like suse, want to buy new laptop. don't know whats best
 

Hello all. Very much a newbie. Love Linux so far. Mostly familiar with suse. My husband has tried a lot of different version, redhat, fedora, udunto or something like that. I want to purchase a laptop that will work well with suse linux and so lost as to what to do. Need speed, basic websearching, email, photo storage. Simple computer user just hate a slow computer. Any suggestions? Trying to not spend over lk. thank you.

Lenovo, the company that took over IBM's PC business offers laptops (Thinkpad T60p/61) pre-loaded with SUSE Linux enterprise Desktop 10. I'm not too sure about the pricing though.

I'm running openSUSE 10.3 on a Thinkpad T60 and it works perfectly. The only thing I havent tested is the internal modem. Yast even has a module to configure fingerprints for the fingerprint reader, which works quite well for console login. I haven't used it with KDM though, since i auto login anyway.

but most pple say Thinkpads look kinda dull, and i think they are also a bit on the expensive side, dont know much there, but in terms of working well with suse, that i know they do. Been using suse with thinkpads since SUSE 9.0

right now I'm running openSUSE on a dell inspiron 1520 - but its not sold anymore.
openSUSE 10.3 is fairly recent and should run on any laptop released until now, with execptions.
I think that Dell is most compatiable out of the box with most linux distros, just because they're a popular brand, and therefore devs aim to make stuff work on it.

laptop/suse
 

presume you don't want it to come with any linux preloaded as not realistically avalable in the UK. Maybe a secondhand event that is still fairly new. Perhaps wait till Quad core comes in and then duo and single will be much cheaper otherwise check the net for hardware compatabilty (google) there are sites but don't have 'em to hand- Novell perhaps? It is anoying to have to pay for a computer (no choice) preloaded with windows when you don't want it!

If you are set on using open-suse, then I would recommend purchasing a laptop that has hardware that is supported with a default suse install. Most Dell laptops are right on the money.

Whatever laptop you choose, make sure to check the wireless network card, video card, and sound card for compatibility as those are the peices of hardware that could cause the most headache for you.

You can check out Suse's hardware compatibilty list at this link here.

http://en.opensuse.org/Hardware

They also have a feature on that site to check entire laptop models for compatibilty.

I hope this helps :)

deskttop/suse
 

Beware Dell hardware it is known for incompatibility with other hardware maybe not such an issue with laptops, ie, on an update basis.

Suse works well on thinkpads because they are actually Suse linux certified and have been for a while. They just don't get the media coverage that Dell/Ubuntu gets and no one knows.

You can scoop up a X61 for ~$1500 with all the bells and whistles. I just bought one and I love it. Of course, I don't (expect to) play games on my laptop, that's what my desktop is for. A decent discount can be had my going to visa.com. As long as you use a visa to check out you can get like 5% off or something. Add a coupon to that and the price gets even better.

Rugged, 6+ hours battery with XP or Linux (ext battery), and all the hardware is supported. The fingerprint reader (I got working for login and sudo on Ubuntu) and others have got the HDAPs working (HD protection).

Lenovo might be adding SUSE to preinstallation too:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3449833487.html

They may not be IBM anymore, but they're still great laptops. Amazing, you know, considering the communism and all...