Hi All,

I am planning to buy a new laptop. I have been using linux on my old PC (p4 cpu) for couple of years. Had some bad exprience with that, so I want to go for laptop with preinstalled linux rather than installing one myself.

I would be using it for all kinds of linux development (inturn in VM) such as driver programming, GUI based appl, embedded linux kernel source - cross compiling etc.

I would like to have your suggestions. Thanks

Most Linux laptops come with a really simplified version. They're designed for easy transition from Windows, not development. Maybe try a different distribution than the one you were using.

I would recommend using a simple, widely used (and therefore well-supported and actively developed) package-based distribution such as Ubuntu. You can do anything you need, as far as software development, using Ubuntu and won't have to deal with the hassle of trying to keep your system running (as you would with a more complicated system like Gentoo or Slackware).

I'll also say that the state of Linux software is improving very rapidly, so many of the problems you experienced a few years ago might not be an issue any longer. What kind of problems were you having?

Also, money may be the reason why you're going with Linux to begin with, but price of a boxed copy of Linux (which comes with technical support) is usually less than the rebate you get from MS for an unused copy of Windows.

The problems i were having with ubuntu 8.x was the screen resolution and then sometime it hung and let to reboot without reason. I felt there were some hardware issue also (I don't blame anything). I could not get much detail on that now ( because don't have the system in condition).

All I need, now, is a brand new system with Linux and all tool chains. Temporarily I don't want to experiment on Linux desktop. I want to start learning from zero... in order... like boot sequence, init, FS etc... I have a ARM board linux supported to do experiment.

Later on I would want to take over the traditional Distro.

If I were you, I'd just buy a laptop barebones kit from MSI or somewhere, and all you have to do is buy a compatible CPU and a HDD. I saved $400 like this, bought a barebones + CPU + HDD (SSD Hybrid) for $900 that was comparable to a $1300 HP laptop. Then just install whatever OS you feel like.

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