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View Full Version : Need a new laptop capable of running Linux out of the box



kaldor
July 29th, 2010, 08:03 PM
My HP is getting more and more worn out. Overheats, 20 minute battery life, random shutdowns, and it's nearly 3 years old meaning no warranty.

Runs most distros out of the box without any configuration on my part.

Specs..

2 GB RAM
Intel Centrino 1.8 ghz
Nvidia Geforce 8400M
250 GB hard drive
etc etc, you average laptop.

For around 400 to 700 US dollars, are there any laptops around that can fill my needs? After 3 years, I'm sure I can find something a bit more powerful for a relatively cheap price.

Looking for 3+ GB RAM
2 GHZ processor
Any graphics card that will work with Linux and be able to play games and movies smoothly
Minimum 80 GB hard drive.

I don't care if it comes with Windows or not, I can just remove/refund it. I'm just at my wits end with my laptop being so unreliable. I can't depend on it anymore. System76 is overpriced in my opinion. I paid the same price as their "Ultrathin" laptop for the HP, and my HP has better specs.

Bachstelze
July 29th, 2010, 08:04 PM
No laptop will run Linux (or any OS) out of the box. Well, it will run, but you will always need to at least install a couple drivers.

LowSky
July 29th, 2010, 08:06 PM
No laptop will run Linux (or any OS) out of the box. Well, it will run, but you will always need to at least install a couple drivers.

really?
http://www.system76.com/index.php?cPath=28

kaldor
July 29th, 2010, 08:07 PM
No laptop will run Linux (or any OS) out of the box. Well, it will run, but you will always need to at least install a couple drivers.

Ubuntu/Mint/etc... enable restricted graphics drivers. That's all I ever did.

Sabayon already had them installed, so that really was out of the box.

I don't care if I have to click "enable" andthen reboot once. lol

spydeyrch
July 29th, 2010, 08:07 PM
really?
http://www.system76.com/index.php?cPath=28


My sentiments exactly! I was going to mention System76. They have some really great products.

-Spydey :KS

LowSky
July 29th, 2010, 08:09 PM
I'm going to say buying an Lenovo Thinkpad is your best option, others will probably disagree, but they are amazing laptops in my opinion.

Bachstelze
July 29th, 2010, 08:10 PM
really?
http://www.system76.com/index.php?cPath=28

Yes, really.

kaldor
July 29th, 2010, 08:10 PM
I'm going to say buying an Lenovo Thinkpad is your best option, others will probably disagree, but they are amazing laptops in my opinion.

What's the reputation with running Linux on them?

mamamia88
July 29th, 2010, 08:13 PM
mint, sabayon, and pclinuxos have always worked out of the box on my dv9000 laptop from hp. i reccomend an hp with a broadcom wireless card and a nvidia graphics card. that way all your drivers will be included under hardware drivers in ubuntu

kaldor
July 29th, 2010, 08:14 PM
mint, sabayon, and pclinuxos have always worked out of the box on my dv9000 laptop from hp. i reccomend an hp with a broadcom wireless card and a nvidia graphics card. that way all your drivers will be included under hardware drivers in ubuntu

I have a DV2700 series. Broadcom and nvidia as well.

LowSky
July 29th, 2010, 08:14 PM
My own experience running a now outdated T60 is great, the only issue is the older ATI card that ATI doens't support drivers for.


This forum is full of people running Thinkpads, heck there is a thread around here for ownerd, check it out. The newer Thinkpad Edge line will probably be best for you.

Spr0k3t
July 29th, 2010, 08:15 PM
I've had great luck with gaming laptops from MSI. Super cheap (but then, so is the build quality). The only major issue I've had with Linux on them is the wireless, but we can blame broadcom for their horrid support on that. I used an older MSI laptop as a myth frontend in the kitchen.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152159

One thing I'd like to add... System76 laptops are very well built. You can compare them with high end tech laptops such as the build quality on the Lenovo. I really dig my DARU3.

aysiu
July 29th, 2010, 08:19 PM
No laptop will run Linux (or any OS) out of the box. Well, it will run, but you will always need to at least install a couple drivers.
I think in most situations, it'll basically run but you may have to install a driver or two.

Always is a bit extreme, though. I had a Dell Inspiron 500m that worked perfectly with Ubuntu (no extra tweaking). Suspend, wireless, screen resolution, sound.

Recently, I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my Macbook Pro 3,1, and it was almost completely perfect. The only thing I had to do was go to System > Administration > Hardware Drivers, select the Nvidia driver, and then reboot.

Zorgoth
July 30th, 2010, 07:01 AM
This is a bit more money than you were looking for, but it's a really good buy imo:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&series_name=dv6zse_series

If you got it you would have to download some drivers from ATI's website because "Hardware Drivers" doesn't get perfect ones yet, but the new drivers from ATI are pretty good; I've been playing several 3D games with an ATI mobility radeon hd 5470 on wine no problem; there are a couple problems with compiz, but not anything important (blur and water effect don't work right).

Baseline is $750, but take the $20 processor upgrade and if you are into any real gaming the $75 GPU upgrade; 5470 is very weak (still a massive upgrade over what you had) and the 5650 is about double the power.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the sound. They just say "Dolby Audio with Altec Speakers" or something like that, which isn't informative if you want to know about compatibility...

edit: fixed dead link

Zorgoth
July 30th, 2010, 07:11 AM
A cheaper option that should work would be a low-medium-end Studio 15. I have a high end model of the same laptop I have and it works perfectly. You have to change a BIOS setting to make the Fn/multimedia keys work sensibly (you have to do this in Windows too, Dell ships this computer with a stupid default setting where, for example, Alt-F4 will lower your screen brightness; Alt-Fn-F4 will close a window; however, as I said, it is easy to fix). Apart from that and the minor graphics issues with compiz I mentioned in the last post it has worked perfectly.

bomanizer
July 30th, 2010, 07:22 AM
I'm going to say buying an Lenovo Thinkpad is your best option, others will probably disagree, but they are amazing laptops in my opinion.

+ 1

I bought an used T61, still has more value than comparable new laptops...

Lucradia
July 30th, 2010, 09:05 AM
system76 may run "out of the box" but I believe them, like zaReason and when Dell posted so many Ubuntu machines, pre-configure all the hardware for you.

This means that if you reformat or reinstall with a different linux distro, you may find out it didn't really run "out of box."