[TriLUG] Linux Laptop

[C TC via TriLUG]

My Lenovo T430 14" has been a great Linux machine. With 16GB memory,
and 2 SSD drives (via cheap CD tray SSD cradle). It's been around the
globe and taken abuse over the last 3 years. The i5 isn't everyone's
favorite, but I haven't had any issues at all.





On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 11:31 AM, Erik Nelson via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org>
wrote:

> On 02/26/2016 11:09 AM, Ken MacKenzie via TriLUG wrote:
>
>> Actually, the hardware compatibility thing is why I started looking at
>> chromebooks.  Knowing they were at their core linux and that I could use
>> the crouton script allowed me I felt better price points into in theory
>> ultralight books.  I don't want to say ultrabook as they really aren't.  I
>> got my R11 yesterday and I have a convertible (think like the Lenovo Yoga)
>> linux laptop that is about 2 lbs and can run for 9 hours on a charge.
>> Touch screen working in crouton although I haven't figured out multitouch
>> yet.  Not really tried yet either.  It will get there.
>>
>> Ken
>>
> I've gone through enough laptops in the past to know the pain points.
> I avoid anything with broadcom wifi chips in them like the plague. The
> reverse engineered b43 driver that's available in the kernel (last time I
> tried using it, which was a while ago) did not connect to 5GHz networks
> and had inconsistent performance. The proprietary drivers can be installed,
> but they drop for me constantly, especially if I'm doing any kind of
> video streaming and putting it under load. I've had good experiences with
> Intel chips.
>
> To generalize, Lenovos laptops are usually a safe bet to start with.
>
> I've run into plenty of deal breaking hardware incompatibility issues in
> the
> past, so I'm ultra careful about researching machines if I intend to put
> Linux on them. I even struggled with my System76 and Arch
> because of its Skylake until 4.4 made it out of the testing repos.
> Not entirely unsurprising given it's very new hardware, as someone
> else pointed out.
>
> - Erik
>
>
>> On Fri, Feb 26, 2016 at 11:05 AM, Scott Chilcote via TriLUG <
>> trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
>>
>> On 02/25/2016 04:35 PM, Aaron Cody Weaver via TriLUG wrote:
>>>
>>>> So I am trying to find a laptop that will be a good portable for linux
>>>> sysadmin work.
>>>>
>>>> I don't want to pay crazy money for a linux laptop like system76.
>>>>
>>>> I just need a laptop that will handle normal sys admin stuff and will
>>>>
>>> have
>>>
>>>> everything work correctly not like ones that have bluetooth or webcams
>>>>
>>> that
>>>
>>>> don't work.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the advise.
>>>>
>>> One point I'd like to mention regarding this thread overall is that it
>>> isn't really that hard to find a compatible laptop.
>>> The approach that I took the last time I bought one was to select the
>>> features that I wanted, which included a decent amount of power and
>>> expansion capabilities, and then narrow down the field based on
>>> reviews.  Reviews can be misleading, but if you focus on quantifiable
>>> information and discussion of specific issues, you can use them to
>>> inform your decision.
>>>
>>> Once I had narrowed my choices far enough, I began looking specifically
>>> for Linux device driver related problems.  I wound up with an ASUS
>>> gaming laptop, and it turned out to be 100% supported (with the proper
>>> UEFI adjustments).  My point is not that this particular laptop is
>>> better than any other choice.  I'm just saying that there are a lot of
>>> good possibilities.  You can get a long way just by looking at laptops
>>> in general, and then drilling down to see if there are any specific
>>> Linux issues.
>>>
>>> The one place this will not help is if the laptop you find is a brand
>>> new product, particularly if it has new hardware devices.  Those are
>>> pretty easy to identify and avoid though.
>>>
>>> Just FYI,
>>>
>>>     Scott C.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Scott Chilcote
>>> scottchilcote at ncrrbiz.com
>>> Cary, NC USA
>>>
>>> --
>>> This message was sent to: Ken M. <ken at mack-z.com>
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>>>
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>