If i want to buy a laptop and install linux on it, what laptop should i buy?
 

I read on the web and it seems to me very strange that if you want to install linux on a laptop, some are better than others. I would like to buy one soon and i don't want to install Windows on it, it's enough... I used Windows for a lot of years... Can you give me some advices? Thank you.

You could check out

http://www.linux-laptop.net/

See what success other people have had with particular laptops and base you decision on that.

Hm... i tried, but no matter what link i choose there, i get this message: "The requested URL could not be retrieved". What do you think about this? ;) Thank you.

*** Edit ***
Sorry, i resolved the problem... :)

I use a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S311 laptop, my professor recommended toshiba laptops for linux. It took me a little while, but I now have everything working in linux. I haven't tested the modem or video out/extermal monitor though.

Another option is to go to Linux Certified and buy one of their laptops. They install linux only (no windows tax) on them and let you know what works and what doesn't. I've never ordered from them though.

The link is working fine for me right now. I dual boot on a Toshiba Satellite and it has been a fine piece of equipment. The main problem is that XP PRO comes pre-installed and you only get a recovery cd which means you have to wipe the h/d to do a re-install. A pain in the butt!

This isn't difficult if you've a partition manager (free or otherwise).

I tend to have a lot of luck with laptops. I've installed Linux on quite a wide variety of em, and have been extremely successful. The things that seem to work better on some than others are the video out (the ones with built in ATI cards I cannot get working, but nvidia works for me 10/10 times) and WiFI. I have been lucky enough to get a pretty decent card (Netgear WAG511 - Atheros) and get it working on every laptop I have played with, but the built in jobs are hit and miss depending on the actual chip on the card.

Not sure models, but brands that seemed to go smooth were Sony and Dell.

So... based off my experience, I tend to find that with enough work, there are probably more laptops that DO work Linux than DON'T.

:)

Cool

hi - just my opinion
 

hello :)

i had just purchased an acer extensa 2350 - cost me S$1250 after upgrading the RAM to 512MB DDR. it has a 14.1" LCD XGA TFT monitor, 40GB HDD, Intel Celeron M 350 processor (1.3GHz, 400MHz FSB, 1MB L2 cache), DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 802.11b/g wireless - same inprocomm wireless internal card.

so far i had tried only Suse 9.1 & Suse 9.3 Pro (stripped) - so far so good. Just that in the first place, Kaffine need to be upgraded - need to go get the .lib. after that, can watch DVD with ease! :)

so far, USB (3 ports) are working perfectly, Kinternet working (using dial-up modem now as wireless is being setup - already 2mths :(( ). Installed Thunderbird - work perfectly upon installation, however, Firefox cant seem to work. Seem to be unable to load any pages! so got to resort to Konqueror - work beautifully :)

so far, i m pretty pleased with Suse 9.3 Pro even with the little hiccup of wireless. Intend to boot up with Slackware &/or Gentoo &/or Debian once those CDs arrived :) just bought them over from OSDisc.com :)

give Suse 9.3 Pro a try - should work beautifully with Acer laptop :)

cheers

If you want to buy a laptop with Linux pre-installed, check out EmperorLinux. Personally, I am using an IBM T40, and it supports Linux beautifully. The T40 is a great machine overall in my opinion, and I'd recommend it highly. They are somewhat more expensive than other brands, but they're worth it. -- J.W.

I have a compaq presario 1.5 ghz, 512 mb ram. just fyi... if you are looking for the bare minimum. I have suse 10 running on a compaq deskpro 4000 2mb video, 512 ram, 233mhz. my laptop is an amd processor. good luck in your search. :)

Tom

I have a ACER travelemate 2200, and so far have had SuSE 9.2, 10 and Fedora Core 4, and all seem to work flawlessly. Although I don't know about the wireless card since I don't have another wireless card or base station to connect to, so I haven't been able to verify that it works.

I have a Dell Inspiron 510m laptop, I think dell it's a good choese. But cheack in Internet before, better no bad surprice :). Toshiba are really good but expensive also.