[PLUG] Linux-compatible laptops

Bill Barry barryb at proaxis.com
Wed Jul 15 00:55:19 UTC 2009


On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 4:59 PM, m0gely<m0gely at gmail.com> wrote:
> Robert Kopp wrote:
>> I'm about to get a new laptop, and it would be nice to get one at a retail store whose hardware was supported by Linux. The only problem I have ever encountered with earlier laptops was with the Wifi adapter, but now that most of the new ones don't have PCMCIA slots (to provide Wifi connectivity if the built-in Wifi adapter doesn't work), this is an important point.
>
> I find that laptops at stores like BestBuy are generally not what most
> people expect. I see HP's, Acer's and Toshiba's all the time that brake
> down just after the warranty's expire, especially HP/Compaq.
>

I also suggest that you consider buying online directly from the
"manufacturer".  While you can often find reasonable computers at a
retail store, the specs on them are often 3 - 6 months behind the
specs you will get online for the same price. Less memory, lower hard
disk space, generally just slightly behind the times.  It is also
useful to know that many of the laptops come from the same
manufacturer, Quanta Computers in Taiwan, and are rebranded, so though
it looks like you have a lot of choices, most of them come off just a
few assembly lines.

I am happy with my HP Pavilion DV6000, it is more than a year old now
and is holding up well. It's Broadcom wifi works with ndiswrapper, and
recently with the kernel b43 driver. That said, I would look for one
with the Intel or Atheros wifi because of their explicit linux support
as shown here.
http://intellinuxwireless.org/
http://www.atheros.com/news/linux.html

Bill



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