Recommend a laptop?

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alienjon · Post by **alienjon** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:46 pm

Ok, I'm getting a little tired of the game quality that I'm seeing for Linux and am thinking of getting a laptop to install gentoo on and use my desktop for Windows games and storage. I've used Gentoo now for a bit over 2 years now (or is it 3, I can't remember :-p) so I have a bit of an idea of what is good hardware in regards to compatability, but does anyone have any laptop suggestions for me? Even though it will (obviously) be a big factor in what I get, don't worry about cost for right now. I'm just 'window shopping' anyway. My main concern is that it will be as compatible with linux as possible with lots of nice features (I'm looking at wireless access, bluetooth preferred, decent graphics card, etc...)

Roman_Gruber · Post by **Roman_Gruber** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:53 pm

I suggest to get a repair cetificate for 3 or five years. This cost nearly two hundret euros but is worth, as the notebooks nearly all break in this time frame.
So you will have to get acer or dell. Maybe others exist with a repair certificate.

Master Shake · Post by **Master Shake** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:56 pm

alienjon wrote:Ok, I'm getting a little tired of the game quality that I'm seeing for Linux and am thinking of getting a laptop to install gentoo on and use my desktop for Windows games and storage. I've used Gentoo now for a bit over 2 years now (or is it 3, I can't remember :-p) so I have a bit of an idea of what is good hardware in regards to compatability, but does anyone have any laptop suggestions for me? Even though it will (obviously) be a big factor in what I get, don't worry about cost for right now. I'm just 'window shopping' anyway. My main concern is that it will be as compatible with linux as possible with lots of nice features (I'm looking at wireless access, bluetooth preferred, decent graphics card, etc...)

I have a dv8000t from hp. I can play games in wine like Half-life 2 and World of Warcraft with ease. i'd recommend getting an hp laptop, but that's just me.

suicidal_orange_II · Post by **suicidal_orange_II** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:02 pm

Laptops are very personal things, I couldn't possibly recommend one without more information

What do you do in gentoo? If you like watching films you would want a bigger screen, and probably widescreen, for browsing a standard screen is better (imo)

Do you want it to be very portable or very fast? A big laptop with raided hard drives is very nice and all, but if you want to walk it somewhere it isn't much fun. Battery life also comes into this, as batteries are heavy.

If your not going to be gaming the graphics are pretty much irrelevant, integrated intel graphics are more than enough to play HD video. A proper card with separate RAM would be better though.

As you said don't worry about cost I'd have to go with a core2 duo (the faster the better) lots of RAM (compiling gentoo is noticably faster with 2gb than 1gb for large packages) and a 17" non widescreen, but I wont go looking without your preferences.

Yes, I am bored, aren't long weekends great

Suicidal_Orange

b_nutzer · Post by **b_nutzer** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:55 pm

Have a look at ibm thinkpads.
Display and service are great and they are nearly unbreakable.

deen · Post by **deen** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:16 pm

I'd also recommend an "old" Thinkpad, the T41 works great here with gentoo. I don't know about the quality of the new Thinkpads (Lenovo).

tom_bxl · Post by **tom_bxl** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:39 pm

I have been using several laptop under Linux and eventually always got everything to work, sometimes with quite some pain I must admit

, but this used to be 5 years ago. I have tested so far Dell, HP, Sony, Acer. I think that nowadays there is not preferred laptop brand for Linux. All seem to work reasonably well.

From the quality point of view, I was at the beginning pretty much impressed by the quality of the HP and Acer and I had a bad feeling with the Sony. where actually this was the one that lasted for the longest time. This is only personal experience I I might have been lucky (or unlucky depending on the model I have used)

Mad Merlin · Post by **Mad Merlin** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:13 pm

I can attest to the quality of the new Thinkpads, I've got a T60 right here. The T60 has a fantastic screen and keyboard, is quite light and battery life is very nice (5+ hours easily) with the 9 cell battery. Everything worked without a hitch (including wireless and Bluetooth), I did a short writeup on it.

My only regret with it is the Radeon X1400 inside, I would have gone for the Intel graphics card instead, but they didn't offer the Intel card together with the 1400x1050 screen.

subterraneus · Post by **subterraneus** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:48 pm

don't get 64 bits, don't do it, for your own sake
try and stay away from ATI, linux and nvidia make love, linux and ATI make war
Compaq isn't a great bet...stay away unless you're price shopping, in which case Compaq is your best friend, sadly.
And finally, I would reccomend Acer, I know some people who use Acer laptops with Linux, barely a problem, I also know one guy who uses an Alienware with Kubuntu and it's a joy, but it's never had Gentoo, so I can't say anything for it.

Good luck.

Post by **asturm** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:40 am

subterraneus wrote:don't get 64 bits, don't do it, for your own sake

I've been working on a Gentoo 64-Bit machine for a year now and it worked like a charm ever since...

It might be a good idea to look at this list: http://gentoo-wiki.com/Index:Hardware#Laptops

Me personally I'm quite satisfied with my good old Acer Travelmate803, serving it's 4th year now without any worse problems. Bought it back then without any thoughts about Linux, but about two years ago I fortunately found a perfect HowTo on gentoo-wiki exactly for that model. In the beginnings I had to fiddle around with Wlan-support a lot, especially since ipw2100 was ways off a convenient solution... but you should never underestimate the amount of changeable components, even inside a laptop. I did replace Wlan, Hdd, Rams, optical drive since then in order to keep it up to date and would even be able to change the display in case of a defect. If something won't fit your needs (e.g. Wlan Linux driver-support) or is defective, there is a good chance you can do something about it yourself.

I recently heard various complaints about Acer parts and support, it seems quality levels dropped a bit since I purchased my TM (and that even applies to surface finishings) - so I wouldn't give it a 100% recommendation these days...

PS: If any linux-distribution functions properly on a laptop, then Gentoo will work on it anyway if you do it right.

Tlaloc · Post by **Tlaloc** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:09 am

I am also in the market for a new laptop. I already have a specific model in sight, a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro V3205, which weights around 1,8 kg, with a 2 year standard warranty that costs 1000€ in my area. Warranty is cheap to purchase additionally.
My question is if someone can recommend a similiar model (new or unknown to me

) with similiar specs (weight and price are the most important things for me) or if someone knows where I can get slightly outdated (still new with 3 year warranty but I don't need Vista nor extra graphic card

and I assume these are cheaper) HP nc4200 or nc4400 laptops in Europe with payment on receivement. Since I already own a HP laptop with docking station and also can get a 3 or 4 year pickup service for my area such an HP model would be fine, too.

Many thanks for any suggestion, Tlaloc.

EDIT: And just some info, HP support worked well when I had to use it, machine was away only 10 days in total over 1st november.

alienjon · Post by **alienjon** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 1:58 am

Thanks for all the replies.

Basically I'm looking for the laptop to be a basic 'work' machine for me (open office, gimp, etc...) but I'd like to be able to play some decent games on it (like, if I could comfortably play doom 3, I'd be a very happy).

I already know about the nvidia situation, although thanks for the reminder

And in response to that same post, I have not successfully used 64-bit gentoo for almost 6 months. It has it's issues (more 'unstable' programs) but I personally have had about the same quality of experience as my olx x86.

I'll definitely look into the Acer's and HP's as I know their products have always been great quality. I actually already have an old (ok, archaic) Thinkpad (Don't remember the model off the top of my head, though) and have XFCE on it. WAY too slow for what I'm looking for, unfortunately.

Drone1 · Post by **Drone1** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:40 pm

As I'm typing this on my IBM T60P, I would recommend the Thinkpad series laptops above all others. Here is my list of uses on this machine:

- Bluetooth, Wireless, Gimp, Inkscape, Crossover Office(Office2k3), Openoffice, Quake3(OpenGL...), qemu- Windows XP/sp2, Thinkpad keys, fingerprint scanner, HD Active Protection(hdaps)

The only reason I'm not running Beryl is I prefer not to have to run a nested X session to get it working. The 'fglrx' driver isn't there yet (for this chipset) to run Beryl 'as it should'.

This machine has a CoreDuo 2Ghz, with 2Gb ram, and really doesn't bog down unless I add to this list of apps running:
- qemu: XP(mem set to 768) open with FF open, XP doing updates
- FF in linuxwith 20+ tabs open (flash, java running on pages)
- 8 diff shell tabs open,
- Gaim conversations running
- Konq w/ several tabs open
- Gimp open with a 1600x1200 img being created, 3200x2400 images being modified
- Amarok playing (4000 mp3 db)
- gkrellm on top of it all

I put both cores to as much use, as possible. Only thing that bogs down at this point is X. Machine will keep chugging along fine. Its X and the fglrx driver that have problems dealing with this much going on. I'm also, looking into using the system TPM module as an encrypter of some sort. Will try and get to that sometime soon. If you do consider a Thinkpad, and your budget calls for it, try and max out the RAM on the machine. You WILL NOT need a new machine for the next 3-4 years.

Recommend a laptop?

Recommend a laptop?

Re: Recommend a laptop?