The best laptop for Ubuntu..in your opinion

[taminrob]

Just thought I would throw this out there to the community...In your opinion, what is the best brand of laptop for running Ubuntu?

I find myself in need of an upgrade and would like to choose a laptop that will give me the most compatibility with Ubuntu.

I have looked at System76 laptops along with a few Acer and HP models and still find myself scratching my head...System76 are built to run Ubuntu and their pricing is reasonable, but by the time I upgrade a base model to a spec closer to what I am looking for, the price puts me in the range of several other choices that are just a bit better component/performance wise.

With the HP, I like that the model I am looking at (DV7) has dual hard drives (would be great for running a dual-boot machine, one for Ubuntu and one for the dreaded other system that my wife insists on having installed), but doesn't have gigabit ethernet. The Acer and the System76 have have gigabit ethernet, but no dual drive. And the System76 doesn't have a number pad (not totally necessary, but I think I would like one). All are 64-bit.

I know that these may not be the best, and there are several brands that I do not know anything about and have probably discounted for no valid reason other than my ignorance of them.

So...I put the question to all of you...if you had to do it all over again, what would you choose???

I would like to stay in about the mid-range as far as price is concerned, say around $1,000, but can flex a bit for a truly exceptional machine.

Thanks in advance.

[2hot6ft2]

I am dual booting a HP G60-125NR and it works great so I would say the HP but then I haven't used the others that you mentioned. I stay away from Acer but that's just me, (didn't care for their reviews back when I was shopping), since I know that others like them. The dual HD would be nice in the DV7.

[rob2uk]

Stay away from anything by HP in the DV range - almost every model has had overheating problems resulting in damaged motherboards, and HP are very reluctant to admit responsibility

[Marlonsm]

I've heard Dell's laptops are very good for Linux, but as I don't have a laptop, I haven't tested it myself.

[wojox]

I've got a dell desktop with 8.10 sever with an uptime of three months and it is great. Always had Dells.

Plus if you buy one with Ubuntu pre-installed it should work great right out of the box.

And if it doesen't it is not hard to argue with them what's wrong.


http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

[Ekeluo]

For compatibility, dell is a good path to go, unless you have other reasons not to, as they are more likely to provide support (in addition to everyone here):P)

[bear24rw]

dell is usually pretty good and xubuntu works fine on my toshiba tablet

[Marlonsm]

I've got a dell desktop with 8.10 sever with an uptime of three months and it is great. Always had Dells.

Plus if you buy one with Ubuntu pre-installed it should work great right out of the box.

And if it doesn't it is not hard to argue with them what's wrong.


http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Too bad it seems that Dell (an most other sellers) only have Laptops with Ubuntu in the US, in Dell's Brazilian store, all I can find is Vista.

[peakpc]

I'm running 9.04 64bit on my Compaq Presario (V5000 CTO) It has done very well since 8.04 fixed the broadcom wireless issue. HP's cheaper brand. I dual boot.

[IdahoBackwoods]

I've had good luck running Ubuntu on a couple of Toshibas. I used to have an old Satellite P25, which I resurrected to run Ubuntu 8.04 and later 8.10. The 6-year-old motherboard eventually gave up the ghost or I'd still be running it.

Early this year I bought a Toshiba P305-S8904, on which I installed 64-bit 8.10, later updating to 64-bit 9.04. This machine uses Intel's chipsets for virtually everything. It all worked with Ubuntu right out of the box, with one exception. Intel doesn't provide Linux drivers for its graphics chip, so the drivers have to be reverse-engineered. The drivers are slowly getting better, and I can now play movies and run Google Earth, but I still can't use some of the fancy 3D graphics features found in animations. Fortunately, that doesn't matter to me, and I'm very happy using Ubuntu for my work on this machine.

[JDShu]

If you plan on running 64 bit, don't get a Samsung... they don't support it :sad:

[Alias1407]

I would suggest that you use a Toshiba, that is what I use and I haven't had any problems. Compatability is good and if you install Linux it won't void your warranty ;) this I think is important as most laptop companies won't give you anything on your warranty if you install any type of linux or other Operating System at all.

Toshiba also supports Linux to an extent...
http://linux.toshiba-dme.co.jp/linux/index.htm

[Grant A.]

My old Toshiba Satellite from 2005 works great with Ubuntu. Honestly, I don't think I've ever had a hardware compatibility problem with any distribution I've tried on it.

[koleoptero]

Another vote for Toshiba.

Also I have observed only positive comments about lenovo laptops.

[rob2uk]

Actually, a +1 for Toshiba from me as well...

My old Satellite is running Jaunty and Karmic quite happily.

Bit of a miracle that it even boots after the abuse it's suffered at my hands - it's been droped so many times that the case has cracks all over it...

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking

[Nburnes]

I'm running 9.04 in my Acer Extensa 5420-5038 just fine

[Pasdar]

Don't listen to all these people mentioning a specific brand. There is no specific brand that is compatible with Linux/Ubuntu unless that brand specifically designs for Linux/Ubuntu (e.g. System76).

What you want is to look at the hardware specifications of the laptop you like. There is actually one main thing you need to look at and that is whether the videocard is supported or not. The other peripherals generally are supported. The only other thing that can cause an issue is wireless. Most laptops use Atheros and those have Linux drivers anyway.

As for the videocard, if you don't mind proprietary drivers then NVIDIA has the best proprietary drivers for their videocard. If you want open-source drivers then ATI has the best open-source drivers available for it.

Brands you definitely want to avoid, as a general rule of not buying crap are HP, Compaq, Intel.

[cph05a]

I've been really happy with my Dell.

I'm using the XPS M1330 running Ubuntu 9.04 with nVidia GeForce 8400M GS (proprietary drivers)

everything works great including the wireless and the webcam

[Screwdriver0815]

I am running Ubuntu since Intrepid Ibex on my Lenovo 3000 N200. Lenovo is really good in supporting Linux as their products are based on the old IBM range. IBM is one of the biggest Linux-supporters.

Jaunty runs nearly perfect on my Laptop. "Nearly" means that there is a small bug in the graphics driver (Nvidia). This makes the screen flicker if the GPU was clocked down once during a session.
So if I take care not to switch off the display (screensaver and dimming the display doesn't matter) it runs perfect.

There is no problem at all with the hardware. Everything runs out of the box. Just install Jaunty and be happy.

[ghindo]

I would strongly recommend buying an Ubuntu laptop from Dell. I've had one for two years now and everything has worked fine. Not only that, but by buying a Dell with Ubuntu already installed, you're sending a message to Dell that computer with Ubuntu on them sell. This encourages Dell to give Linux better support, and pass along to hardware manufacturers that they need to provide open source drivers.

[Screwdriver0815]

I would strongly recommend buying an Ubuntu laptop from Dell. I've had one for two years now and everything has worked fine. Not only that, but by buying a Dell with Ubuntu already installed, you're sending a message to Dell that computer with Ubuntu on them sell. This encourages Dell to give Linux better support, and pass along to hardware manufacturers that they need to provide open source drivers.

I also wanted to have a Dell. But as I wanted to buy one, they did not offer the Inspiron anymore. All they offered with Ubuntu was a small one (don't remember the name) and it was really expensive.

So I bought a Lenovo without operating system and with this I sent a message to Lenovo to offer more Laptops without OS and to give choice to the customer with this

[ghindo]

I also wanted to have a Dell. But as I wanted to buy one, they did not offer the Inspiron anymore. All they offered with Ubuntu was a small one (don't remember the name) and it was really expensive.

So I bought a Lenovo without operating system and with this I sent a message to Lenovo to offer more Laptops without OS and to give choice to the customer with thisIt looks like they offer Ubuntu on the Inspiron 15-inch model (and a 13-inch XPS): http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

[Martje_001]

http://xxodd.nl/images/x2/product/9008d_back.png
http://xxodd.nl/index.php?p=artikel&ID=336&e=1

Everything just works(TM) on this machine! And it looks nice..

[taminrob]

Thanks for the suggestions so far...had not considered Toshiba because I have heard that they are not so user friendly for upgrades and seem to be a bit bulky looking. The xxodd looks nice, but is there a link that I can view that is in English?

Surprised with the amount of negatives about HP, that was actually edging to be my leading candidate despite not having gigabit ethernet.

I think I would like to avoid any ATI graphics...they have irritated the crap out of me with their lack of support and unwillingness to release their drivers to open source on their older chips. At the moment I am running an Acer 5672 with 8.10 because 9.04 wont work properly with the ATI chip that is installed, and I would really like to be able to run all of the upgrades that I choose without being limited due to hardware that I really cant change.

[zoomy942]

you wanna be a champion? get an HP 2730 tablet PC. i have the 2710 and everything works great and the tablet functionailty is not hard to setup either. even the internal EVDO works. trust me - at 4 hours battery life you cant miss.

[steveneddy]

www.system76.com/

[stumbleUpon]

+1 for a DELL machine

[estamand]

Check out the list supplied by ubuntu for certified laptops

http://webapps.ubuntu.com/certification/list/?category=Laptop

[DownTown22]

Don't listen to all these people mentioning a specific brand. There is no specific brand that is compatible with Linux/Ubuntu unless that brand specifically designs for Linux/Ubuntu (e.g. System76).

What you want is to look at the hardware specifications of the laptop you like. There is actually one main thing you need to look at and that is whether the videocard is supported or not. The other peripherals generally are supported. The only other thing that can cause an issue is wireless. Most laptops use Atheros and those have Linux drivers anyway.

As for the videocard, if you don't mind proprietary drivers then NVIDIA has the best proprietary drivers for their videocard. If you want open-source drivers then ATI has the best open-source drivers available for it.

Brands you definitely want to avoid, as a general rule of not buying crap are HP, Compaq, Intel.

Actually, no....please do listen to these people mentioning a specific brand.

And avoid Intel? Ummm.....no, nothing wrong with Intel.

My votes go for Asus, Toshiba and System76.

[cptrohn]

I had a really good ubuntu experience on my old laptop that was a compaq presario v5000... it had a sempron single core processor and it was running ubuntu 8.10 very well and with no problems.... I beleive the graphics card was an ATI radeon Can't recall the exact specs on it, but everything worked well with ubuntu on it...

I'm currently running 9.04 64 bit on a Compaq A900 with an Intel Pentium dual core with 4GB Ram and a 500 GB HDD and the GMA graphics card.. there was some issue at first with the desktop effects with the Graphics card, but updates seem to have taken care of that for me...I had to use the linux backports to get the WiFi card working with it in 8.10 (AR242x) but it worked our of the box with 9.04 (and I was in laptop heaven) This machine was "Vista certified" But Vista always ran like complete crap on it so I didn't even bother dual-booting... Ubuntu has always ran MUCH better than Vista on 'Vista certified" laptop.. (at least for me anyway)

I'm also running 9.04 64 bit on a nettop I just put together that has a micro ATX MB and a 1.6 GHZ Atom dual core processor that also has the GMA graphics card with a 1.5 TB HDD and 2 GB RAM (I know I could have installed the 32 but version but the 64 bit installed no problems and is running well) and it is running flawlessly so far....

[jimrz]

pretty much any ThinkPad

[[]Milo]

[snip]

Surprised with the amount of negatives about HP, that was actually edging to be my leading candidate despite not having gigabit ethernet.

[snip]

I agree, I've been using a DV2000 with Ubuntu on it for nearly two years. Everything works out of the box, just perfect. Intel graphics, and I added an extra Gig of ram, with slightly higher bus speed. I does get fairly toasty in the 30deg+ summer heat, but so long as you keep the airflow path clear (i.e. don't leave it switched on and sitting on the shag pile or a duvet) the thermal problems mentioned above aren't an issue. But I guess that is true for most laptops.

+1 for HP AFAIAC

[Zoot7]

I've a Dell XPS M1530.
It's very Linux friendly; everything has worked "out of the box" since I started it with Ubuntu, openSUSE and many other distros (on and off) 2 years ago. Granted that model is still on sale, but it's looking a little long in the tooth at this stage.

[Peter Anselmo]

It's worked fabulously on my Dell Inspiron 1525. I did try to match the build options to the laptop that Dell offered with Ubuntu already installed, and it's been flawless.

[squilookle]

+1 for Toshiba.

I'm running Crunchbang on a 5 year old Toshiba Equium with no problems.
I've previously run a few others including (K)Ubuntu, Fedora, Slackware and Suse on it with no problems.

And the best thing, no matter what I've installed, the Rescue CD that came with it never fails to put Windows back on if I find I need it. That shouldn't get me excited, and wouldn't... except for the Packard Bell I used to own before the Toshiba. That rescue CD didn't do what it was supposed to and as a result I vowed never to buy a Packard Bell again... (Not even sure if you can, haven't seen one for a long time).

Obviously, I'm not sure how the newer Toshibas stack up though...

I read today that Asus came top of a study on reliability, not sure how well they work with Linux though. Other interesting note: HP came out bottom of that study...

[chucky chuckaluck]

i've had my system76 for about three years and it's been great. no problems at all.

[Sylslay]

Vote from Europe for: Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, Dell Asus

Stay away from: Acer, Siemens
Hp can be just ok.

So this is my brand list, overall for preformance and design:

For linux recommended: ?????
I don't belive that you can run without issue any linux on any laptop: from xyz:
Becouse every new line have diffrent hardware spec (say intel 845 v01 and intel 845 v03 , both graphic card are diffrent) and BIOS versien is diffrent too.

So what I recommed is stay with good quality from Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, Dell Asus,
and chose powerfull but standrad spec:
I mean motherboard with intel chipeset: centrino 2,
music card from ............,
graphic card with 1GB ram from Nvida or ATI,
Probably Nvida have better driver support, but not for every graphic card, only for more popular.

Vote for dell, becouse thay sell laptop with ubuntu, but toshiba is good aswell
gaming laptop today best : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114706
office laptop: http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/product/Satellite-A500-17X/1076471/toshibaShop/false/

both powered with Nvidia 1GB

PS: What for you need yours machine?

[Martiini]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/Old
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks
http://webapps.ubuntu.com/certification/list/?category=Laptop
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Laptop/Reports
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/portable
http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/netbook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NO-OS_and_Open_Source_Laptop_Manufacturers

DELL:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&l=en&cs=19
inspiron 1525
Latitude D630
Dell XPS M1530

HP:
Mini 1000

Lenovo:
ThinkPad X201 Tablet
Lenovo T410s - +++

ASUS:
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA
Asus k50ij - +++

Toshiba:
Tecra M10

Sony:
vaio vgn-fw351j

------------

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=361236

[NightwishFan]

I have known Asus products to use really open source friendly parts. This laptop (Asus k50ij) works out of the box even on Fedora/Debian with no binary firmware.

[josepato]

I currently have a System76 and I feel that's not the best lap.... I have had a Dell and works fine and a mac works like a charm...

[rmayer32]

I have a 3 year old Compaq C670 laptop that has run great on Ubuntu from 7.10 to 10.04. It came with Vista which just was not good.

Also have an ancient Dell Inspiron that decided it did not like XP anymore but is more then happy running 10.04.

[linuxforartists]

I have known Asus products to use really open source friendly parts. This laptop (Asus k50ij) works out of the box even on Fedora/Debian with no binary firmware.

+1. My laptop is an Asus too. They're a Taiwanese company. Not so famous internationally, but a pretty major brand in China and Southeast Asia. Started out making computer parts--especially motherboards--before making computers.

Laptop reliability study highlights the most sturdy laptop makers (http://lifehacker.com/#%215524704/laptop+reliability-study-highlights-the-most-sturdy-laptop-makers) (Lifehacker)

Asus came in at #1 for the lowest malfunction rate, even ahead of Apple and Lenovo. Their machines always felt well-made and high-quality to me. They produce a lot of higher-end machines for multimedia and hardcore gaming too.

I second the users that said to check for compatibility of computer parts. There's an Ubuntu Certified Hardware (http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/) page where you can check on brands and individual components to see if they're compatible with Linux. Hmm, seems to be down at the moment. I remembered that Dell had the most number of compatible Linux machines.

An easier way to check for parts compatibility is to just go to System76 (http://www.system76.com/) and note down which parts they're using for their machines. Since their computers come with Ubuntu installed, you know they've already chosen the right components. Then you can buy a different computer somewhere else that uses the same parts.

[Nkosi]

For me, hands down, System76 has the one-stop shop for solid compatible hardware and software, especially if you're an Ubuntu fan. Their support is top notch, and personal too.

[NCLI]

This (http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/catalog) and this (http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/) is the only way to know for sure.

[MasterNetra]

The Best Laptop for Ubuntu is one in which all the laptop's hardware works great right off the bat as far as I'm concerned. If you want a decent cheapo laptop Walmart's Acer Aspire One 10.1"AOD255E Netbook (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Aspire-One-10.1-AOD255E-Netbook-PC-with-Intel-Atom-N455-Processor-Windows-7-Starter/15739065) at $248 (minus shipping and/or sales tax I'm sure) Its has 1GB of ram (DDR3), a 250GB Harddrive and a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150. It has a 1.66GHz processor though (Intel Atom Processor N455). Ubuntu is supposed to work great on it I hear.

Walmart also has a Toshiba Satellite 15.6" L655-S5100 Laptop (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Toshiba-Satellite-Black-15.6-L655-S5100BK-Laptop-with-Carrying-Case-and-HP-Multi-Function-Printer-Bundle/15231333) with 4GB of ram (DDR3 Dual Channel), 500GB of Hard drive space, As well as a Intel Pentium Dual Core P6100 processor, (2.0GHz like Intel Core 2 Dual, but has a 3MB L2 Cache) plus unlike the acer it has a Built in DVD-RW drive. All at $558. I dunno how Ubuntu works on it though. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1541724 however seems to suggest it wouldn't go "perfectly" though.

Walmart has desktops too but the cheapest desktop is more expensive then the acer.

[BigCityCat]

Stay away from anything by HP in the DV range - almost every model has had overheating problems resulting in damaged motherboards, and HP are very reluctant to admit responsibility

Been using HP dv 9000 for about 5 years with Ubuntu. Never had a problem.

[alexan]

IBM Thinkpads

[srozzman]

+1 For IBM/Lenovo. I have a Thinkpad x60t running multiple distros OTB (mainly Ubuntu 10.10) without any issues