[TriLUG] Shopping for new laptop...

Josh Vickery josh at vickeryj.com
Wed Jul 11 17:39:11 EDT 2007


I think your best bet for support for wireless and graphics are Intel
and Intel, see http://intellinuxwireless.org/ and
http://intellinuxgraphics.org/ for more.  Everything else should not
pose a problem.  I don't know what your budget is, but my friend's
non-Linux-running sister just bought a Dell Inspiron E1505 N
pre-installed with Ubuntu and he reports that she is quite happy with
it.

If you want to avoid Intel, I would go for Nvidia graphics-- though
their drivers are binary only, the company seems quite dedicated to
supporting them.  As for wireless, I'm afraid to say that the only
modern wireless cards that I've found to be completely pain free in
Linux are from Intel.  That said, Ubuntu has a fairly long list of
supported wireless chipsets:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported

Josh



On 7/11/07, Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 11 July 2007 15:20, Tom Eisenmenger wrote:
>
> > 1) I'd prefer going AMD;  is there a problem or caveat if I go with
> > one of their 64-bit X2 chips?  Better to stick with single core?  32-
> > bit?  Any reason why I should seriously consider Intel instead?
>
> I run Mandriva 2007 32bit on my Compaq with an AMD 64 bit chip. Works
> perfectly. Mandriva 2007 64bit also works perfectly, but unfortunately the 64
> bit version doesn't include several applications I need.
>
> > 3) Graphics chipsets:  if I go AMD it'll probably have ATI (which is
> > what my Dell has now).  Is there a compelling reason to look for
> > nVidia instead?  Does Linus handle the newer widescreen monitors
> > reasonably well (1280 x 800)?
>
> Both my notebooks are widescreens. In one case I had to boot Knoppix and use
> the xorg.conf it created. IIRC, both computers occasionally hang when
> changing between CLI and GUI. I cured that by having them boot into
> framebuffer video.
>
> My Acer notebook cannot correctly drive the projectors I've tried it on, no
> matter what I did in xorg.conf. I haven't tried a projector with my Compaq
> notebook.
>
> >
> > 4) Wireless:  It  looks like most of today's offerings include
> > Broadcom wireless;  how's its Linux support?  Should I opt for
> > something else if it's out there?
>
> IMHO Broadcom really sux. My Compaq notebook has Broadcom, and I wasn't able
> to get Linux to reliably work with it, either native or NDISWrapper. My Acer
> notebook has Atheros wireless NIC, and getting it to work with Linux, using
> the native driver that was packaged with Mandriva, was as easy as falling off
> a log.
>
> Worst case do what I do and carry a Linksys WUSB54G USB wireless network card,
> and plug that in. You can ndiswrapper that card fairly easily. See my content
> at http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200612/200612.htm.
>
> >
> > 5) Anything else I should consider?  I'm looking most closely at
> > 15.4" widescreen models as I actually do use mine as a laptop on
> > occasion - 17" is more of a desktop replacement in my book...
> >
> > FWIW, there are some great deals out there.  Of particular interest
> > is the Compaq Presario F572US (15.4" "Briteview" widescreen, Athlon
> > 64 X2 TK-53, 1gig DDR2, 80g 5400RPM SATA (might have to upgrade that)
> > $479 at Staples after rebates.  Comparable Turions seem to up the
> > price by about $200.  Comments?
>
> I never consider rebates in pricing anything. My experience is that getting
> your rebate is either a full time job, or a game of chance. I don't have time
> for the former, and can't count on the latter.
>
> SteveT
>
>
> >
> > Thanks all,
> >
> > Tom Eisenmenger
>
> Steve Litt
> Author: Universal Troubleshooting Process books and courseware
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/
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