Linux-friendly laptops

Tyler Aviss tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Thu Jul 31 14:08:44 UTC 2008


Hey all,


I've been laptop shopping recently and was wondering if anyone had
good/bad experiences to share with whatever's available in the area.
My current laptop is getting a bit long in the tooth, and seems to be
running a bit hot these days (despite the fans being nicely clear of
obstruction), as well as a bit slower for modern apps.

I'm mainly looking at HP and possibly Asus laptops. Anyone recently
buy a laptop and have any happy/horror stories to share?

Preferred specs are:
* 14-15.4" LCD (17" seems a bit bulky/heavy, but bigger might be OK if
light enough)
* Good graphics card (NVidia or ATI, seems that ATI's drivers for 'nix
are a lot better after the AMD buyout)
* 2GB+ of RAM
* 64-bit Dual-Core CPU, maybe around the 2Ghz+ range per core? I
believe the Core2Duo's are supposed to perform better, but I do still
have a soft-spot for AMD...
* Decent soundcard+speakers. Harmon Kardon?
* 802.11N if possible, native linux drivers a definite plus (Intel IPW
or otherwise? preferably *not* Broadcomm, current experiences even
with the native driver /w firmware seem to suck compared to windows)
* Cardreader that works in 'nix
* Bluetooth that works in 'nix (never had any problems getting BT
working on 'nix though, even the cheap ones)
* An integrated camera that has linux drivers would be nice
* 3-4+ USB ports
* DVD-RW (lightscribe would be nice)
* PCMCIA slot (nice, but seems to be less needed with most things USB
these days)
* TV-in (linux compatible) would be a great, if unlikely, feature...
* Firewire would be nice, if linux-compatible

So far I've seen a lot of nice-looking HP's at the big-box stores
(Best-Buy, Future Shop) and some decent-seeming Asus's at places like
Filtech, etc.



Suggestions?
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