switching between internal and external displays).
ATI (AMD) video chipsets are a non-starter for me. I’ve had such a terrible time with my current ATI graphics card, I’ll never buy from them again. So NVIDIA preferred. Thanks!
Hey. I’d consider looking at the opensuse hardware compatibulity list at HCL/Laptops - openSUSE . TuxMobil: Linux Laptop & Notebook Installation Guides offers great information as well.
Generally, as I am not a heavy user of fancy graphics, I tend to buy notebooks with onboard Intel graphics and chipset. They always worked painlessly for me. In the last 18 months I never had problems installing suse on HP or Thinkpad notebooks…
so, good luck with your new system
When I did it last, I paid obsessive attention to the WLAN card that comes
with the laptop and cross-checked it with Linux support. At the time I
bought my laptop, a Dell Inspiron E1505, it was shipping with the Intel
3965(?) card and was well supported.
So far it has been a solid performer for me. There are some quirks with it
in 11, such as some indicator lights not working that used to work in
10.3, but… good.
Just my .02
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Im also looking to buy a new laptop this summer, and I am almost 100% certain of getting a Lenovo Thinkpad. I know they install Suse on some models, which IMO is awesome news, but you can also buy a model with windows vista or xp and then just install opensuse on it to dual boot as you please.
Right now, I am looking at two Dell models, the Precision M6300 nSeries M and the Latitude D830N. Anyone have SUSE experience with either one? Also, does anyone know if all of the Dell n-Series laptops are Linux-friendly? A bunch of them come with FreeDOS, which seems an odd choice over Linux, unless there are problems running Linux on them.
Sony VAIO SZ series. I have everything (camera/nVidia/wireless native) but the fingerprint reader working and that’s because I haven’t tried. Great laptop!
I’d wait until July and see what the new laptops with the AMD “PUMA” cpus offer. A few are hitting the street now.
I’m going to be looking at them too.
Hardware - openSUSE is a place to start to see what others have to say about their lappies.
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 18:06 +0000, rhasselbaum wrote:
> Right now, I am looking at two Dell models, the Precision M6300 nSeries
> M and the Latitude D830N. Anyone have SUSE experience with either
Both should be fine… but why not the M4300 (basically a D830 with an
Nvidia)? The M6300 (similar to the old M90) is a HUGE heavy laptop.
I would only recommend that as a mobile desktop (not really a
carry along).
If you want a light small portable powerhouse, I’d look at the
M2300 (the big brother of the D630).
> one? Also, does anyone know if all of the Dell n-Series laptops are
> Linux-friendly? A bunch of them come with FreeDOS, which seems an odd
> choice over Linux, unless there are problems running Linux on them.
Not sure. IMHO, only the Latitude and Precision lines have any
real quality.
The D830N can be customized to include an NVIDIA Quadro NVS, but thanks, I will take a closer look at the M4300 and M2300, too. The M6300 is certainly big. The 17" screen appeals to me, though, because my vision is not great. The larger screen is more important to me than easy portability.
I’d chip in my vote for a Dell precision. I have a dell precision m65 and it is perfect apart from the crappy onboard speakers.
Maybe next time I will look for an intel video card though. Nvidia’s stance towards FOSS drivers is starting to irritate me and intel has out-of-the box opensource compositing plus DRI2 support.
I’ve recently bought a laptop just for openSUSE 11 and made my choice from the HCL list. I went for a cheap and cheerful Acer TravelMate 5520 with Turion processor and ATI card. I did have some problems with loading the ATI drivers but there is some good help on the net. I’ve only been using Linux for 2 days and managed to sort the ATI problems on this laptop.
Everything else is working although I’ve not tried setting up the wireless side yet.
Something I’ve done and regretted is I’ve made the windows recovery CDs and then blitzed all the partitions so that Linux uses the whole hard drive. I later decided to dualboot the laptop but the recovery CDs won’t work as I’ve altered the size of the partitions etc. On Monday I’m going to call Acer and see if they can help. I’ve had a quick look on the net and its not looking good, I might have to send it back so they can recreate the partitions etc!!! Alls not lost as I work in IT and have a number of windows laptops etc to use.
I’d recommend getting a ThinkPad. I’m running 10.3 on a Z61p and it’s running without problems. Unfortunately the Z-series was discontinued a while back, but the T-series should have about the same hardware, and those are the ones you can get with SLED preinstalled, so they should work just fine.
Of course the additional benefit of the TPs is that they are very well made in terms of physical construction. Mine is now year and a half old and looks and works like brand new. Anyways, that’s my 2 cents…