Which laptop would you recommend?

[Cotopaxi]

Hi, I migrated to Kubuntu Hardy on my desktop a few months ago and I would like to install it also on a laptop which I will have to buy for professional use.

My purchasing criteria:
Solidity: I wreckened two laptops already, so I will never use a laptop as a stand-alone machine, but only as a secondary computer for travels. Anyhow, I want to have a reliable machine, that does not let me down in the middle of a presentation. Does a solid state Hard Disk make sense?

Lightweight: The lighter the better.

External monitor connection: I do use the laptop mainly for presentations (OpenOffice.org Presentation), I need a solid external monitor connector for connecting the projectors.

WIFI and LAN access would be great.

Fingerprint reader would be great.

Price: I want to buy something “reasonable” to “cheap”. I do not need a super-luxury model, and it will only be a secondary computer for travels.


What I do NOT need:
Ultra large screens for “cinema” use.

The ultimate video accelerator for gaming.

Multimedia gimmicks that only add weight and make the machine less reliable.

DVD Drive: It only adds weight. If I want to transfer data, I can use a USB stick.

Webcam: I can do without it, actually I DON'T WANT it.

Thanks for your tips!

[dibl]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

If it were me, I'd focus on the wifi support and driver availability. I have the impression that the majority of laptop problems are related to the wifi chip drivers.

[Fintan]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

This might be of help:

http://www.linux-laptop.net

or

http://www.linux-laptop.net/dell.html

or

http://mcelrath.org/laptops.html

google is a freind

[molloollom]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

Consider one of the netbooks, I have one and I love it. They're mad cheap, light, reliable and you know that linux will work on them because it comes preloaded. And they come with solid state disks. Pretty much everything you specified.

If you're going to be using it for presentations, what kind of external monitor connection do you need for your presentations? That'll be your sticking point with any "cheap" laptop, I think. If it's VGA, an EEE PC 1000 should fit the bill nicely. $550. Hell, you can get a 900 series for 380 these days too, but trust me, that extra 5 hours battery life/20 gig SSD space is worth the extra cash.
If you need DVI output, this $330 Sylvania has it.
There aren't any tiny laptops that have S-Video outputs, from what I know, so if that's a necessity you're SOL if you want something like that.

The SSDs are amazing, btw. If you have problems breaking laptops from travel, be sure to get one. I've dropped my laptop a few times while it's playing music, and it doesn't even skip a beat. I take it with me out to the pool where it sits in the hot desert sun (i live in phoenix) for hours and plays tunes while I swim, no problems.

[spotslayer]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

Lenovo with the intel video driver.

David 8)

[Teunis]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

You are well served by HP or Toshiba as they generally support Linux out of the box.
Intel video is indeed the easiest but as I can vouch with my Tecra S5 Nvidea works to.

But if you are really going for small and cheap the suggestion for the Asus eee pc is probably spot-on.

[Qqmike]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

are there any tips here on that:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3093328.0

[kbunt]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

If it were me, I'd focus on the wifi support and driver availability. I have the impression that the majority of laptop problems are related to the wifi chip drivers.

I second this. I would just make sure that any laptop you have has the later Intel wireless cards. I would try to choose an Intel graphics chip as well unless you need the added graphics power or if you are going to game on it. I think some of the Nvidia graphics chips in notebooks are said to be defective or are posing problems because of poorly designed cooling in the laptop hardware itself. Whatever the case, there may be problems with some laptops having Nvidia graphics. Just google.

Also, check out the notebook forums for info and comments regarding laptops using a Linux OS. In other words, reports on Linux compatibility.

[cibbuano]

Re: Which laptop would you recommend?

I'd avoid one of the Acer laptops with the Atheros wireless... I just bought one - it came preinstalled with Ubuntu Gutsy (no Windows!), thinking that it'd be flawless.

Nope - I installed Kubuntu Hardy and had to monkey around with the wireless AND the intel graphics driver.

After all that, it still doesn't fare as well as my old laptop, a 4-year-old Compaq...!

Still, Kubuntu makes it sexier, and after selling the old one, it only cost me $350...