I'm currently looking for a new laptop to replace my old one. Having had a lot of trouble getting Linux to accept my old laptop, I wanna try and find one that's a little more Linux-friendly, this time.

Right now I don't even know where to start looking, so if someone could maybe point me in the right direction that would be a great help.

One thing I don't wanna miss this time is sleep mode. What manufacturer should I choose so I'll have a good chance of getting sleep mode working in Linux?

Another big issue is the video card. I currently have an ATI Mobility Radeon and I must say while I got it mostly working, I never wanna have to struggle with one like that again. Will I be safe if I take a laptop with an NVidia card? Are there any specific cards or series of cards you can recommend for Linux?

And then there's the CPU. I don't know much about the new Intel i5 or i7. Do those work well with Linux? Or would you recommend something else?

TIA

Try Dell. I believe even though they have taken ubuntu off of advertisement, they still have it as a option for customers who ask for it.

I can't really say anything on sleep mode, but I had some experience with GPU/CPU in laptops.
You should pick up laptop with either Intel GMA 4500MHD video or some other better Intel graphics, or nvidia. I don't really care myself if I'd had nvidia or intel, as both of it can be simply installed & configured and even run Half-Life under wine.
What about CPU... hm. Most of modern CPUs seem to support powersaving (frequency scaling via related cpufreq kernel driver). Unlike, Intel Celeron does not. What I've tried so far is Intel Core 2 Duo, that can be scaled well. Sorry for my small experience I can share... You should read this to know more about what intel CPUs support that, or, on intel site. This seem to be useful too http://www.crc.id.au/2010/07/24/xen-...e-core-i5-cpu/.
Also there is one more thing you need to check: battery capacity. I had some troubles back then, when I was checking /sys/class/power_supply/BAT*/charge_full_design and charge_full, latter shows last full charge to which battery can go and first shows it's designed capacity. If you see a big difference(3%-...), the battery is broken/used. It should usually be at the same level, even charge_full value should be a bit more than charge_full_design.
HTH.

If you like Ubuntu then be sure to check out this website:
http://www.system76.com

If you prefer a different flavor of linux, or want to install it yourself then check out this website:
http://www.frostbitesystems.com/

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Be careful about this nVidia/Intel Optimus hardware situation in case it may apply to you, mentioned in this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...13-1-a-828165/

Despite the above, I would go for either an Intel or nVidia video device (not this Optimus thing, at this time, if I wanted functionality that is not yet supported) if I were looking at a laptop, and be fairly confident that there would be good working Linux software/drivers for it; this is because I've used both of these brands with no trouble; as far as ATI video devices, I cannot comment on whether they work well lately or not, as I don't follow ATI very much. Someone else can elaborate on this if they know more specifics.
The Nouveau project for Linux (which drives nVidia hardware) is under very active development, so something that doesn't work right today, might work next month. And there's the nVdia binary driver from nVidia themselves, which usually works great, and is updated regularly with bugfixes and to support new hardware and features.

Something good to do is after you have narrowed down to a few laptops you like, find out [U]exactly/U] what hardware is inside it, and investigate linux compatibility with each component individually. This especially applies to video, wireless, ethernet, and disk controller hardware.

Check the LQ HCL for reports from other members as to how particular hardware works for them, and with which OS's.

Check out TuxMobil: http://tuxmobil.org/laptop_manufacturer.html
(Note that a lot of the entries there look not-that-current, so they might not be useful for brand new laptop reviews, you'll have to look around, or locate a more current resource...)

For wireless, Broadcom for example now have native Linux drivers from Broadcom (the STA driver) and it works well for many very new wireless cards. Other wireless device support varies.

When shopping for a laptop, take a couple LiveCD's to the store and if possible, boot them up. See if they boot without issue. See if the wireless device is active or detected properly (though you may not be able to actually use the internet from within the store). Use the `lspci` and `lshw` commands to identify what make/model of devices is inside the machine; take notes, and then check compatibility of the devices identified. You might take Ubuntu, or Mint, or any one of dozens of other LiveCD's to test out.
Some store personnel may not want to let you boot your CD's because they're paranoid & scared of viruses or something, but do your best!

Sleep & hibernation are funny issues with many laptops. I suspect this has more to do with the BIOS of the laptop than any other single component, although video cards might cause some problems too. LQ has loads of the threads on sleep/suspend issues with laptops so searching the forums might yield a lot of helpful advice on this. There are packages for various OS's of tools for getting suspend to work right with some machines - and the "TuxOnIce" kernel patches too, if you're inclined to try that.

Take your time to research before buying. Good luck!

Does xf86-video-ati or xf86-video-radeonhd support ATI Mobility? They recently got working 3D acceleration, and I'm happily using xf86-video-ati with my Radeon HD 4850 and it was painless to install, unlike ATI or NVidia's proprietary drivers.

Hi,

Linux Laptop & Notebook has installation guides along with loads of external links.

Linux on Laptops Resource for installing Linux on laptop and notebook computers. What laptop and which distribution combines well. This should provide you with some insight or options open to you.

Linux on a Laptop is for 'Linux on Specific Laptops' which can help to indicate usable laptops.

Linux Laptop Wiki is a great place to look: 'database of laptops where people can come and quickly see if the laptop they are interested in works with Linux'.

The Novice Guide To Buying A Linux Laptop is another guide.

HTH!