W2j vs MacBookPro

Hi,

I'm in the market for a high end 17in laptop. I've narrowed by choices down to the upcoming Asus W2j and the just released macbook pro 17 inch. I've never used Linux but am studying computer science and think a grasp of linux would be very beneficial. As such, I want to dual boot (or triple if i get the mbp) windows and linux, at least until (or if) i become proficient in linux. While both these notebooks have ati cards which i understand is undesireable, I don't know how they compare with each other in their linux compatability overall. as the W2j is not out yet, i don't expect you to know, but maybe if anyone has a general knowledge of linux on asus vs linux on mac they could help me out. much obliged.
isaac

 

if you want a nvidia alternative, you should check out the toshiba p100 (p105 has the 7900, but it is preconfigured with ****py things). the dell e1705 also has the 7800....though it takes 2 months to get it. i don't know much about dual booting, except that it's not all that difficult on pcs (non apple). here's a link about linux on a macbook.

http://www.intuitive.com/blog/ubuntu_linux_yellowdog_linux_and_mac_os_x_all_on_one_powerbook.html

 

thanks for the feedback... i'm pretty deadset on a core duo proc so that narrows my options slightly...also, i want at least 2 ghz so that narrows it down even more...i actually almost pulled the trigger on the e1705 (9400 here in canada) but read some criticisms of both the build quality and incompatabilites with linux.... i've decided that i want the high build quality associated with asus or apple...so i'll have to accept the ati card and work around it or wait for compatible drivers....i'm more wondering about strictly asus vs mac in terms of linux compatability.....

 

The W2J would probably have better drivers and hardware support than the Mac Book Pro.

I would recommend you check out HP Business Workstation. 17" + quadro 1500.
better support in linux

 

Buy an Nvidia card for linux, ATI's drivers for linux are a total joke. So Neither.

 

my prob is that all the books i've looked at don't have nvidias.....

i just checked out that hp but the one that was 17in was the compag nx9420 and had an ati card....the other one with the open gl card is 15 inch and i don't do any graphics work

 

check my sig for my laptop
i can't run Ubuntu (a flavour of linux) in widescreen mode, but it does work (with effort albeit)

 

syxbit, have you tried the new drivers from ATI? They now support the X1K GPUs, desktop and mobile.

For the OP... Generally speaking, nVidia will give better performance with less hassles under linux, but I wouldn't let it prevent you from buying a machine which otherwise meets your requirements.

ATI's linux drivers have apparently improved greatly since I last tried them (about 2-2.5 years back... painful ), but be aware that you're probably only going to see around half the performance you'll get under Windows.

Your decision in this case probably comes down to which OS you'll be using most, and where you'll need the most graphics grunt.

Getting back to your original question, given the choice I'd go with the Asus. The 15" Macbook Pros have issues with overheating, flaky wifi and an underclocked GPU. Also, the MBP's now use EFI rather than a standard BIOS, which is why getting WinXP running on it was a tricky proposition. While linux can be installed on EFI based systems, it probably won't be as easy as on a machine using a standard BIOS.

Oh, and I have no idea if ACPI is working under linux for the MBP, whereas Asus ACPI support seems pretty good across all models (part of the standard kernel source)... you're gonna need this if you want suspend/hibernate to work.

For the reasons listed above, my current prospective new notebooks are the Asus V6J and the Sony VGNFE18GP (FE590 in the US... I think).

 

hey all, way over my head here. but my gf has indicated to me that she wants a lappy that can dual boot linux b/c she does a lot of data/stats work in linux-based programs, and wants to be able to run them in actual linux. anywho, i've been telling her to get a w3j, because they seem to be the smooth sauce for what she's looking for (don't tell me to post in the what to buy FAQ, been there, not my question here) but now i'm worried about this drivers question. she's not going to be doing any heavy graphics work, but she and i both have little to no patience or experience in getting linux to work properly, finding driver alternatives, etc, so my question is whether those ati problems are going to be an issue. i would assume she would be doing 90 to 95 % of her lappying in windows, but she wants the linux option.

so, boys and girls, i'm looking for some flat-out advice. should we really stay away from ati if we're only looking at running linux for a few, non graphics related programs? does it make any difference? is my gf crazy for just wanting to dualboot for some stats programs?

much love to the forums....

 

G'day DMO.

As I mentioned in my post above, I haven't personally tried the ATI drivers for linux in several years, but in my experience the drivers from nVidia "just work" and are usually available as packages for your linux distro of choice. If packages aren't available, the installer from nVidia's website is quite simple once you've glanced at the README file... don't get flustered by all the tecnobabble in the appendices, you'll only need that for advanced configuration.

I also find that nVidia's Windows drivers tend to be less problematic for me.

Perhaps you could ask on the linux driver forum over at rage3d.com, where you'll find people with more recent experience of ATI's linux offerings.

No, your GF isn't crazy for wanting to dual boot... the OS isn't as important as the applications she needs. If you're going to dual boot, consider using linux to do all of your browsing and other online tasks... and stop worrying about spyware.

 

I agree that nVidia support is more direct. ATI recently released drivers supporting the X series, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet.

 

ATI's drivers for linux are good these days, and they are on a fairly frequent release cycle for updated drivers.The new ATI drivers even come with a fancy GUI installer - you can get these, and info, from ati.com - under the drivers section click on Linux (though some distros will have ways of doing this for you)

The reputation ATI has for not supporting X and for having no focus on linux drivers is historic, and not really an issue anymore.

So to summarize, no, don't make your decision baed on staying away from ATI drivers for linux, they work great. My LM50 has been running linux since I bought it, has an ATI card (and an old one at that) and works great!

 

I think that's the reason why it works, I heard the support for the new X1600s/1400s isn't working properly yet.

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.24.8.html

supports up to x1800 in the 8.24.8 drivers. Perhaps you heard that they didn't support it prior to the release of the 8.24.8 drivers?

ATI provides a RSS feed to notify linux users of new video card upgrades, subscribe to this in your RSS reader if you are using ATI & Linux: http://www.ati.com/online/rss/atilinuxdriver.rss?OTC-rssfeedlinux