[PLUG] Laptop Recommendations

Michael Dexter dexter at ambidexter.com
Sat Aug 16 06:17:42 UTC 2014


On 8/15/14 5:29 PM, MIke C. (Tech. Coord.) wrote:
> Also, Canonical works closely with*Lenovo*  to certify Ubuntu on a range of
> their hardware.
> http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/desktop/make/Lenovo/?category=Laptop

Okay. I'll say it. I was a very late-to-the-game ThinkPad dork.

I knew the X40/T61's were solid machines and arrived to the Sandy Bridge 
ones: T420 (bought a refurb), T520, X220 and see that the previous 
generation, T410, T510 and X201 are the first with Core i* processors 
for certain new hypervisors that need EPT. I see the next ones, T430, 
T530 and X230 have Windows 8-ified dumbed down keyboards and things went 
down hill from there: (badly) hidden mouse buttons under the track/touch 
pads and to add insult to injury, A NEW POWER CONNECTOR after years of 
the previous one.

For me, it's the Sandy Bridge (T420) and previous models with few 
alternatives. They generally ship with Intel networking and are thus 
pretty well supported by open source operating systems. I *HAVE* had 
weird GPT issues and finally found some work arounds. UEFI is still not 
quite ready for everyone and every OS. On the plus side, you can do some 
very cool things with UltraBay drives:

http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_7&zenid=2fbd2d23a4510beff375ea628417dfc1

Mirrored ZFS anyone?

Hypervisor booted to internal mSATA?

They're not perfect but just may be the best available. I watch 
Craigslist for them when I can and I have found T61's/T400's at Free 
Geek/Green Century/EcoBinary for $100 to $200 which, for the money, are 
pretty solid computers.

 From there? I would probably use a MacBook and suffer from endless 
quirks with open source operating systems.

Michael



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