Laptop Shopping & LiveDVDs

[Robtygart]

I was out shopping yesterday and I was looking at a few laptops, does anyone have any suggestions? I am not looking to spend a lot of money, and I am not sure what to look at, now there is secure boot, is there going to be any problems? This will be fully Linux, no Windows dual booting.

Any hardware warnings (Do not buy!)?

Also when out looking, I was thinking about bringing a Kubuntu DVD/USB, I wonder if that will be a problem!

[jpenguin]

Your budget?

I like my Gazelle Pro from S76, you could always look at ZaReason too...

[vinnywright]

LOL I did this about a year ago ,,,,, wint in to a best buy ,,,with a Kubuntu live USB and started rebooting laptops with it ,,,,, a service man came by and asked me what I was doing , I told him I was looking for a new laptop and wanted to see how they would work with my favorite linux , he freeked out and sead he had to get the manager , when the manager got to me I had already checked out 3 laptops but he sead I could not do this because I could be loading malware on the boxes , I got him off this track by saying that I liked 2 of the boxes and how mutch could I get 1 for without windows on it , whitch of course he could not do , but in the coarse of my questioning him why and how ridiculous that was he forgot all about berating me for rebooting his laptops

I dont think that a UEFI box will be a problem (but I do not have any) I settled for a HP-G62 core I3 CPU 4 Gig RAM intel graphics with HDMI output for about $400.00 from HP's website and it works great , it will push a 52" flat screen TV as a second monitor through the HDMI output with no problem .
it came with windows 7 which lasted all of 2-3 hours before I fired up Gparted and did this

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for vinny:
Model: ATA WDC WD5000BEVT-6 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 4195MB 4195MB primary linux-swap(v1)
2 4195MB 26.0GB 21.8GB primary ext4 boot
3 26.0GB 237GB 210GB primary ext4
4 237GB 500GB 264GB extended
5 237GB 268GB 31.6GB logical ext3
6 268GB 300GB 32.0GB logical ext4
7 300GB 500GB 200GB logical ext4

3 linux / partitions 1 /home and 1 storage ,,,,, :cool:

now I'm no gamer so the intel graphics dose just fine for me but for the head aches I read about for ATI and Nvidia graphics I think I made the right choice.

VINNY

[vinnywright]

Your budget?

I like my Gazelle Pro from S76, you could always look at ZaReason too...

Oooo sombody has $ ,,,,,, $875.00 +

LOL

VINNY

[ronw]

Out of curiosity, I priced Dell and Lenovo before buying a Gazelle Pro from System76. For the specs I wanted (primarily 1920x1080 on a 15" screen), it was slightly more than the Dell, less than the Lenovo.

I had already decided to buy from System76 anyway. I figured it was time to start sending my money to a small company that supports free software. That I didn't need to pay a premium was a nice bonus.

[dmeyer]

LOL I did this about a year ago ,,,,, wint in to a best buy ,,,with a Kubuntu live USB and started rebooting laptops with it ,,,,, a service man came by and asked me what I was doing , I told him I was looking for a new laptop and wanted to see how they would work with my favorite linux , he freeked out and sead he had to get the manager , when the manager got to me I had already checked out 3 laptops but he sead I could not do this because I could be loading malware on the boxes , I got him off this track by saying that I liked 2 of the boxes and how mutch could I get 1 for without windows on it , whitch of course he could not do , but in the coarse of my questioning him why and how ridiculous that was he forgot all about berating me for rebooting his laptops
VINNY

I did this as well at a Best Buy. A whole bunch of people freaked out after the sales rep started arguing with me. The sales rep didn't know what to think and also called the manager. The one fairly elderly lady just saw the commotion and heard a few things out of context and ran out the store saying she can't trust a shop where they cant protect you from "Hackers." The manager saw what I was doing, and actually offered to get his Fedora 16 live usb so that I can see how a newer kernel at the time handle the hardware. What a refreshing change!!!

I have a Dell XPS17 L702X and I can tell you that although the computer is very well built you can run into issues the hybrid graphics. If you manage to set-up Bumblebee then I can honestly say its one of the best laptops I have ever had the priveldge of using. No driver issues at all except the Optimus configuration. The keyboard is especially great as is the touchpad which still has buttons but does support multi-touch.

[SteveRiley]

The one fairly elderly lady just saw the commotion and heard a few things out of context and ran out the store saying she can't trust a shop where they cant protect you from "Hackers."

Sounds like a fun hobby! I think I shall begin doing this.

[Robtygart]

Sounds like a fun hobby! I think I shall begin doing this.

Just remove the "Install" Icon put up a cool Kubuntu wallpaper and walk away.

[Robtygart]

I have been looking at Newegg.com lots to choose from. I am not too concerned about going all open source so I am not too concerned about hardware drivers. Maybe I can find something with out an operating system.