You said you were friendly....
 

After reading and re-reading, I still can't decide what to do first. To buy a cheap laptop and install Suse or other Linux version, or to try to install it on my Windows XP PC. I could see that there are huge compatibility problems between Linux and laptop hardware. Also there are soft problems.

What should I do first? My goal is to learn programming. First step is to learn Linux.

Buy a cheap laptop. That way you are free to do whatever you like without the worry of breaking your XP box. Such as..? The older the laptop, the more likely it will work out of the box. Decide which distro(s) you are likely to run then buy a laptop that best fits the bill.

One way to do this is to grab a live cD (Knoppix, Ubuntu or whatever) and test it on the laptop you plan to buy. Unless the laptop is so new the kernel guys haven't had a chance to create a driver for it or the hardware is so obscure, you should be ok.

There are no "huge compatibility problems" with laptops, but there are a few issues. The one I am stuck on is power management.

If you are just getting started, I recommend installing Linux on your desktop (dual-boot with Windows). There are 63 bazillion articles here at LQ on dual-booting. Also, try the "getting started" link below.

Hi Michaelus08,

Well, in terms of huge compatibility issues, I dare say Linux has come a long way, especially the 'friendlier' distros such as ubuntu, mandriva, and so on.

I just used the SystemRescueCD to resize my NTFS Vista partition, and installed ubuntu hardy heron on the free space. Hardy can see the remaining NTFS partition with NO tweaking, and I am listening to music from Vista partition while writing this in firefox on ubuntu!

All of this is happening on a HP Pavilion Laptop, Intel Centrino Dual Core, Intel Chipset and Motherboard. Wireless worked straightaway, only issue was I had forgot the WPA key!!

The only issue I've hit so far has been the autodetect of sound card, it worked for a little while, then stopped. The fix was an easy one, using GUI tools.

The trick I think is to try and stick with Intel based machines in terms of laptops, simply because Intel has embraced open source drivers, and most linux distros are up to speed on intel based hardware.

Ubuntu is the bomb, not gonna push you if you really want to learn linux, and get into the nitty gritty of configuring stuff, but it is just as tweakable as any other distro, and is truly open source.

Just my :twocents:!!

There are no serious hardware issues any more with linux. Make sure to buy a laptop with intel chipset, intel pro wireless card, and try to avoid winmodems. Intel,ATI and nVidia graphics cards work on linux perfectly now (except the Ati Mobility Radeon 9000 cards --> avoid it, no drivers provided by Ati!). The more intel you have, the less problems you'll have.

A vicious circle
 

After I read your answers carefully (thanks) I also read the links material.

It seems that laptop producers don't like Linux. I wasn't able to find a single laptop model where everything works perfect. I mean, in those tables, it's either the modem or the network card , sound or video, and so on, that doesn't work.

Does someone know a laptop model with all details about its parts, for which Suse 10.3 or another distribution works perfectly, completely?

In what way?

That's what this forum is for. Helping others resolve their problems.

As has already been said, go for models with the intel chipset. Just because a laptop works perfectly for someone else doesn't mean it will be the same for you. Choose your distro, choose your laptop, install, post your problem(s) here. :)

Laptops are manufactured according to price segments,
and each model is different. The different hardware comes from different
manufacturers, and therefore no default configuration can work 'out of the box' for all.
A bit of tweaking is required, but that is a part of installation usually. During regular use you are unlikely to run into major driver problems.

Well, actually yes, mine. It's not a big brand, but every part works perfectly without any tweaking. I have a Benq Joybook 2100e, with Mepis 7.0 installed. The only thing I had to do, is to download two additional packages from the debian repository, to make my modem work (it's a SmartLink SoftModem). I didn't took more than a minute. That's all. Most parts of it are intel provided (vga, chipset, wlan, cpu), and what is not intel, that still works out of the box. Here's a more detailed hardware list of my laptop (in the LQ-HCL): link to my laptop

I bought the absolute cheapest new laptop I could find (that wasn't an Eeepc) which is an Acer Aspire 5315 for AU$500, loaded Xubuntu on it and the only thing I had to do was use ndiswrapper to install the wireless drivers which now work fine.

My HP Pavilion dv2000, Centrino dual core box works brilliantly. Can't say a bad word about it to be honest. Issues I've had are sound drivers, and some playing with wireless, however, all very simple!

Running Ubuntu 8.04, with Compiz enabled.

Just my 2 cents but leave your older machine alone unless you want to put VMware on it which is a snap and install Linux there.

I very much favor getting a second machine...whatever it is, laptop, desktop and dropping a Linux distro on it. Suse is you best bet for a beginner.

This way you Windoz box will stay in tack and you can make as many mistakes as you want and still sleep at night and then reinstall Linux any time you want.

Good luck. I've had my hand full with Linux.

Use the Linux Laptop resources to check out hardware. you can see from peoples how-to's and reports what works and what doesn't and what laptops should be fully compatible.

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

http://tuxmobil.org/mylaptops.html

I have an HP (Compaq) NX6320. Everything works except the Winmodem - and I don't care about that modem since I have an HSDPA modem. (or was that HDSPA? damned acronyms ...)