[AuckLUG] Buying a Laptop - it's all about quality

[Marcel]

Patrick Gildea wrote:
> I want a fast Linux compatable Laptop. I was thinking of some thing like 
> a Core 2 Duo 4300 with 1gig ram and some kind of Nvidia graphics.
> 
> What and where do you guys suggest getting a laptop. I don't want it to 
> be too expensive.

I'm probably going to start a flame-war here, but...laptop brands vary a 
LOT in quality.
We've had bad experiences with Compaq/HP laptops & Toshiba's. I'd 
recommend you avoid those.
ASUS and Dell seems to be the better brands, but that doesn't mean you 
don't come across the occasional dud.

You shouldn't have any problems with compatibility, most laptops should 
work fine with recent distributions of Linux. An ubuntu live cd is a 
good way of checking how much trouble you might/might not have with a 
given laptop.

A laptop with an Nvidia graphics card is a good idea. I've heard bad 
things about the ATI drivers for linux and the intel integrated graphics 
cards are just plain rubbish (the driver support is also a bit flakey 
for the later models)


Hope that helps,

Marcel
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Remember, cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap.