Planning for new laptop

English Hardware
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This is a post on my “musings” about a new laptop purchase … there are no support questions here, although of course I’m interested in everyone’s view.

I plan to purchase a new laptop in about 4 weeks time, and I’ve started my research into it. Of course Linux compatibility is a top priority. I’m not the sort to purchase hardware and blindly hope it will work with Linux (I’m too old for the associated troubleshooting that can result). Another criteria (for my wife) is winXP compatibility and this could be a show stopper, although I have winXP running in Virtual Box on my home PC, and this is always a possibilty. Vista compatibility is not important as neither my wife nor I plan to run Vista. But it appears many new laptops simply do not support winXP.

My other big requirement is a 15.4" display. No smaller. And no bigger.

The first thing I noted is most new laptop’s seem to have a wide screen, with WSXGA (1440x900) or WSXGA+ (1680x1050) resolution. I don’t really like widescreen (I prefer the SXGA (120x1024) or SXGA+ (1400x1500)) as it affects the laptop’s dimensions in a way that I do not like, … but if I do not consider widescreen it restricts my laptop choice, and hence I think must include widescreen in my consideration.

Reference graphic hardware in the laptop, I do not like ATI, hence that mostly restricts me to Intel or nVidia.

It appears 2GBytes of RAM and a 160GB hard drive are most common on the laptops that I have seen in the local stores today. The CPU tends to be a dual core at 2.2 GHz or 2.4 GHz. I prefer more RAM and a larger hard drive, but those options are typically not available in the “on-the-shelf” store models.

Wireless appears to vary, but I think I will try hard to get either Intel wireless or a wireless device that has a atheros chipset with known support. Still, there are many other wireless possibilities that I’ll need to research one at a time.

Most new laptops now seem to use SATA drives, so of course I’ll have to ensure the SATA controller on the laptop is supported by openSUSE.

Sound compatibility is important, but I think great strides have been made the past few years in alsa, and I’m reasonably confident of being able to find a laptop where the sound “just works”.

My budget is currently 1500 euros for the laptop, but my wife is making noises that it may be trimmed to 1000 euros.

Our local discount PC store has only Acer and Lenovo laptops. I do not like Acer (I have various friends/acquaintances who have used Acer who have had either power management or Linux compatibility problems) and hence as of today, I won’t purchase an Acer. I like Lenovo (despite some users claiming a dislike for Lenovo). One think I like about Lenovo is the ThinkWiki page, which makes it easier to sort out Linux compatibility issues.

I identified a Lenovo T61 and also a T500 that are within my budget so those will likely be the baseline to which I compare other laptops.

If I go further “afield” (20-minute drive) I can find a local discount warehouse store that also stocks Sony, HP, Toshiba, and Fujitsu-Siemens. I refuse to purchase Sony on principle (I do not like their proprietary policies) so that leaves HP, Toshiba, and Fujitsu-Siemens. Our current ancient laptop is a Fujitsu-Siemens which works well, but the current Fujitsu-Siemens selection in our local stores is poor. Years ago both my wife and I had the same model of Compaq. It worked well with Linux BUT its reliability was poor. It was in the shop a LOT, although local support for repair of a Compaq was easy to find.

Another possibility is a Dell via mail order. Of course that means I can not actually “see” the laptop, before the purchase. I do like the fact that Dell are making somewhat more of an effort to support Linux, than what they have in the past.

The one thing I can’t find for HP, Toshiba, Fujitsu-Siemens and Dell is a web page comparable to ThinkWiki. Of course I am examining

But those lists tend to be rather dated. In particular I am disppointed that most openSUSE laptop users do not keep the the openSUSE Hardware Compatibility List up to date.

Toshiba have a page for Toshiba Linux laptop developers but for the average user, its not great.

Likely what I will do is examine the “on the shelf” models at our local store, write down the model numbers, and then go back home and research the model at the web sites above. If I really like a model, but I can not confirm Linux support on the web for the laptop model, I’ll see if the store will allow me to boot a liveCD/DVD (such as knoppix or sidux) to Linux, up which I’ll use Linux terminal commands to list the hardware, and take pix of the output with my digital camera (and then go back home and research the individual components).

Now I can’t do that sort of testing with a mail order Dell. …

Hence thus far, I am leaning toward Lenovo, but there are still 4 weeks or so to go.

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I bought my laptop back in August for 900 euros, it’s an HP Pavilion dv6855el which works like a charm with both Opensuse 11 and Xp (I don’t use Xp mydelf, but some collegues of mine bought the same pc and installed it with no problem whatsoever)
You can find detailed characteristics and compatibilty list here:

HCL/Laptops/HP/HP Pavilion dv6855el - openSUSE

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Thanks for the feedback. Nice wiki page. … did you create that page for the HP Pavilion dv6855el? Definitely WinXP is a criteria for my wife, although if we can’t dual boot, I supposed Virtual Box operation of WinXP is an option.

Glad to read that you were able to get the Broadcom BCM4310 wireless card to work with ndiswrapper on the HP Pavilion dv6855el. That would be one of my concerns.

What screen resolution does the laptop hardware support? WSXGA+ (1680x1050) ? WSXGA (1440x900) ? SXGA+ (1400x1050) ? SXGA (1280x1024) ?

I forgot to mention in my above post, the Dell Laptop that I am including in my consideration is the Dell XPS M1530. In the case of this Dell, I would likely try to get the Intel Pro/Wireless 9456ABG. Difficulties some users have had with the nVidia GeForce 8600 M don’t worry me too much, as I am comfortable in running in custom installing the nvidia driver from Run Level 3.

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I’m glad you found the info useful; I didn’t create the wiki page myself, I just found it via Google.
The screen is only 1280x800.
The Dell XPS M1530 is a good choice, however it’s much more expensive and has an inferior build quality (IMHO). Another collegue of mine bought one, and for a configuration which is similar to that of my HP, he spent something like 1300 euros… the screen has an higher resolution, though.

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oldcpu: I was in the same dilemma recently and my research lead me to the Lenovo in my sig. Price was obviously an issue, I was working on £300 and that was what I did spend, but it included a bag, 2GB Pen drive, and Logitech usb mouse.

I could have bought a duel core with 2GB RAM from HP, but the thing that swayed me most was that Lenovo/Thinpad actually ship Laptops with SLED.

I only have 1GB RAM. Suse is really quick. The Vista it shipped with is a pile of ****. Truely I mean it. It sucks BIG time.

Mostly everything works out of the box. The function brightness controls don’t.
Intel wireless is a dream
Graphics 965GM 3D enabled is better than my main box nVidia.
Battery life is really good too.

6

Get involved with the Samsung R70.
With openSUSE it works.
I have the laptop since April and from 10.3 everything works flawlessly.
Look at my signature.
Samsung R70 is also the drivers and software for XP, available on their part.

I recommend, solid and really great.

Tu i tam i nie zawsze sam :D: Samsung R70 a openSUSE

Unfortunately, in Polish language. :stuck_out_tongue:

PS
Forgive my poor English: D

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Thanks for the recommendation.

I haven’t looked at any Samsung yet … I confess I’ve never paid much attention to that laptop brand before …

I have been looking at the HP Pavilion dv5, which I think may be available in a local PC store Notebook Shop - Aktuelle Notebook und Laptop Angebote (15 minute walk from our apartment) for a reasonable price. They also have some Samsung at that store. The HP Pavilion dv5 has the 15.4" display, with 3GB of RAM, and possibility to get a large hard drive, all of which re of interest to me (plus there is a winXP OS option, which is of interest to my wife).

But of course, before any purchase, I need to check out Linux compatibility with the key hardware items.

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I was wondering at the beginning of HP but convinced me the parameters and the price of Samsung.
And good opinions from various forums.
And fortunately, operates under the OS.
May be less established brand on the market for laptops but you graduate.
I can send you the evening hwinfo.

The only minus the Function keys do not work on adjusting the brightness.

But never to me is not valid: D

9

I was in our local notebook PC store ( Notebook Shop - Aktuelle Notebook und Laptop Angebote ) earlier today, and they have lots of Samsung’s on display.

But the three laptops that caught my eye were:

  • HP 6730S. 15.4" WSXGA (1280x800), CPU=TS870 2.0Ghz, with 3GB RAM, 250GB SATA HD - cost 718 euro
  • Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimo Mobile V5535. 15.4" WSXGA (1280x800), CPU=T8200 2.0GHz, with 3GB RAM, 250GB HD, 2.7kg - cost 776 euro
  • Lenovo T61. 15.4" WSXGA (1280x800) , CPU Intel T7300 2.0 GHz, with 3GB RAM, 250GB HD - cost 1444 euros

The Lenovo screen has no glare, contrary to the Fujitsu and the HP. I figure the superior quality of the Lenovo screen is one reason for the price difference. Still, 700 euro difference in price is big, and that could exclude the Lenovo for me. I may look at some mail order places.

I now need to research Linux compatibility for the hardware in these laptops.

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… Hmm … a bit of research can cool one’s enthusiasm :slight_smile: … I note from here: HP-Compaq 6730S - Linux Laptop Wiki
that wireless requires the 2.6.27 kernel (ie openSUSE-11.1 ) , with no experience yet if the 2.6.27 is sufficient for the wireless.

Audio requires alsa 1.0.18rc3 (current alsa is the stable 1.0.18) which I suspect will come with openSUSE-11.1 also.

I’m now less enthusiastic about his HP, although I have not eliminated it from consideration.

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[/li]Hmmm … minimal Linux experience posted yet on the web re: this Fujitsu Siemens laptop. That also cools my enthusiasm here.

I note a post by a Mandriva user, where installation failed:
Installing Mandriva Linux on Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo V5535 « wm.azmi

I note a thread by Ubuntu users who managed to get Ubuntu to install, but had problems in tuning the GUI resolution the way they would like.
Fujitsu Esprimo Mobile V5535 - Ubuntu Forums

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There is a good selection in the HCL which I’m sure you already looked at. It’s probably much a matter of finding a line between too New and too Old. I at least planned that way with my Lenovo. If your choice come pre-installed with Vista, at least you can use that if nothing else works - but it will surely do your head in.:wink:

Play it safe and go with a known quantity. Or you might be:’(

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If your wife is also to use the laptop to guess that it is very important is the design:)
Look at Dell laptops.
We have a very good opinion.

Look at PM :slight_smile:

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I was helping a user last night on IRC freenode channel #suse with their laptop. They have a Dell XPS 1530. They were quite happy with that. But one big problem with a Dell, is in my case it has to be purchased unseen. I don’t like that.

For example, based on “specs” I had been interested in the HP Pavilion dv5. I got to see a few different HP Pavilion dv5’s earlier today. I do not like the glossy metalic/silver colour combination on that dv5 laptop. It definitely turned me off, and its unlikely now I will purchase that laptop. … With a Dell, its also hard to get a look first.

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I definitely do consult the openSUSE HCL.

I am very disappointed with that page, though. … or saying it differently, I’m very disappointed with the openSUSE community. Too few, who have installed openSUSE-11.0 on their laptops, have taken the time to update that wiki. I find that unfortunate.

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With dell’s you may run into problems with the audio.
in the budget you may have a look at the inspiron serie.

Alin

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I’m happy to see there will be liveCDs for openSUSE-11.1 beta4.

The HP 6730S which I am considering, purportedly needs 1.0.18 of alsa for the sound to work, and the 2.6.27 kernel for the Intel wireless to work. The openSUSE-11.1 beta4 liveCD will have both of those, and I may try take that liveCD to the local PC store and see if they let me boot an HP 6730S from that CD, to check the sound and wireless (and graphics).

In this page (from our local PC shop) Notebook Shop - HP 6730/6735 article 6 of 8 (HP 6730S with 3GB RAM and 250 GB Hard drive, Intel 4500 MHD graphics, and possibly Intel or Broadcom wireless for 599 euros ) is of interest. I may also consider article 8 of 8 on that page (the HP 6735S with 3GB RAM and 250 GB hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics and possible Intel or Broadcom wireless for 499 euros ).

Both laptops are well within my desired budget (1500 euros is my maximum, although the wife wants me to come in under 1000 euros).

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If the audio is configurable, I’m reasonably confident I can figure it out, as I have learned a few things about audio.

The Dells do have my curiosity perked. The biggest problem I have with the Dells is the inability to visually check out the laptop prior to purchase. Pictures (on a web site) are not the same as playing with the laptop first, prior to purchase. I find the need to play with a PC a bit before purchase is much much more important with a laptop, than it is with a desktop.

19

Hi,

I guess you’ll have to “agree” with widescreen since it seems to be a standard nowadays and there is a really limitied choice of laptops with old-style screen - mostly portable models, higher in price, lower in perfomance…

As for XP compartibility, you either need to google it for each model you are interested in; or you can select among the models that have vista business or ultimate installed. It is microsoft policy that you can have those versions downgraded to XP if you like, so it is that dealer must provide you with xp installation and all drivers (however better ask the certain dealer beforehand about it). Not only just saving your time on search for drivers on the net, but as well some systems are simply hardware incompartible with xp (like mine).

My personal advice is to consider Dell or Toshiba laptops.

I bought a Toshiba Satellite L300D couple months ago, everything seems to be linux-supported (didnt try wi-fi, wont ever need it so just dont know). Athlon x2 64, Built-in ATI, 2Gb RAM initially (exp to 4), 160 hdd.
Its a cheap model, with your even E1000 limit you can select among much better ones, as well with intel or nvidia video as you wish.

Comparing to my friends’ laptops, i can say toshiba definitely have best sound (not only just rumours :)). Not that we could really use term ‘quality’ for laptops speakers, but it has much louder and more clear sound. I’m actually able to watch plenty videos that my friends cant watch at all because sound is too low at its max, while i use only 30-40% volume and its much better.

As for RAM, most models under E1000 are sold with 2Gb, but you can have the dealer expand it when you buy.

My best advice to you is:
Dont limit yourself with your local dealers’ offers! I dont know where you live but spend a day and get to the nearest city when you gonna finally select and buy laptop. Even if such trip costs you E100 it really worth it - we dont buy laptops quite often, do we :)? Not only you get really a CHOICE, but as well you may by a chance buy laptop at lower price than your local dealers could offer (so even those E100 could be not just wasted!).

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  • iloveyourtasteincats wrote, On 11/03/2008 05:46 AM:

> It is microsoft policy that you
> can have those versions downgraded to XP if you like, so it is that
> dealer must provide you with xp installation and all drivers (however
> better ask the certain dealer beforehand about it).

Many vendors offer XP as an alternative to Vista, yes, but they don’t have to. You need to ask every time, and there’s no obligation to provide you an XP license/CD if the machine is offered with Vista.

Uwe