Buying a laptop

[Indian Summer]

Hello all,

I don't usually buy a lot of hardware, but now I'm going to need a laptop. I have a 6 year old and noisy AMD64 workstation which is just not delivering any longer, and so the dreaded time has come to find a replacement. I think a laptop would be a good decision for a number of reasons: Less noise, less dust, less clutter and the option to take it with me when I travel. And not to forget, shininess!

So, since I'm totally clueless wrt. buying hardware these days, what would be some important things to look out for? Also, since I would hate to support any of the OS monopolists, do you know of any stores (online or otherwise) that sell laptops with pre-installed Linux? Or laptops without an OS at all?

For the record, I live in the UK.

Thank you for your input!

[earthpigg]

hi,

http://www.zareason.com/shop/home.php
http://www.system76.com/

:D

[aysiu]

hi,

http://www.zareason.com/shop/home.php
http://www.system76.com/

:D
Both of those are US (not UK) companies.

ZaReason will ship internationally. System76 will not.

I doubt ZaReason has 220v plugs for the charger.

Maybe these two UK vendors might be worth checking out:
http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/laptops/
http://openforeveryone.co.uk/laptops/

[hansdown]

The linuxemporium seems a good place.

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/laptops/

[earthpigg]

my fault, should have payed attn to your profile's listed location.

[bruce2000]

ebuyer often sell computers with linux on:

http://www.ebuyer.com/

(do a search for 'linux' from the home page)

[Странник]

Acer/Lenovo/ASUS are known to work reasonably welll with Linux.
Just buy a laptop with no os and stick Ubuntu. Good luck !

[drawkcab]

I bought a laptop and a netbook this year. If I had known how often I was going to use my netbook, I would have saved my cash and gotten a desktop instead of a laptop.

[darco]

Desktop first then a laptop......reason being, you really are limited in upgrading your laptop. On the other hand, a pc can always be upgraded to you hearts content. Buy a good pc, then shop around for a decent laptop whether its new or used..

darco

[Tipped OuT]

I wish HP came with Linux pre-installed (or do they?). I love HP. No other manufacturer but them. Love love love. The only exception is Toshiba, boy they have some high performance laptops...

[zeroseven0183]

I wish HP came with Linux pre-installed (or do they?). I love HP. No other manufacturer but them. Love love love. The only exception is Toshiba, boy they have some high performance laptops...

Thanks for the compliment! :)

[aysiu]

I wish HP came with Linux pre-installed (or do they?). I love HP. No other manufacturer but them. Love love love. The only exception is Toshiba, boy they have some high performance laptops...
They do. It's called Mobile Internet Experience. It's a modified version of Ubuntu 8.04.

[pseudo_nz]

If you decide you can't resist the cheap prices the chain stores offer, you could always ask if you can try a LiveCD on their floor model.

One store in my town thought I was going to *infect* their machines with something unknown, but two others were happy for me to try it out. They were quite interested in the Ubuntu desktop and how easy it looked, once it was up and running.

[ynnhoj]

Both of those are US (not UK) companies.

ZaReason will ship internationally. System76 will not.

I doubt ZaReason has 220v plugs for the charger.

Maybe these two UK vendors might be worth checking out:
http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/laptops/
http://openforeveryone.co.uk/laptops/
the charger may still accept input of up to 220v (the charger for the Dell laptop i bought in Canada before moving to Viet Nam, for example, does). then it's just a matter of buying a plug adapter so it will fit into outlets in the UK, or wherever else you might be. i'm not sure if that information is on the ZaReason site, but i'm sure they could tell you if you emailed them (just need to read the fine print on the charger).

[Indian Summer]

Thank you for the links and your thoughts on this!


Desktop first then a laptop......reason being, you really are limited in upgrading your laptop. On the other hand, a pc can always be upgraded to you hearts content. Buy a good pc, then shop around for a decent laptop whether its new or used..

darco
That's what I used to think as well, but seeing how few upgrades I've actually done with my desktop, it seems that I might as well get a laptop. (The only upgrades I've done in 6 years were a new harddrive and some extra memory.) And I can still do some upgrading even with a laptop, right?

[ugm6hr]

I would also suggest Desktop + Netbook (rather than laptop) if you have the space for a desktop.

But, if you want a laptop, I would second ebuyer as a good internet supplier in the UK. You may struggle to find a Linux pre-installed model, but there are often many customer reviews, at least a few of which will comment on Linux / Ubuntu compatibility.

Of course, that does mean you have to pay the MS OEM fee, although that doesn't actually cost anything financially due to subsidisation with advertising / trial products. The discussion re: supporting MS etc is another (off-topic) discussion.

If you manage with an old computer, I'd recommend just getting whatever is currently on offer / cheap.

[megamania]

First of all, stay on the safe side and be sure it has an Nvidia graphics card.

The second major thing is the wireless card, but I don't know which ones will NOT work, and you'll have to search for that.

Once you have those two things working, I think you're mostly done.

Three months ago I bought my first laptop ever. I got an Acer 6930G (4GB ram and 1TB hard disk - 2x500GB actually) and it works perfectly with Ubuntu.
The only thing that is not recognized is the fingerprint reader, but I don't really care about that.