[GTALUG] Ubuntu

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Irwin Barrer via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| I am brand new to Linux, open source, etc. I am a user, not a developer.

Devil's Advocate Mode: if you are used to Windows, switching to Linux 
takes some work.  Do you care enough to subject yourself to this?  (Many 
of us do, but you have to answer for yourself.)

| I am interested in buying a laptop and installing Ubuntu on it—I like 
| the idea of a free alternative to Windows or MacOS, and price is a big 
| factor.

Do you already have a machine?  If so, you can easily boot a "live" Linux 
system off a USB stick to see what Linux is like without any affect on the 
other OS already installed.

| A while back I saw some relatively inexpensive laptops on Dell with 
| Ubuntu preinstalled.
| Unfortunately these are no longer available and 
| only a high-end developer system is available with Ubuntu preinstalled.

Perhaps this one?
<http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-15-3551-laptop-ubuntu/pd>

| So I have started looking into laptops with Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and 
| installing Ubuntu.

Fundamentally Chromebooks come with too-small "disks".  16G is enough
for ChromeOS.  Linux can usefully exploit larger drives.  Linux is
fine with 60G but more really is better.  I'm fairly happy on 120G
systems.  Of course it depends what you do.

| Intel 
| processors seem to be a must

In theory, ARM should be OK, but things go much better on x86.  In
fact, you want 64-bit UEFI (which excludes some cheap systems).  Oh,
and Atom-based x86 systems might run into this bug:
<https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109051>

| and 4GB RAM—which is the most I can find on 
| a Chromebook.

2G is OK; more is better.

I usually find low-end Windows computers are OK for Linux.  Except those 
with 32-bit UEFI.

=============

I generally buy a computer assuming it will run Linux.  Sometimes I'm 
disappointed, but not too often.  But I can often fight my way through 
problems (like the one Giles mentioned) -- that may not be a suitable 
approach for you.

So: pick a machine and google for it and "ubuntu" or perhaps "Linux".  
You might find out what others have experienced.