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Recommendations for Linux friendly Laptop

post #1 of 13
4/23/07 at 2:15am
Thread Starter 
So my laptop has turned into what I affectionatly call "Frankentop" at this point:

*USB Sound card, since my headphone jack is, well, jacked and no longer works. What sucks is the only way the USB soundcard works guaranteed (since it does sometimes, and not others) is to blacklist the Intel Card completely before *nix loads. Strike 1.
*Internal Wireless is toast, so I'm now using an external PCMCIA card. It's actually a really good card, but PCMCIA is SO 90's lol. Strike 2.
*Screen is dimming... in that lovely way that only Dell's can do in the long run. Strike 3.
*Keyboard is wearing out, again, it's a Dell thing. Strike 4.

So with all that in mind, wanted to get some recommendations from y'all on the best build-quality/spec'd laptop you've seen for under a grand. Would prefer a non-Celeron, with a gig of ram to start, 60gb hdd, and a DVD-burner... i'm not brand loyal at all, but I AM brand DISloyal -- i'll never buy a dell again after this piece of junk!

So what are your recomendations? Asking here because, obviously, needs to be a laptop that isn't seriously anti-linux... not that this is much of an issue anymore, since I've gotten Linux to run in some unlikely places, but still would rather not fight the thing to get an install done.

Thanks!

-olly
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post #2 of 13
4/23/07 at 8:28am
as long as its not a Sony... preferably has nvidia gpu, intel or atheros wireless, and non-02Micro SD slot...you should be in good shape.
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post #3 of 13
4/23/07 at 11:11am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
as long as its not a Sony... preferably has nvidia gpu, intel or atheros wireless, and non-02Micro SD slot...you should be in good shape.
ABF, thanks for the recommendations. I've never actually owned a laptop with a built-in Flash Slot... non-02Micro SD slot? Care to expand a bit on that? Thanks! -olly
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post #4 of 13
4/23/07 at 2:50pm
I'm looking at getting a macbook myself:
http://bin-false.org/?p=17
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post #5 of 13
4/23/07 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigtrouble77
I'm looking at getting a macbook myself: http://bin-false.org/?p=17
I thought about getting a macbook, mostly because i wouldn't mind playing with OS X in comparison to Linux (at least they offer a freakin' command line, even if it is a commercial OS!). But the price point kind of kills me... in order to get a macbook with a dvd burner and a gig of ram, i'm over my $1000.00 budget by about $400.00 bucks. -olly
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post #6 of 13
4/23/07 at 4:19pm
I will be upgrading(Eventually) my powerbook to a MacBook Pro. I prefer the Apple built machines for several reasons that I wont go into here. OS X itself is not bad at all and what I reccomend to many people that can't get happy with Linux, but I prefer E17 myself and most of my programs are Linux based anyways, so I will probably be using Linux as my primary OS via Gentoo on it.

But that will likely be a LONG time down the road.

Seablade
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post #7 of 13
4/23/07 at 4:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by seablade
I will be upgrading(Eventually) my powerbook to a MacBook Pro. I prefer the Apple built machines for several reasons that I wont go into here. OS X itself is not bad at all and what I reccomend to many people that can't get happy with Linux, but I prefer E17 myself and most of my programs are Linux based anyways, so I will probably be using Linux as my primary OS via Gentoo on it. But that will likely be a LONG time down the road. Seablade
My best friend has a loaded 15 inch MBP that he uses for his home studio... it is truly a work of art as a machine, no doubt. Of course the minimum 2k to get one puts it way out of my range -olly
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post #8 of 13
4/23/07 at 5:28pm
basically, 02Micro is one of the firms that makes chipsets for the SD card slots...and they get no love in linux. AT ALL. if you really couldn't care less if it works or not than don't worry about it, it will not change the user experience on your system other than the slot not working.
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post #9 of 13
4/23/07 at 8:26pm
Asus makes some very nice laptops. And they're quite linux friendly.
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post #10 of 13
4/23/07 at 11:43pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
basically, 02Micro is one of the firms that makes chipsets for the SD card slots...and they get no love in linux. AT ALL. if you really couldn't care less if it works or not than don't worry about it, it will not change the user experience on your system other than the slot not working.
Cool, thanks for the info... it WOULD be nice to have a working SD slot for my phone's mem card, but it's not an essential as I have an external reader anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TwilightVampire
Asus makes some very nice laptops. And they're quite linux friendly.
I've been looking at Asus... I like that you can buy them OEM without Windows, makes it nice since I have no intention of running Windows lol. Thanks for the suggestion! -olly
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post #11 of 13
5/8/07 at 2:59pm
Can you elaborate a little on the Sony/Linux issue? Is it well-known they don't work well together?
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post #12 of 13
5/8/07 at 5:52pm
yeah, its well known that sony hardware takes the cake as most proprietery, least OSS friendly out there. In fact their junk is so bad it hardly works under WINDOWS unless of course you have their driver cd. of course depending system to system you might have the basics worked out under linux... screen res, wifi, cpu throttle, but thats as far as you're gonna get, IF that far. Just for the love of god stay away from sony.
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post #13 of 13
5/9/07 at 3:48pm
You can take a look at the work done by others.. for example, an online seller of Linux on laptops that isn't afraid to tell you the model numbers of what they used:
http://www.emperorlinux.com/mfgr/

Unlike some of the web resources out there, at least you have some assurance that the laptop is still being made today.
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