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JebusWankel
July 10th, 2008, 05:45 AM
I'm going to college in the fall (Lehigh University woot!) and I'm trying to decide what laptop to get. I'm stuck between a Thinkpad with SLED preinstalled (14" R61 or T61) or a Dell with Ubuntu (1420n). Here are the pro's and cons of each.

Thinkpad
+cheaper
+Fingerprint reader works
+legendary reliability
-SLED
+max 250gb hdd
-no 802.11n wireless

Dell
+Ubuntu
+I can get it in brown, an Ubuntu color and a Lehigh color
-max 160gb hdd
+webcam built-in
+media controls
+sd card reader
+I like what Dell has been doing lately: Ubuntu, Ideastorm, web-based backup, much more attractive laptops
-no 802.11n wireless

What do you guys think?

Lord Xeb
July 10th, 2008, 05:48 AM
The dell looks more attractive to me but I love the Thinkpads reliability. You cannot beat that. Also, you can get a wireless n in a thinkpad if you wanted (just and extra $100 e_e).

wenuswilson
July 10th, 2008, 05:51 AM
+I can get it in brown, an Ubuntu color and a Lehigh color
-

seriously? a pro... anyway.

i currently have a t61 with ubuntu native on it.
works like a charm.
use the AMD64 if you go with the 4GB.

thinkwiki.org for great help.
i had a dell tower-- liked it but nothing compares to a thinkpad.

(fn + left, right, up, down control the media going on)

I have an SD reader too --don't know if it was extra.

JimmyJazz
July 10th, 2008, 10:18 AM
You can't get much better than a Thinkpad. Dell laptops are needless to say "iffy".

madjr
July 10th, 2008, 11:03 AM
I'm going to college in the fall (Lehigh University woot!) and I'm trying to decide what laptop to get. I'm stuck between a Thinkpad with SLED preinstalled (14" R61 or T61) or a Dell with Ubuntu (1420n). Here are the pro's and cons of each.

Thinkpad
+cheaper
+Fingerprint reader works
+legendary reliability
-SLED
+max 250gb hdd
-no 802.11n wireless

Dell
+Ubuntu
+I can get it in brown, an Ubuntu color and a Lehigh color
-max 160gb hdd
+webcam built-in
+media controls
+sd card reader
+I like what Dell has been doing lately: Ubuntu, Ideastorm, web-based backup, much more attractive laptops
-no 802.11n wireless

What do you guys think?


hmmm, you should check system 76 before choosing.

http://www.system76.com/

i used to think Dell were the best until recently, the s76 was a better deal than the Dell i got...

http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=85

zmjjmz
July 10th, 2008, 01:59 PM
ZaReason (http://www.zareason.com) is another place to check out.

I'd still go with the Thinkpad, Ubuntu works quite nicely if you choose the right configuration.

eldragon
July 10th, 2008, 02:18 PM
wow, system76 has come a long way, they used to be quite expensive.

JebusWankel
July 10th, 2008, 08:48 PM
I have to say I'm impressed with both ZaReason and S76's offerings, and so were a lot of others. Both of their 14" models are out of stock. And S76 was the only to offer n wireless. Though you must get a 6-cell as the primary battery; you can only get the 9-cell in addition.

For clarification: Neither wireless n or a media card reader are available in a Thinkpad if you configure it with linux preinstalled (http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:find-config?category-id=1EEC64E5FB8342ADBD9807711D829D48&ifacet=0&filter=Operating System_1). The T61 still seems to edge all the others out by about 100USD, and the R61 does it by 180USD.

Question: Lenovo seems to be the only manufacturer that offers a 5-year warranty, not that I plan to get it. Everyone else maxes out at 3-years. Is this a solid argument for the reliability of thinkpads or is it just a business thing?

Right now I'm leaning towards the Thinkpad. My only question is which laptop of all of these requires the least amount of restricted drivers to work if I switched to a different distribution. It's one thing for it to work, but it's even better if I could run gNewsense. I'm just really into Free software like that. It's why I absolutely refuse to buy Vista ever in my life, even though Dell has some sick deals on refurbs with Vista.

wenuswilson
July 11th, 2008, 05:36 AM
Right now I'm leaning towards the Thinkpad. My only question is which laptop of all of these requires the least amount of restricted drivers to work if I switched to a different distribution. It's one thing for it to work, but it's even better if I could run gNewsense. I'm just really into Free software like that. It's why I absolutely refuse to buy Vista ever in my life, even though Dell has some sick deals on refurbs with Vista.


I have recently bought a T61 and I got it preloaded with the basic version of Vista (I think the cheapest option)... 30 seconds out of the box put in my LiveCD of Hardy Heron and wiped the Vista patition completely. Been running native ever since. It came with an nVidia Quadro... Ubuntu figures it out and is the only restricted driver I've dealt with thus far. For Hardy in particular check out the ThinkWiki Page (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_8.04_(Hardy_Heron)_on_a_ThinkPad _T61) for what kind of work you'll be putting in.

The fingerprint reader with all the sudo and login commands I do all day is especially nice, personally.

Yuki_Nagato
July 11th, 2008, 05:41 AM
The Thinkpad.

Syke
July 11th, 2008, 10:16 AM
I have to say I'm impressed with both ZaReason and S76's offerings, and so were a lot of others. Both of their 14" models are out of stock. And S76 was the only to offer n wireless. Though you must get a 6-cell as the primary battery; you can only get the 9-cell in addition.
...a media card reader
...My only question is which laptop of all of these requires the least amount of restricted drivers to work if I switched to a different distribution. It's one thing for it to work, but it's even better if I could run gNewsense.
Sounds like the ZaReason LightLapSR is really what you're looking for.

* Draft N is now an option.
* 9-cell primary battery is an option.
* gNewSense works great on it.
* SD card reader included.

By the time you decide it'll probably be back in stock.

AndyCooll
July 11th, 2008, 12:50 PM
I'd go for the Thinkpad. I have a T60 for work and it's great.

However price dictated my choice of a laptop for home and Thinkpads were way more expensive than Dells. So I bought a Dell with Ubuntu pre-installed (actually I bought two, one for me, one for the wife!). And I have to say I've been very pleased with them. They came with Feisty and since then I've done fresh installations to Gutsy and Hardy, and all hardware works out-of-the-box, suspend-resume works etc etc. They may not be the most stylish laptops however I love my Dells.

:cool:

71CH
July 11th, 2008, 12:58 PM
Thinkpad

Dragonbite
July 11th, 2008, 03:44 PM
I'd go for the Thinkpad.
I have one for work, and a Dell for home.

Thinkpad is more rigid and I like the keyboard (I hate it when I mention that to somebody and they say "you can plug in a keyboard".. like THAT would be convenient if I'm on a train or something?! yeesh!)
Thinkpad has drain holes! It channels water from going between the keys and lets it flow out on the bottom without touching any other components.
I'm not sure about specifics, but the Thinkpad screens I think are supposed to be brighter and better than most others
My Thinkpad's trackpad works a LOT smoother than the one on the Dell, plust mine has the eraser pointer in the keys so I can hop back-and-forth.
There are more people "fanatical" about their Thinkpad than are about Dells. Maybe they know something we don't? :lolflag:

macogw
July 12th, 2008, 06:10 AM
ZaReason (http://www.zareason.com) is another place to check out.

I'd still go with the Thinkpad, Ubuntu works quite nicely if you choose the right configuration.
+1 on ZaReason. Just got one. Love it.

Ioky
July 12th, 2008, 07:17 AM
thinkpad thinkpad, although they are not as quality as they were before. They are much more solid back to the day with metal housing. Now they metal housing is gone. well, some of the part. But they are still pretty, I would get a ideapad haha because they kind of look cool, and they are very Linux friendly.

grossaffe
July 12th, 2008, 07:36 AM
I'm going to college in the fall (Lehigh University woot!) and I'm trying to decide what laptop to get. I'm stuck between a Thinkpad with SLED preinstalled (14" R61 or T61) or a Dell with Ubuntu (1420n). Here are the pro's and cons of each.

Thinkpad
+cheaper
+Fingerprint reader works
+legendary reliability
-SLED
+max 250gb hdd
-no 802.11n wireless

Dell
+Ubuntu
+I can get it in brown, an Ubuntu color and a Lehigh color
-max 160gb hdd
+webcam built-in
+media controls
+sd card reader
+I like what Dell has been doing lately: Ubuntu, Ideastorm, web-based backup, much more attractive laptops
-no 802.11n wireless

What do you guys think?
is the Dell actually cheaper with Ubuntu Preinstalled? also, why no 802.11n, is that not an option for the ubuntu version? I am the owner of a regular inspiron 1420 with wireless N. installed ubuntu on there just fine and everything works.

Dougie187
July 14th, 2008, 09:33 PM
I'd go with the thinkpad.
AFAIK the Thinkpad has a better chipset too. And when I priced it, the thinkpad was cheaper then the dell. But we might have different configs.

Keep in mind, you can get a SD reader on the thinkpad, and wireless N.