Hello,

i'm holding right now new shiny 600 bucks in my hand and i want a new shiny notebook for my favorite OS Linux. Mainly for work (i'm student) and also for a couple of games, which means it must be something like 1.4 - 1.7 Ghz, 512 RAM, 60-80 Gb HDD and Wi-Fi. As I am a newbie in choosing notebook models, i would really appreciate your help. What company (Acer, Asus, Fujitsu Siemens, IBM, Dell, NEC, Toshiba) and which model to choose.

Thanks,

Tom Nyskelo

Check bizrate, pcworld, amazon etc

Regards

You can, start by reading: http://www.linux-laptop.net/

However, from my experience, there will be some tweaking to the laptop in order to use it in Linux. I would suggest look for graphic chip that is either based on NVIDIA or Intel (if you want AIGLX effect).

Make sure you don't get ripped off.With that money you can easily find a dual-core laptop and better specs than you wanted.
Also try to find one with a intel video chipset as they have good open source drivers and I had no problem getting the full 1280x800
resolution from my laptop.For the wireless, try go for a atheros or ralink cards as I had luck with them.
Checkout newegg.com for any good deals and like usual, after finding the model you like, research on every piece of hardware and make
sure they are 100% compatible with linux.That will prevent any future headaches with the hardware. Or even worse is finding that it is not compatible!

If you are planning to purchase your laptop at a local retail store, take along a live CD and see if the store will let you boot the laptop you are interested in with the live CD and see how it works and what isn't recognized right away. I did this with a Ubuntu live CD when I was looking for a new small format laptop for my daughter, and it was very helpful.

I would suggest a Ubuntu, OpenSuSE, or another live CD of your favorite distro to check with before you buy. Everything might not work right away with the liveCD, but you will know what work will need to be done.

Bob