[PLUG] Laptop recomendations

Elliott Mitchell ehem at m5p.com
Mon Aug 16 14:26:03 UTC 2004


>From: Alan <alan at clueserver.org>
> IBM - These are long lasting, but I have concerns about the video
> chipsets used.  (Intel Extreme Graphics or shared memory ATI in most
> cases.)  They also lack the speed of some other vendors, as well as
> hyperthread on the P4 chipsets.

I don't have experience with ATi laptop chips, but the reports I've seen
suggest they work reasonably well. They are forthcoming with enough
information to have a working driver for X (actually of the big graphics
chip companies they're the best in this aspect). I've seen mentions that
their driver binary for Linux isn't that good though.

Avoid any system with an Intel graphics chip. They're neither providing
enough information to support Linux, nor helping with any sort of driver.
There is a driver for X that sort of works, but there isn't enough
information available to make it work well. Notably the driver cannot
directly change resolutions and often the BIOSes don't have data on the
resolution of the screen, resulting in really nasty hacks to get laptop
screens to work well.

> HP - They have Athlon 64 laptops.  They have very fast Intel laptops. 
> The prices are cheap.  Not certain if I trust HP though since the
> merger.  The video chipsets are nVIDIA and go up to 128 megs.  (Dell
> only goes to 64megs.)  Concerned about quality and support of the
> hardware.

Get the per-page no execute bits!  :-)

Though nVIDIA hasn't been very forthcoming with information on how to
program their chips, their drivers work very well (both their "nv" driver
with source, and their binary driver).

> Any other comments? Ideas? Rants?

The propietary issues might be too much for you, but thought about Apple
hardware?


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