I'm thinking about buying a laptop in the near future

[Ricapar]

I'm really getting tired of sitting in the dark corners of my basement all day attaced to this old desktop computer. I need some thing that will last me a while though, but that shouldn't be too hard, I don't play any hardcode games much. Maybe some Pong or Tetris once in a while, but that's about it.

I have about $1,200 USD to spend.

What kind of laptop would you guys recommend? It dosen't matter to me if it comes preloaded with an OS and a whole bunch of other software or not, I'm wiping the hard drive and loading up Ubuntu either way :)

One thing I'm really looking for on it is a high screen resolution. I want BIG.
Also must have built-in wireless.


I was looking around IBuyPower, and they seem to have a killer deal on this laptop. (http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=126)
I'm open to any suggestions from any one, especially anyone who currently has a laptop and is running Ubuntu on it.

[bored2k]

I'd recommend a Toshiba Satellite. I have heard little to no complaints on those powerboxes. You know Toshibas are good, everyone does.
http://www.epinions.com/Toshiba_Satellite_P35_S611_PSP30U20H001_PC_Noteboo k/display_~full_specs

More toshibas here http://www.epinions.com/PC_Laptops--reviews--toshiba--prices--price_range_1120_1250
[The Qosmio is more media oriented, but theyre a lot more expensive -- my neighboor just bought one for about 1.5k < really good].

[americanLoki]

I would recommend any Pentium M machine with the Intel Wireless cards. The Pentium M is a great chip and offers fantastic battery life (even I get nice life with my power hungry nVidia GeForce Go 6800). If you look around you should be able to find a quite decent system for under $1200. In fact Intel launched their new Sonoma Pentium M platform last month. So you might be able to find the previous generation at a discount . They use the same processor (the Dothan version of Pentium M), but Sonoma uses DDR2 for RAM and PCI-E for it's bus. I've heard some bad things about iBuyPower and would recommend any deal of the week kind of thing with a major OEM (Dell has these all the time, check out http://www.slickdeals.net/ they're always throwing up coupons). HP/Compaq also has pretty good deals overall. Hope this helps.

[Gary Powers]

I'd recommend a Toshiba Satellite. I have heard little to no complaints on those powerboxes. You know Toshibas are good, everyone does.
http://www.epinions.com/Toshiba_Satellite_P35_S611_PSP30U20H001_PC_Noteboo k/display_~full_specs

More toshibas here http://www.epinions.com/PC_Laptops--reviews--toshiba--prices--price_range_1120_1250
[The Qosmio is more media oriented, but theyre a lot more expensive -- my neighboor just bought one for about 1.5k < really good].

bored2k is dead on about the Toshiba. I have bought four or five of them over the years. Currently my wife and I each have one and we recently bought an entry level model for a son (around $700 direct from Toshiba). They work well and we have never had one go back for anything.

Gary

[MetalMusicAddict]

I had a thread like this abit ago. IBM seemed the way to go. I have a old 600e and loved it. I put together a great one for about $1000. I used a G41 as a base. Go to IBM. ;) Nice stuff.

[poofyhairguy]

Get a toshiba if you plan to buy one in a store, get a Sager if you want to buy one off the interent.

http://www.pctorque.com/

[Ricapar]

Thanks for the recommendations.

I do prefer to buy in a store, but if I can get a better deal online, then online it is.

I'll be keeping my eye on Toshiba's laptops, I hear good things about those everwhere I ask.

[somuchfortheafter]

the toshiba tecra m2 owns, im running hoary on it now and have no complaints, with the exception of the sd card reader all works well, oddly whenever i plug in the camera it belongs to it reads lol. the tecras have a 14-15" screen but on my 14" im getting 1400x1050 and that is the perfect resolution and size for me although your needs may be different...

[Ricapar]

1400x1050 is just fine for me. It's not really my needs, but my wants ^_^
Allthough one of those huge monitors that Apple makes would be a dream for me :D

[benplaut]

a friend of mine has a Ibuypower 101, and, both of us with a clean WinXP Pro install, did benchmarks. In everything except the graphics (duh), my "aged" Pentium M 1.5 (Banian), beat his Athlon 64 3200+ by tons... i highly recommend a notebook with a pentium m and a decent graphics card. Out of your price range (i think, haven't checked in a while), but a T41p sounds perfect :)

[ming0]

i would HIGHLY recommend checking out IBM's notebooks... they are known for their linux support (esp. when it comes to hibernation and suspend to ram).

I love my panasonic toughbook, but it's definitely not what you want (10 inch screen, 3lbs), but I can't get it to suspend to ram, which really sucks--otherwise, it would be the king of portability and open source :)

emperorlinux.com has a lot of specs on laptops that work well w/ linux (they are just normal computers re-branded).

[jerome bettis]

www.laclinux.com

i can't say enough good things about this machine. extremely linux compatible, fast as hell, great battery life etc etc. great warranty and support too. the price tag is a little high, but it was worth it for me.

[im_ka]

I'm really getting tired of sitting in the dark corners of my basement all day attaced to this old desktop computer. I need some thing that will last me a while though, but that shouldn't be too hard, I don't play any hardcode games much. Maybe some Pong or Tetris once in a while, but that's about it.

I have about $1,200 USD to spend.

What kind of laptop would you guys recommend? It dosen't matter to me if it comes preloaded with an OS and a whole bunch of other software or not, I'm wiping the hard drive and loading up Ubuntu either way :)

One thing I'm really looking for on it is a high screen resolution. I want BIG.
Also must have built-in wireless.


I was looking around IBuyPower, and they seem to have a killer deal on this laptop. (http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=126)
I'm open to any suggestions from any one, especially anyone who currently has a laptop and is running Ubuntu on it.

two words: ibm thinkpad

[AgenT]

Two websites you should look into:

Linux on Laptops (http://www.linux-laptop.net/)

TuxMobile (http://tuxmobil.org/)

Make sure to go over those websites for every canidate.

[defkewl]

I'd second that. When it comes to laptop, I'll pick toshiba too :)

[jgarcia]

Just got a LinuxCertified LC2210D laptop. Seems to meet your criteria.

[theturner]

two words: Apple iBook.

[ming0]

two words: Apple iBook.

two more words: no wireless (at least not airport extreme)

[poofyhairguy]

two more words: no wireless (at least not airport extreme)

Or flash. Or windows codecs. Or....your sanity!!!!

[ming0]

Or windows codecs.

you can't get windows codecs on apple HW (w/ linux of course), even with mplayer?

[tread]

I own a Toshiba Satellite, and it works fine .. even the resolution which is 1280x800, and the wireless, which is Atheros (madwifi drivers) I bought it because it was cheap, I didn't have too much money.

If you have the money, I'd say get an IBM, else Toshiba. Dell (I really don't like Dells though) is also quite linux-compatible I believe, there is even a Dell linux community.

[tread]

Just one more thing: on most new Toshiba laptops toshutils doesn't work anymore, different bios. Acpi support is there, so hibernate works, but getting temperatures etc. doesnt :(