Happypants

I'm looking for advice on buying an inexpensive laptop. I need it to be compatible with a Linux distro right after I buy it. While I normally support googling this stuff-I need quick advice since I have tons of work already eating up my time.

I will be using it for school...it wont handle much. Just word processing, web browsing, and other light stuff. But one thing I would prefer is a SSD- I'm fine with using a small 16gb one if it's inexpensive.

My budgets around $400...maybe more if I agree with the cost vs benefit analysis

Thanks

justarealguy

Honestly I don't know how OCN feels about it, but NBR would be able to offer some more support. They've got a lot more notebook enthusiasts and a really detailed form as to how to go about picking a notebook out.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

Read the sticky and there's a really detailed post with questions, I didn't want to copy paste it because its' theirs.

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Somenamehere

Linux can run on anything so that shouldnt really matter. I suggest Asus Eee netbook.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1101HA-MU...849522&sr=8-14

justarealguy

Right, but how much battery life does he expect? Does he even like a netbook? Personally I can't stand them. Note taking is horrible. There's a slew of more questions on NBR, and they can help.

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Odel

The asus eeepc 1000HE has 9 or 8 hour battery life for $400, looks like a match

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auditt241

I bought a base inspiron 1545 for about your budget, and it works fantastically with ubuntu 9.04. I'm just worried about 9.10, becuase they changed something and now wifi is terrible. Otherwise, it works great with linux

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Happypants

Checked out the notebook forums and made a post
http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...66#post5378766

also found a decent guide at
http://www.linlap.com/

Thanks for the suggestions, might be going with the acer 1410 - had an Asus EEE arrive to me DOA and they didn't refund me shipping costs for repairs, so I'm avoiding them.

pippolo

On the market you can find netbooks already loaded with linux, but for 400$ I suggest you to buy a true notebook.

You can buy any notebook that you prefer and install linux on it by yourelf.
In order to check the Linux compatibility (before to buy it, of course!), take a look at the site dedicated to linux on mobile (http://tuxmobil.org/).
On the site you can find installation report from users where are described for each notebook model what are the devices that works well (or no) with linux.

As suggestion:

1) MB chipset are usually well supported by linux. You shouldn't have problem here.
2) about graphics: the best supported brand is NVidia. Sometime ATI it's a bit complicated to install (and it doesn't support video accelleration; at least this was true last time that I checked). The Intel GM4500 isn't supported very well on linux so, my suggestion is to choose (if you can with your budget) using the following order: nvidia > ati > intel
3) the NIC (network) on cable is usually well supported (but checks on the linux site), but there are a lot of problems with the Wi-Fi drivers. If it's important for you the wireless connection, pay a lot of attention if the driver is available for the card. Intel Wi-Fi card are ok. Sometime you can use the wi-fi Windows driver using the ndiswrapper software.
4) other fonts of problems can be the hardware peripherals as video camera, audio, card readers (if not usb based) and ExpressCard adapters. For this type of hardware you have to look on the site.

Also if the linux driver is available, it isn't necessarily installed automatically during the linux distribution install procedure. Take some time on the linux kernel compiling procedure (or module installing) in order to activate all your devices under linux.

chemicalfan

I'm confused as to how Ubuntu 9.10 could break wireless - surely the next kernel version should contain more drivers, not less?

Don't be scared off, you can run Ubuntu on practically anything made in the last 3-4 years, and for the most part, it'll run out of the box. If it doesn't, it'll be wireless that gives the issue (I've never had any trouble with my Intel GMA graphics chipset), but madwifi is pretty good at sorting Atheros wireless adaptors, and ndiswrapper can clear up the rest of your issues.

Everyone accepts that Linux isn't Windows, therefore when you're new, it's accepted that you're gonna ask a lot of questions as things aren't the same. If you get stuck, don't be afraid to ask, no-one expects you to know how to work Linux straight away! I refer to this only if things go wrong - if it works out of the box, it'll be just as easy as Windows.

Now you can start planning how to spend that £70 you've saved

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GodofGrunts

2 is no longer true. ATI cards now support video accelleration.

3 Intel provides drivers for Linux so they are well supported. Atheros is decently supported as well.

On my laptop, going from Ubuntu 7.10 to 8.04 destroyed my wireless...

If wireless does give you issues, you might try Linux Mint (its Ubuntu but with extra stuff like wireless drivers)

And as ChemicalFan said. We expect you to have questions. Hell, I still have questions all the time. Thats what the community is for.

Also, if you get an EEE PC check out installing EEEbuntu on it. It has all the drivers and everything for you.

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