Okay, I'm just clueless. I've been working on an old IBM T42 which is definitely not a viable solution for college. So I need to get a new computer, and I don't want to jump onto the whole "Mac for College" bandwagon. But unfortunately the only laptops I know are IBM/Lenovo T series. I'm going to be running Linux (most like Debian) or maybe another *NIX like most of the time, and only Windows for itunes, Microsoft office (though I hope to learn how to use LaTex), and IE testing. It doesn't need to be bleeding fast, but I would like it to be able to run youtube videos without the cpu flaking out and run virtualbox (dual core seems to work for that as my desktop has shown). Does anyone know of any good laptops that they can recommend (or at least some recommendations for the hardware (processor and such)). I don't know much on the hardware side of things. 4gigs of ram would be nice. I use Xfce and I'm working on migrating towards fvwm2. Battery life doesn't matter too much as long as it can push 2 hours (anything is better than my computers "you are running on battery power, you have 5 minutes left of battery power"). And screen size doesn't matter too much, 14-16 is fine, my screen is 14" plus, I will have a 21-22" monitor so. This seems pretty basic for a modern computer. All help is appreciated. One more thing, no HP.

OUCH...!!!

May I ask why...?
Have two Pavillion one Dv5 1170 w/ Arch, the other a Dv6 w Slackware...no probs so far have them for more than a year...



I'd say

What's your price range? Under $1000? Under $500? Somewhere in between?

I"ve got a Samsung R580 that cost $899, and it's fairly decent:

• CPU: Intel® Core® i5 430M 2.27 GHz
• RAM: 4 GiB DDR3
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 310M (512 MiB dedicated video memory) (this is probably what added the most to the price. Seriously though, if you don't need fancy smooth graphics, just go with an Intel GMA or whatever...it'll probably make it much cheaper)
• HDD: 500 GiB (not sure of the RPMs)

As far as ergonomics goes, it's fine for me. I don't do a whole lot of moving around, so weight really isn't that big of an issue for me. Also, it's my first laptop, so I don't really have anything to compare/contrast with anyway...

I get roughly 4 hrs. battery life, although I'm not sure if that's the best it can do (I still think that if I did more to manage the power consumption, I might be able to squeeze roughly an extra hour out of it...).

It's fairly Linux-friendly; I've got it running Arch (currently with kernel 2.6.33 x86_64, and software is mostly up-to-date), and most everything works just fine. Audio works perfectly, the touchpad works, 3D acceleration with the NVIDIA binary drivers is awesome , wireless works (duh ), power management works (e.g. LCD dimming when on battery, HDD spin-down, CPU/GPU frequency scaling, etc.), and it sleeps just fine. The only things I haven't gotten to work yet are the brightness up/down Fn keys.

I've got a budget of 2000USD for computer, printer, software, and accessories. Though, I would love to keep it under $1100 if I'm not going the Lenovo side (since they would be worth the money). I think the longest I ever pushed my laptops battery was just over an hour, the only thing on it was a minimal install of Debian Lenny. Never touched the keyboard once I unpluged it. So even those powerhouses with 2.5 hours of battery life seem amazing to me.

Do you think that this pc will work well with Linux (and maybe FreeBSD)?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+...&skuId=9988697

I have an HP Compaq 8510W---it has been a rock for over 2 years now. In addition to physical abuse, it has endured WEEKS of partitioning, installing, distro-hopping, and other forms of mayhem. Never the slightest hint of any HW issues. It has Intel Wireless + Nvidia graphics, making it totally Linux-friendly.

It's predecessor was also HP, and had the same high score.

Say again the problem with HP........??

Look at linuxonlaptops.org and tuxmobile.org for compatible laptops. The make your choice based on price and user reports. I like to order at amazon.com, and the user feedback is highly valuable.

I have been running a Lenovo T61 and I am very happy with it.

jlinkels

I see HP fail and fail and fail over and over again. Plus I always find they have a really cheap case and keyboard. Though, looking at a toshiba, I shouldn't be speaking.

I've already checked those sites and I can never find any matches on there, so I've just started looking for what has the most common parts.

I've been running an IBM T40, but its aging too much to rely completely on for college. The Thinkpads are so nice,but so expensive.

Sorry but as a MacBook Pro user I have seen no laptop that can match it.

It is simply amazing.

I really get in real life 6 hours of battery life. Which amazes me much.

And the 320m GPU is Compiz heaven and will play many new games of today with zip lag.

So I recommend it wholeheartedly. It will not disappoint you I promise.

MacBook Pro 13'. Love it so much.

One thing to throw into the mix - don't rule out a desktop. Unless you're flying, transporting it between home and college will be entirely practical. You'll get something that performs better and costs less than any laptop, has better upgrade potential, and is more reliable than most. And you've already said you plan on taking a good-sized monitor.
Obviously, you can't take a desktop out onto the lawn or into your department. But would you do that with a laptop anyway? So many people buy laptops for university and just leave them sitting in their room all term.

I've thought about that multiple times, but the problem is that there are some classes that we need to log hours in labs and stuff (doesn't matter what pc, but I just have to physically be in the lab and they labs are windows, so). And I'm also one that loves to be able to go outside or do work on my bed.

Macbooks are nice, but they are really expensive for what I need.

Well, Dell and Lenovo are what I'd recommend. They are business-class companies that concentrate on longevity and durability.

Heres a good one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-775-_-Product

@leopard: Thats a nice pc. Yea, Lenovos are pretty nice (I'm using an old IBM Thinkpad) That one's going on the top of my list. I'll probably keep looking though (for a week or two). Thanks leopard

Okay, I've decided to get a Lenovo ThinkPad EDGE, but, if I'm going to be spending a lot of time compiling code (both my own and downloaded), would it be better (or usefull) to get an i5 core processor instead of an i3?

Possibly. Code compilation is one of the relatively few things nowadays that's CPU intensive, and large codebases do take time even on modern fast processors. The i5s are a fair bit faster which could result in somewhat quicker compilation times - though expect about 10-20% better, not several times faster (but not 1% faster either!). And the price doesn't shoot up like it does at the very top end.

On the other hand, if you tend to do your compilation in the background, while doing other stuff, you may care less about raw speed and more about multitasking. Some i5s have 4 cores, others only 2 (I believe this holds for i7s as well). You might prefer the quad-core if possible (I'm not sure mobile versions of the processors come in quad-core), so you could be compiling and still keep a responsive desktop.