Linux Laptop / Christmas 2009

Hello everyone,

I am looking forward to buy a laptop this Christmas. I have never had one and I have used Slackware for the past 8 years in my desktop machines. Thus, I am searching for a linux-compatible laptop (native drivers - no emulation of any kind) with a big screen (above 15") and good performance for 3D modelling programs and stuff alike. I do not intend to spend more than €1.500,00 (~$2.250,00 USD)

My question is: what would you recommend me? I have read some articles and I concluded that I probably want to have an Intel Core 2 Duo (maybe Quad?), 4 GB of RAM (or more) and a dedicated NVidia graphics card. Then, I have searched in some major laptop manufacters' websites (such as Lenovo and Dell) but I am kind of confused right now. In fact, it is quite strange for me not to be able to build the computer piece by piece, as I have been used to do until now...

Thank you very much for your advice.

 

I don't know about slackware on newer machines, but I do know that the recent Ubuntu or openSUSE (evolved from slackware) will run on almost any laptop that's for sale today.

What do you do that you need such a beefy laptop with Linux?

Have you cheded out system76 ( www.system76.com) ... they seem to be a bit more expensive but they support and all come with linux.

 

I do image editing and 3D modelling work. I would never buy a laptop if my job didnt make it kind of compulsory, by putting me travelling most of the time.

What do you mean by "Linux running on almost any laptop"? When I talk about a linux-compatible laptop, I mean that all its components are linux compatible, with full opengl and wifi support, for instance. I do not want to be running emulators like ndiswrapper or end up having a wireless card that works just from time to time and with no WPA support, as it happened to some friends of mine.

 

The last at least 3 versions of ubuntu have supported my wireless cards (Various Intel and a few Atheros) without using NDISWrapper. From what I have seen, only old drivers need ndiswrapper ... wireless adapters aren't a problem anymore.

Most laptops use similar chipsets, wireless cards, video cards, etc that are found in other laptops and its easier for the open source community to support.

 

If you want a laptop for Christmas, why not wait a little longer? Core 2 Duo will be replaced in the first week of January with new processors.

 

you're thinking right...about Slackware too, I'm getting ready to go back to it....just make sure you get an intel wireless card...others will work, but with intel it's smooth sailing.

My Dell Precision m4400 runs linux just peachy...(Slackware and Ubuntu great)....has all you're looking for....it's due to be updated probably in Feb though, but some good deals can had.....Actually m6400 for you...but there are other good laptops out there also.

 

Have you tried the Eight Virtues website ( http://sales.eightvirtues.com/).

EV1683F notebook:

Included with Purchase ($1,799 usd)
Free Shipping within the Continental U.S.
One Year Unconditional Warranty
30 Days of Technical Support
Fully Functional Out-of-the-Box

Features
Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz CPU (Dual-Core, 64-bit)
4 GB of RAM (Dual-Channel, DDR2 800)
160 GB Hard Drive (Solid State Disk)
16" 1366 x 768 16:9 Widescreen Display
NVIDIA GeForce 8200M-G (256 MB Shared Memory)
Intel 802.11a/g/n Wireless
Bluetooth 2.0 Wireless
1.3 Megapixel Camera
DVD±R/W Super-Multi-Dual Layer Optical Drive
SD/MMC/MS/XD 4-in-1 Card Reader

I have not purchased from them, but I have not bought a new laptop for myself in a long time. I usually get the left-over's.

 

I would definately wait 1-2 months for the new intel chips if you want a fast computer

 

Ok, playing devil's advocate, here is the problem with having the latest and greatest...it takes linux a while to catch up with new hardware. Not such a big deal if you can run windows while you wait for the community of developers and hardware vendors to catch up, but it is a big deal if you want to be running linux right off the bat. I've bought two newish laptops in the last couple of years...both custom built from whitebooks from Taiwan with the latest platforms. Each time I have had to wait a few months for the next cycle of kernel development to catch up to my hardware.

Second, I like slackware a lot but I've noticed that it sometimes doesn't play very well with laptop hardware, especially wifi. Don't be afraid to give Ubuntu variants a spin. They have lots of people working on laptop compatibility and their 64bit versions work really well on core 2 duo stuff.

Intel wifi cards work extremely well. Nvidia cards work well too although ATI is starting to catch up now.

Lastly, there are a few vendors out there that will custom build on whitebooks for a reasonable price. Some will even ship the laptop sans windows. I'm not sure where you're at, but have a look around these forms and ask where people are buying their hardware from.

 

Thank you all for the useful replies.

Thanks for the info, I didn't know about it. Is there any official release date or is this some kind of media-assumption?

I just looked at their website. Reasonable prices for good machines but there is no shipping option to Europe, where I live.

I am definitly interested in knowing more about this whitebook thing. I live in Portugal, Europe. Do you recommend me any specific vendor (shipping to my country)? Which one did you buy your laptops from?

I am (truly) aware of this and I plan to check whether every single hardware piece is linux supported or not, before I buy the laptop.

I don't think this is the right thread to start a distro-war, so I will simply say that I do not like and I do not want ubuntu running in my computers.

 

Since you're into 3D graphics, a gear with dedicated card i guess is a must.
I have no idea about slackware or it's other variants such as puppy on driver availability(although i have tried the latter on older gears), but i guess you will get more support and advise from fellow brudders here on NVDIA drivers.

To my knowledge, i know that there's this program called ENVY available in debian/Ubuntu repository that may help to find the appropriate driver for the video card.

 

Hi there,
what i'd recommend is:
intel cpu
intel wifi card (better linux support)
nvidia quadro vga (if you're to 3D modelling)
ram - if possible, buy something with support up to 8GB ram with only 1RAM stick like 1GB - and buy the RAM separately (like 2x2GB or 2x4GB)- you're gonna save money this way

resolution - 15.4" screens 1680x1050 or 17" 1900x1200

such configuration is possible to get from most of the known laptop companies like Lenovo, HP, Dell ...

you cant expect to get good and long time running on battery though - VGA and the bigger screen means bigger power needs, but you can compensate by buying bigger batter than they usually offer at basic package ....

 

btw. out of curiosity - what 3D SW are you gonna use under linux? I do support for 3D cad/cam sw in car developing company, so i know Catia, Alias studio, IcemSurf ... from those only Icem runs on Linux ...

 

I've had success with everything on my hp dv2220 running Lenny. Everything worked. It had a Broadcom wireless card (4311) so I had to use fw-cutter to extract the firmware but other than that no issues. NVidia's driver's were pretty painless although 1. you had to make sure you had the kernel source available, and 2. you had to have the same version of gcc installed with which the kernel was built - or at least "export CC=gcc-X.x.y" to the environment before you ran the installer (replace export with whatever your shell prefers).

I also run Lenny on my iBook (not what you're looking for but just to show its damn good on hardware). Again, all I had to do was cut the firmware for the AirPort Express (BCM4306).

I don't know why you don't like Ubuntu (I'm not really a fan either I thought it was kinda sluggish) but if you're not averse to a Debian based distro, there's always the original.

helikaon -You've got a few. Hell I used to run Lightwave under WINE without a problem. But natively, there's Wings3D, K3D and last but certainly most common - Blender. It was a while back by there was Maya for Linux (don't know if they still produce it) and XSI.

 

Ok...lets say if you're not so attracted by Ubuntu/Debian distro... Maybe you might want to take a look at the .rpm based CAELinux which was orginally spinned off from PCLinuxOS?
Only CAELinux 2007 and 2008 are .rpm based. CAELinux 2009 bulit upon 64bit .deb UBUNTU.

www.caelinux.org

 

The new dual cores are code named "Arrandale". They will be releasing in the first week of January and will be replacing many current Core 2 Duo's. There are 3 brands, Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7:

Core i3 have 3mb l3 cache and Hyper Threading only.
Core i5 have 3mb l3 cache, Turbo Boost, and Hyper Threading.
Core i7 have 4mb l3 cache, Turbo Boost (higher clocked Turbo Boost than i5's), and Hyper Threading.

For example, one of the culv models is called the Core i7 620 UM. This means it is a low voltage Core i7 processor. There are 3 endings for each version of "Core" processor:

M is standard 35W versions (for example, the Core i7 620M will replace a processor like the Core 2 Duo P8600).
LM is Low Voltage 25W versions (example: the Core i7 640LM will replace a processor like the Core 2 Duo SL9400).
UM are Ultra low Voltage 18W versions (example: the Core i7 640UM will replace a processor like the Core 2 Duo SU9600).

Also see Serg's guide for even more info.

 

thx for info, never know the time when you find it usefull )