Hey everyone.

It's been awhile but it's good to be back.
My work has forced me to go back to Vista
Because of some compatiabilty issues with some of their programing, So they asked me to go back to Windows...

Since it pays good and I can work at home I couldn't argue to much.
BUT!!!

Well since I am having to use my Desktop for Work, and have to run Vista, They don't want anything else on the HD... But Bussiness Programs.

I was thinking of getting a Laptop so I can go back and enjoy Virus, Adware etc etc FREE Computing again during my Off Hours...
And run the OS of my Choice "LINUX" my first Love of OS's...
This is a {3} part question so here goes.


#1. I found (2) Everex Laptops that are set up to run Linux and come with the gOS preinstalled, I of coarse will install a different Linux OS once I get it.
They are the Everex Think gBook Model# VA1500B -n- the Everex Zonbu Laptop.

Has anyone ever had/have these?
And what do you think about them?

#2. What in your Opinion's are the best Laptops to use with Linux?
Mind you I'm not talking "SUPER" Laptops, I'm talking a decent Laptop around $500.00.
Something thats a little better then your run of the mill Laptop, But not one to run games either.
Just one for the occanisal Video Clip, Linux Games like TuxKart etc.

#3. Finally what is the BEST Linux OS to use one a Laptop?
I like Sabayon, have used Ubuntu, Kubuntu, PCLos, Mandriva, Mepis, Freespire, Linspire, just about all the popular ones...

Any and ALL Opinions/Suggestions are Welcome.... Thanks in advance...

Apple notebooks are better than any notebook manufacture. The following is why they are better.

* 16.7 million color LCD screens compared to 292 thousand colors
* LED back light
* Built-in capacitor to aid changing the battery and help the battery during heavy loads.


ASUS and ASUS Eee PC

MSI notebooks


I recommend any notebook that have a nVidia graphics card and does not come with a Marvell NIC. Make sure it comes with either Intel 3945/4945 WiFi or Atheros WiFi.

I never heard of Everex.

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 with the following specs.

Intel Core 2 Duo T7300
2 GB DDR2-667
GeForce8 8400M GS
Intel 3945 WiFi
..
..

It runs hot because of poor cooling. I did not get it for gaming. I got it, so it provides me some functionality (light-weight/portability, long battery life, ease multi-monitor setup). I will never go with Dell again because they delay the shipping about 5 times and they do not care for quality.


Some people here might think I am a hypocrite but tell the company you work at to look into Qt from Trolltech.

Businesses using Vista instead of XP is new to me because all the problems Vista has. Since Vista came with my notebook computer, even I do not use it. I use Linux because I get impatient in Vista.

I agree about Apple the only thing that prohibits me is the Price!

It's about the easiest I've know of to get to run on Linux, But the reason for that I've read is because it's made from Unix, which we all know Linux is based on.

I haven't had any probs with Vista since my Company has changed over to it about 6 months back.
But have heard others in the Company have maybe it's because I'm Lucky or something.

I checked into the possability of Dual Booting Vista with Linux, if when I get a Laptop it had Vista come with it.
It had been a possiability until Micro$haft released SP1 for Vista now it's D@#$ near imposible to do.
It's even hard to Dual Boot XP with it, and that's coming from the Micro$haft's Lovers Forums.

Go figure they not only Screwed us over which is nothing new, But they also Screwed over their own users as well...


In any event Thanks So Much for the insight, I'm most Grateful...

Sorry can't agree with that, Apple Notebooks are not better than any other.
I'm a big fan of MacOS and have been using a Mac for years, I also recommend Macs to lot of poeple... BUT lately I'm really disappointed with their Quality... The last 2 Notebooks I bought from Apple (a Macbook and a Macbook Pro) had to be sent back because the were dead on arrival, I took apple about 2-3 weeks on each to get a working one back to me, and on the like 8 Months old Macbook Pro the Battery is already dieing. Don't get me wrong I love Apple because of the OS, and I love my IPod touch but their QA seems to really suck lately. And its not just me, like every switcher I heard of the last couple months seems to have sent his first Book back because of Hardware Issues.
On the other hand Apple Hardware got sooo cheap! If you look at a Book with the same specs from other Manufactures they are always more expensive, well at least good brands like Lenovo, Sony, Dell and so on.

Personally I now use a Thinkpad T60 which by now is also under a 1000$. Cant go wrong with that.

For cheaper ones check out Dell, they seem to work great with Linux (they even offer Ubuntu preinstalled on some) and are good quality and service for a real good price!

Sorry for the kind of long Post but I got a little caught up in the writing

Currently I am using a Lenovo Thinkpad T61. It's an expensive one as it happens, but they are available with some less specs and much cheaper. I like the sturdy design (need TWO hands to open the cover!), and there is loads of documentation out on the web. Compatibility is usually good, depends somewhat on the model. Check http://tuxmobil.org and http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/

My favorite distro is Debian, but you should go for Lenny (Testing) as Stable is too much outdated.

I used to run Windows in a VM, but until now I have been unsuccesful to install W2k in Virtualbox (on this computer in this version). Multi booting in Vista was no problem.

jlinkels

For what it's worth (because it'll take some time to look through), maybe this link will help? Massive List of Laptops That Work With Ubuntu also, system76 is good.

I stated why Apple notebooks are better than other notebooks. They have better features. I did not state about quality. Intel provides the hardware. They are the blame for quality. All computers have DOA problems.

I do not agree with you with Dell notebooks because the quality of my Dell notebook is poor. It has poor cooling, keys on the keyboard are flimsy, optical drive is poor quality, slow card reader, and few others. Also Dell can not promise to ship it on the date that they have said.

Pt. 1:

Never had an Everex laptop... but gOS looks interesting.

Pt. 2:

The short version:

I've had very positive experience with the following:
Dell
Intel
nVidia

If you purchase a laptop which is based on Intel with an nVidia graphics card, you'll be in really good shape. AFAIK Intel graphics cards are slightly more well supported because Intel has produced open source drivers. I don't know what's going on with ATI.

Purchase a laptop with an Intel-based wireless card... Avoid broadcomm wireless cards like the plague. Just about any wired ethernet works AFIAK (broadcom works AFAIK for wired and bluetooth)

The long version:

As far as apple, I've never owned one, but from an appearance and design perspective, it appears that they put quite a bit of care into their products. However, I cannot justify paying $300 extra or more for something that I'm going to reinstall linux on anyway... that's why I've never owned one. As far as the Mac OS, I've used it briefly, and there are things that I do like (for instance, the dock), but most usage paradigms, I rather hate Mac OS. But that's not for this thread.

... and I've never owned one.

I did own an HP Pavilion dv6000z (sempron based). Initial experience was good, but hardware failed after approx. 6 months (including nVidia graphics card). I also got stuck with the (very bad) broadcomm wireless card. HP support really sucked, and it took months to get repairs that didn't fix, and finally a replacement. Identical hardware notebook replacement failed in approx 6 months, same issue. In short, I think that it may have been the AMD-based architechure, but I will never buy an HP notebook in the near future, just to be sure. Just my experience, and YMMV, and so on.

After a refund, I purchased a Dell Vostro 1400... which I am using right now. Intel-based, Core 2 Duo, Intel Pro Wirelss 3495 ABG card, Broadcom bluetooth, I'm not sure what wired connection I have, but I believe that the tg3 module handles it. nVidia 8400 GS graphics card.

Build quality on this laptop is excellent. I'm not sure how some of the other posters here have had build quality issues. Keyboard has very little flex, and has a very good the keys travel well and have a good tactile response. The screen has no flex or wobble when using the laptop. The laptop also stays very cool when running on battery. When doing intensive things such as gaming of course it heats up, but I've never (intensely) gamed on this laptop when on battery power.

My experience with this laptop has been extremely positive. Installing Ubuntu Hardy, everything works out of the box (incl. sound recording) except graphic card. Installing drivers from the Ubuntu repo is easier, but ATM there's a problem with them. But, installing drivers from nVidia's website is a snap anyways, so that's really the only thing that I had to do to get it up and running.

The system seems to be reliable, I've had it for more than 6 months now, and no hardware failures whatsoever. With some power tweaks & the 9 cell battery, I can get between 4 and 6 hours out of the battery, so there's plenty of time to last through a class.

My experience with ordering from Dell has been extremely positive. Shipping took a while, but for where it was coming from (China), it was rather snappy (a few weeks to build, a few more to ship & arrive).

Pt. 3:

As far as Linux OS, I have had very good experience with Ubuntu on my laptops, desktops, and servers. I have also heard good things about Suse, especially with Compiz, but after my bad experince with multiple RPM-based distros, I'm sticking with Debian-based.

Thank You from the bottom of my wittle Linux Lovin Heart for all your help.
I've bookmarked all these and are going to look at them in depth.
It's so much nicer to know what will and won't work with Linux then to take a stab in the dark at it, And just have probs with it.

I was afraid I was going to have probs figuring out which would or wouldn't work in Laptops with Linux.
Like I did when I first started with desktops approx 4 years ago.
But I learned very quickly.

Thanks again and May GOD Bless.

Looks like you replied when I was replying... and I forgot cost.

You can get some very cost-effective laptops from Dell if you look at their small-business line, particular vostro. AFAIK the vostros start at $300 or so.

I want to Thank You to for the info.
When I clicked on system76 and seen Ubuntu Certified PC's my Heart about stopped.
Ubuntu was the first Linux Distro I messed with and pretty much still on the Top of my list for Linux Ease and compatability.
I like Sayabon but the one thing I don't like is their pkg Mgr, It's just a little more Out of the box...
But on the same note has a lot of Crap I don't use either.

I'm going to look at these links in depth, But the Ubuntu Based PC's are looking Mighty good at this point.

But like I said before it's so nice to know that I've got options that will work in Linux without having to go at it blindly.
And not to mention buy a Laptop with an OS your going to ditch as soon as you get it, And pay a extra $100.00 to do it.
I can use that extra $100.00 for other goodies.

Thanks Again and May GOD Richly Bless.

I'll deffently give them a look see.

I didn't know Dell made any starting this Cheap.

The Cheapest I've seen was $499 but that was an Insperon.

Thanks for ALL Your HELP "Everyone"...

BiPolarPenguin, Sayabon is based on Gentoo, but it is pre-compiled. I suggest use Gentoo instead of Sayabon. Gentoo is tedious but easy to install. It does take a very long time because it compiles everything except the system related utilities.

I suggest Cyberpower PC, RK Computers, and Power Notebooks if you do not want an OS.

Yes they are open source to some degree but there are some details that you miss. You will need to reprogram the graphic chip to use an unsupported resolution. This gets annoying over time. Only 16 resolutions can be stored at once. Also they do not support 3D well and video playback is not well supported. Intel graphics in Linux is poorly supported. The main processor is doing most of the rendering.

ATI still makes proprietary modules (drivers) for Linux. They have provided some documentation and microcode to the open source community. The development of the open source ATI driver is getting improved time to time from what I am reading. If you want a graphics hardware that is true open source that works quite well, an ATI graphics will be a good choice. If you do not believe me, my ATI Radeon 64 VIVO (pre-7200 series) works in Beryl. Video playback is smooth too even with OpenGL as the video output device in MPlayer.

Thanks for the links I'll check them out for sure.
I didn't realize how good ATI had gotten there for awhile, I know they were kind of tight with the Info.

ATI still makes proprietary closed source drivers, but it is the open source community, Xorg and some others, writing the open source driver for ATI cards. It is not really ATI that is writing it. They provided some documentation and microcode like they promise.

More information about open source drivers for ATI cards at the following site.

http://www.phoronix.com/