High-quality Linux notebook?

pca · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:39 am Post subject: High-quality Linux notebook?

Hello everybody,

I'm looking for a new notebook which is fully supported by Linux. I know http://tuxmobil.org/ but could not find anything fully satisfying. Some notebooks quite meet my needs but have widescreen, some don't but therefor their screens support only 1024x768...

Long story short, it's an endless quest and I need your help.

My 'dream-laptop' is a merger of an Apple MacBook and an IBM (Lenovo) ThinkPad. Basically a MacBook w/ 14'' 1400x1040 screen.
Hardware doesn't need to be fancy, just Intel-everything-integrated is enough. I don't need any external ports except for Ethernet, a few USB-ports and (not really necessary) WLAN.
Finally the last (and maybe most critical) thing I need is quality. This notebook will be in action for at least 5 years and I want it to survive, as well as I don't wanna damage my back (i.e. it should be lightweight).

Regards,
Philipp

E001754 · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 5:15 pm Post subject:

Have a look here :
http://www.ideastorm.com/

This is the DELL "Idea Storm" site, launched since a few months.
DELL has made this site to collect ideas from user on how to improve their products.
The answer has been quick and was : stop proposing only Windows with your computers, put Linux on (or "no OS" at all).

It seems that DELL took it seriously, because they announced shipping very soon Laptops / Desktops computers with Linux pre-installed on it (i.e : Suse, Fedora, Ubuntu). Perhaps even the "No OS" option could also be available.
Sorry, I don't find the link where DELL has made this announce, but if you google a little, you should be able to find it.

The only drawback of that ? It's only for US for now !

Bloop · n00b Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 26 Location: Germany

HI

I go with Samsung. My current P35 runs gentoo without problems. All hardware except the SD Card Reader is supported. It has a 15" 1400x1050 display (you won't get 14" with this resolution), magnesium case, 2,6 kg. It's almost 2,5 years old and I use it every day.

Well you cannot expect something you carry around, put under your bed, sleep on it, .. to hold forever, but this Samsung is the most stable thing I ever used.

I am closely watching new Samsung Notebooks and there are quite a few that I would buy if I felt it necessary to get new hardware.
Take a look at the P-Series.

Greetz Bloop

nukem996 · l33t Joined: 13 Nov 2003 Posts: 776

I have an IBM Thinkpad T40 which has latest me about 4 years. I'd recommend you look at the Thinkpad T60, its fairly light weight and has high resolution support. Currently power management isn't support that well with the T60 but that may be with all Intel Core 2 Duo based laptops.

beatryder · Veteran Joined: 08 Apr 2005 Posts: 1138

The latitude D620's with the Intel gfx chip and the high res screen are both affordable and easy to get working with 3D support as well. They also have one with an nVidia gpu (which I have). I so far have found that the intel one was nicer since I could actually get to suspend/resume nicely.
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DirtyHairy · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:01 pm Post subject:

I'm using a T60 with a X1300 and a CoreDuo (no "2"!!!) and am perfectly satisfied --- everything works as it should (although there are some glitches with wireless and suspend, and I had to hack the kernel sources to get rid of a problem with ethernet sometimes refusing to work). Powersaving stuff works as it should, and the only thing not supported is the modem (although I heard that the linuxant drivers should work if you desperately need it). Although many people are bashing the closed source ATI drivers, they work like a charm for me, no instabilities there.

Voltago · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:13 pm Post subject:

Thinkpad (T43 in my case) all the way, baby. Take one with intel graphics if you don't want to play games.

pca · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:58 pm Post subject:

First, thank you for all your answers.

I was seriously thinking about a ThinkPad, but those with high-resolution support are too expensive (starting at around 1500 for R-series). But looking at Samsung...2300! That's a _bit_ beyond my financial scope

Seems like I'm gonna buy one from Dell...or have some beer, close my eyes and click 'buy' on Lenovo's website :wink:

Cheers,
Philipp

beatryder · Veteran Joined: 08 Apr 2005 Posts: 1138

number_nine · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 136

To those of you with a Thinkpad T43 w/ATI graphics: could you post your kernel .config file (along with version), your xorg.conf and any modified files from /etc/hibernate?

My T43 model is 2668-89U. I'd recommend/love it, if only I could get suspend-to-RAM and suspend-to-disk (hibernate) to work consistently. Suspend-to-RAM used to work reliably, until I started trying get hibernate (software suspend2 aka swsup2) to work. Now both are a crap shoot. Usually they each work once after a fresh boot, but after that, they generally do not work, and fail in different ways.

As much as I'd like to run Linux on this machine exclusively, Windows came with it and worked reliably out-of-the-box.

I'd be infinitely grateful of anyone who posted the magic config files that got it all working!