I'm trying to talk my parents into getting me a laptop for Christmas, however I can't decide which one to get. I want something that will be very portable, and not to expensive (up to $1500) So far I narrowed my choices to: Sharp AV18, Gateway 200X, Sony Vaio V505 and Dell Inspiron m300 or m600. Have anyone had any experience with these laptops, stay away from any of them because of known issues with linux? If I'll get any of these, I'll try to use Slackware.

i keep hearing dell's do ok with linux --
I used to work for them, but never really dealt with the linux side cause linux wasn't so popular then...

i don't know for sure tho -- i had a hell of a time getting linux to work properly on a dell optiplex desktop tho... video issue.. nothing severe...

Gateways suck.. their warranty is horrendous, so if you break something, you'll be screwed there... I didn't know sharp even made laptops.. i thought they only made calculators! =)

Sony vaio's don't like linux -- the video card is a real bear to get to work...

I have a hp omnibook and I haven't had any problems with RedHat on it...


later

indeed dell i think, i repeat i think that dell did or do put linux on some of there laptops, and then microsoft forced them to abandon it.

any way i personally think that dells are brilliant but sony are good as well.

I have a Dell (smartstep 200n) and Linux runs quite nicely on it -- with the acception of ACPI. Plus Dell being a popular brand theres a good chance for some Linux specific info somewhere on the web for whatever model you go with

The wife has a Gateway 400sx... havent tried putting Linux on it, yet but it just seems kind of cheaply made; keyboard is a little flimsy, etc. It's the only gateway laptop i've ever used so maybe its just that model.

You might want to check out http://www.linux-laptop.net/ before making the final decision.

ive a nx9005 im running redhat 9 with no problems.. including acpi and pcmcia. with wireless..

i am on a ibm thinkpad and its stable as hell

oh btw slackware 9.1 on a A21m

i must agree with you jsfour i have a IBM aswll its an T20 whats yours.

Generally IBM is stable!

Im on a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D 7800, and it works like a paperweight. Im jsut waiting for some drivers to be written for my
[list=1]
Graphics card
HT Procssor
Modem
Printer
DVD RW
Advanced Power Mode enabled Motherboard.[/list=1]

Im running redhat 9, (Ill switch to SUSE since Redhat have ditched the Linux market). I have various problems - they are attempting to sort these for me on the Redhat Quits the Market forum. I almost started a flame war when I denounced Linux Driver Support

I'll have to cast a "yea" vote for Dell. I've configured a dell inspiron 8200 twice now, once for SuSE and now for Slack. While I won't say everything worked perfectly after the install, I did manage to get it working after a bit of reading and tinkering.

Thanks for the advice. btw what do u guys think about IBM T40?

brill ihave a T20

IBM's are very stable but i will have to get somemore LQ members to backup this but i dont think there is a lot of people here with an ibm

the prob is is that min has a token ring card DAMM i wanted an ethernet card

can you upgrade a notebook/ laptop with an internal ethernet card or do i have to buy a external PCMCIA, USB Ethernet card?

Sure, replace the motherboard it comes with...

Probably much easier to get a seperate PCMCIA card huh..

can you really upgrade notebook motherboads, i know it would be expensive and will proberly by a PCMCIA card!!