[TriLUG] Dear lazyweb^WTriLUG, Laptop suggestions?

[Jeff Schornick]

On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 6:04 PM, Matt Pusateri
<mpusateri at wickedtrails.com> wrote:
> I'm gonna +1 the macs, I loved my Mac Air at my last job, battery life was excellent.  And I didn't ever have to admin it., Yes I love Linux, and Linux is much better than it used to be on a laptop.  But Macs just work and I've got all the Linux admin tools without any of the headaches.

For anyone who would consider a Macbook Air, but is having a difficult
time reconciling the the thought of giving Apple any more money...

I can now heartily recommend the Asus Zenbook Prime series,
specifically the UX32VD.  I picked one up before the holidays, and
have been absolutely thrilled by this little machine's performance
running Linux.  A quick run down of the key specs, which sadly don't
100% meet Joseph's criteria...

Pros:
- zippy i7 mobile processor
- 10GB of RAM (after upgrade)
- upgradable to SSD (highly recommended)
- a quality touchpad I can live with (this coming from a huge fan of
the Thinkpad nipple)
- the most beautiful (matte!) 1920x1080 IPS screen I have ever used
- battery life from 4:30 - 7:00 depending on use/brightness (dips
below 7W per powertop)
- working integrated/dedicated GPU switching under Linux (games!)
- a bit over 3 lbs, I can one hand it from the corner with little effort
- has always stayed cool/warm, never hot
- drop dead sexy

Cons:
- good, but not fantastic battery life
- internal battery
- some fan noise
- crappy camera

As I said, just about everything works under Linux.  Goes to sleep,
wakes up, reconnects to 5G wireless, plays games, fancy touchpad
features, function keys to adjust brightness/backlight/volume, makes
me coffee.  I *did* spend some time setting things up and tweaking,
but I consider that time very well spent.  It's a sweet little
machine.

Details:  http://www.linlap.com/asus_ux32vd

Let me know if you're interested and have any questions.

  - Jeff