Linux laptop (not distro) recommendations
 

I've been seriously considering buying a new laptop for a while now. My father recently gave me his old Sony PIII laptop, but it's pretty bulky, beat up, and when typing I often accidentally touch the touchpad (which acts as a click) and it screws up my documents. Anyway, I'm in the market for a new laptop, which I will use exclusively with Linux, and I was hoping to get some recommendations from people for laptops that "just work" with Linux. :) Here's what I'm in the market for:


CPU: Preferrably Pentium M (I've done performance studies on it, and it rocks)
RAM: At least 512MB
HD: At least 80GB
Video card: nVidia something. I'm not doing any gaming or high detail graphics rendering so it doesn't really matter
CD/DVD: Need a player, not a burner
Size: I guess a 15" screen would do
Weight: As light (and durable) as possible
Price: I'd like to say around $1,000 US, but I'll be realistic and say $1,500 US is my limit.



So anyone know of something that is Linux friendly and works well? (Would be nice if it either didn't come with Windows or I could ship it back to the manufacturer and demand a refund).


I was considering an apple laptop too because I've recently gained exposure to MacOSX and I kind of like it, but even with a student discount I have they are just wayyy over-priced...

I'm kind of hypocritical because I kind of just asked the same question...but SEARCH. There's my thread (Off to College), and there's also the sticky that contains information at the top of this forum. There are user reviews of laptops on here as well. So find a laptop you want, and check its review. Linux-certified laptops are recommended by some, and hated by others. I myself 'am going with a Dell Inspiron 600M (which I believe is in your limit for what you want...you can customize it to your liking at dell.com).

Cheers,
Galen

Oh, awesome thanks. I did a search for existing threads like this but I didn't find any. And of course I forgot to look for the sticky at the top of the forum. :rolleyes:

Haha, no worries. I think it's just innate for us geeks to look for the hard-to-find crap, and ignore the blatantly obvious stuff (no sarcasm intended. I ALWAYS do that.)

Cheers,
Galen

Just bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 w/ Pentium M 1.6ghz, X300 ATi (no available nvidia card), 256x2 running in dual channel, onboard sound, 15.4 Widescreen for $750 (50% off $1500 sale). On Ubuntu 5.04, everything works out of the box, even internal wireless. Only things at the moment not working are Fn keys, scroll bars on the touchpad, and I'm having trouble with the Suspend. Other than that, it's excellent. Support is getting very good.

A guy at work told me about that sale too, but it was too sudden and I don't like being forced into decisions without having enough time to think about it. (I heard the 50% off sale sold out in 20 minutes too). Crap, I should have cashed in on that deal :(

How do you find out about these deals?
-Galen

Toshiba Satellite is in your range and has always performed well for me. I've owned five in the last ten years and never had an issue with any distribution or a problem with hardware.

I heard this huge 50% off sale happens once a year or something. I don't know the details about it, but I do know your laptop purchase has to be at least $1,500 or move.

Quite simple, really. Hang around Fatwallet[.com].

Dell does this sale at the end of their fiscal year, which just happened. But they really wanted to dump their comps, so this sale, based on a coupon with a 10,000 uses limit that sold out in 48 minutes, happened for about two weeks straight. Each day, Dell would put out a new coupon. After the third time, I finally caved.

As it happens, here's a few coupons you might enjoy.

http://www.whatsyourdeal.com/forums/...ead.php?t=2813

I think we should officially change this thread to: Amazing deals off of laptops that work well with Linux :D

Damnit. I couldn't hold myself back and I just bought a $2,000 Inspirion laptop for $750 off. Ended up being a little over $1,400 with tax included... *groan* This is going to be the 4th computer I own in my tiny apartment. I need help!!! :(

EDIT: Oh yeah, came with a free printer too. :)

I'd suggest against a Compaq r3000 series or HP 5000 series if you had considered those. The pcmcia cardbus does not work with linux. You can tweak some config settings to get it to work, but it crashes some times. First time I ever lost my wifi connection with linux. Have to run usb wifi with my laptop now.

got a dell inspiron 9300 w/ geforce 6800go, 1gb ram, 100gb hd, 2ghz pentium-M, Everything works, wide-screen, 17" kinda large wide-ways, but very light and I LOVE it, once again EVERYTHING works in linux, even got the multimedia buttons on the front controlling my music and screen power-on/off.