Hello.

It's time to replace my current laptop which is happily running Slack 12.2. Naturally, I'll want to install Slack 13.37 with the 64 bit flavour.

My question is are there certain brands/models/chipsets I should avoid at all costs or has Linux matured to the point where laptops play nicely all the time? To narrow the scope a bit, I'm open (unless I'm missing a great option) to Lenovo, ASUS, Toshiba and HP (possibly).

I don't have a specific model in mind right now, or I'd check out the HCL, so I'm hoping for general advice here.

Thanks for your time.

The makes you list are the ones, that would come to my mind either, I'd add Dell. Many of their products are well supported by Linux, but not all of them, unfortunately.

One way you could proceed is to look, which models are available with pre-installed Linux. E. g. some very good laptops from HP have SUSE Linux Enterprise pre-installed, and these models are said to make excellent Linux desktops.

But: Just check the web, if "pre-installed Linux" really means "good Linux support". For HP, usually the answer is YES, and from my own experience I would recommend Toshiba, but not their lowcost range. The Portege R series is quite good, and should work fine with Linux.

But the others you mention also are well-known for good or excellent Linux compatibility. As I said, with exception (that holds for all of them).

Regarding chipsets, I'd be careful with models, that have two graphics adapters, one for maximum power, one for minimum power consumption, called GMA, I think. There *is* Linux support for this technology, but I guess it would require more or less effort and fiddling around to get it going. with Slackware64-13.37, but maybe other users here prove me wrong.

If I had to buy a new laptop now, I'd probably go for a HP ProBook series model, like the 4530s. Or if your budget is limited, then the HP 635 seems to be an excellent choice for the money (with pre-installed SUSE Linux Enterprise, but you know how to replace that, I guess...)

gargamel

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Most laptops these days come with 'switchable' graphics. They use the integrated GPU on the Core i5/i7 (Sandy Bridge) processor for light workloads, then switch to the discrete graphics (NVIDIA Optimus or ATI Hybrid) for high-performance / 3D acceleration. This is to save on battery life. Compounding the issue further, some laptops have muxes to switch the output of either GPU to the display and the others pass the discrete GPU output through the Sandy Bridge GPU. It's probably better to have the muxes than the passthrough because that gives you the option of using only the discrete or integrated GPU as switching between the two isn't quite seamless on Linux just yet. If I were shopping around, I'd ask the vendor which models have switchable graphics, how it's implemented, and whether you can disable it. As an example, the Dell Precision M4600 has the option to use the discrete GPU only in its BIOS.

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I have a lenovo thinkpad with AMD-architecture (subnotebook x100e). It's fully supported by Linux, wifi as well as all of the functionkeys and also the graphics-adapter work with Slackware64-current.

Markus

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This is precisely what I was referring to, but much better informed and phrased in a much clearer way!

gargamel

Thanks all for the answers so far.

Naturally, the x100e is no longer available. The market changes so fast. But, I want a bigger screen anyway.

Did you have to write the ACPI handler and action scripts yourself or did they get created automatically?

I think I would go for the latest in the T series. They have a touchpad and not just that annoying 'nipple' as far as I can tell.

You will have to add some acpi scripts yourself if you need some special functions (at least I did on my T42).

AMD laptops are fairly inexpensive even those with the new A series. Most carry discrete Radeon based graphics which is a plus also. If you get anything with Intel and Nvidia, make doubly sure it does NOT have GMA graphics or Optimus by Nvidia which uses the dual-GPU solution. make sure that you always get dedicated graphics only.

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IBM would be a great choice because of http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki .
Personally, I'm a Dell Latitude fan, but I've wanted to purchase a newer Lenovo for some time now.

GMA is Intel's code name for their integrated graphics processor. Graphics Media Accelerator. Doesn't have anything to do with Optimus. If you purchase a laptop that has only Intel graphics, it's called Intel GMA. Such as netbooks that have the GMA 3150 integrated graphics solution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA

A common problem for most people is the popular Broadcom WiFi card that comes with many products. There are complaints about the lack of stability and usability of the kernel provided Broadcom modules. You can use the vendor provided STA module (from Broadcom's website), which in my experience, works flawlessly.
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.../broadcom-sta/

well, the lenovo thinkpad business-notebooks in general don't come with exotic hardware (like very new wifi- or graphics-adapters), so the are in general well supported by Linux (as far as I know).
I didn't write any of these scripts by myself. In fact I have three computers with AMD-K8 architecture and never had any issues with ACPI.

Markus

I think that it will probably work no matter what you buy. I bought one (Asus netbook) not knowing that it uses optimus, and somehow it works just fine.

By "it", are you referring to the nvidia GPU?

Adam

A link is worth a thousand words.

http://linux-on-laptops.com/

Well, yes, and the laptop as well.

It's hard to recommend laptops that I know will work for sure. It's better to get a deskop. You build it yourself, then you check each component and know for sure it will work (99 % of the time that is).

How about this, look for a specific model that you want, considering what you want out of it, then I'll look at it, and then I can say how likely it is to work.

If you really are using the nvidia GPU without any extra configuration on your end, then it's not Optimus. :-)