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| Thread ID: 104704 | 2009-11-05 17:38:00 | Pre-installed Linux laptops | Jaesche (15399) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 827471 | 2009-11-05 17:38:00 | Three questions: 1. is there any producer/retailer in NZ which sells laptops with a pre-installed linux operating system? 2. Alternatively, is there any producer/retailer which sells laptops without any pre-installed OS? 3. If options 1 and 2 are not viable, I will be happy to buy a Windows laptop. Any suggestions for Windows laptops which "just work" on Linux (preferably, Ubuntu 9.04)? Thanks, Al |
Jaesche (15399) | ||
| 827472 | 2009-11-05 17:45:00 | They should all work with Ubuntu, from what I know is not that much about Laptops the only ones available with Linux are some of the small netbook variety | gary67 (56) | ||
| 827473 | 2009-11-05 18:14:00 | All laptops will work well enough. But I really think you should stay from Ubuntu, but that's just my opinion. Plenty of better distros out there. |
Cato (6936) | ||
| 827474 | 2009-11-05 18:21:00 | Hi and Welcome to the forums! :) 1. is there any producer/retailer in NZ which sells laptops with a pre-installed linux operating system? Yes, a *lot* of retailers do now, especially in the form of Netbooks 2. Alternatively, is there any producer/retailer which sells laptops without any pre-installed OS? There used to be a few low-cost laptops out there, but by-and-large no. 3. If options 1 and 2 are not viable, I will be happy to buy a Windows laptop. Any suggestions for Windows laptops which "just work" on Linux (preferably, Ubuntu 9.04)? Yeah pretty much everything these days will. You may find the odd bit of hardware is a bit touchy, but you'd be surprised how good driver / hardware support is :) What sort of laptop did you have in mind? I've been a big fan of the EeePC's since they came out and had a 700 & 900, though a 10" screen would probably be that little bit nicer ... Otherwise I must admit to being a Toshiba fan, and it works pretty flawlessly in my experience on any of the L300, L500, A300 series that I've used :) I'm also going to disagree with Cato, I've found Ubuntu fine, but if you're installing it yourself why not try Mint Linux? Comes with a few extra nice things like Flash / Java / Multimedia Codecs pre-setup ;) Hope this helps Chill. |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 827475 | 2009-11-06 08:55:00 | I was having a little look for the same thing a while ago but didn't find anything. I didn't end up getting a laptop either. ZaReason will ship to NZ I think. Most laptops should work well these days, but if you find one you like the look of it would pay to do a quick search and see if anyone else has had problems. | ad_267 (6193) | ||
| 827476 | 2009-11-07 09:55:00 | Laptops are the weird ones sometimes. Kubuntu works well enough on my laptop (Toshiba P35) however if you close the lid, the OS locks up. Does the same thing in 9.10 now that it did in 9.04 Can't be bothered trying to figure it out A friend of mine has a Dell of some kind, he has to enter some special boot time parameters or the keyboard doesn't work. And my old IBM 380ED won't work without green wavy lines unless you do some voodoo with framebuffering Not trying to put you off, but it might be worth trying to find one that is known to work 100% |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 827477 | 2009-11-07 10:13:00 | OpenSUSE + KDE ftw :D I've been running it on my laptop for a while now (as my secondary OS) and it works well. |
jwil1 (65) | ||
| 827478 | 2009-11-08 21:53:00 | Many thanks to everybody for the helpful feedback. I like netbooks too, but I am looking for a laptop to use as my main computer. The screen should be 13-15 inches, so netbooks are ruled out. Like Chill, I had a very good experience with my old Toshiba laptops (running Windows). But I do not want a computer heavier than 2,5kg, so my choices in the Toshiba family seem to be Satellite U500, Portégé M800, and Tecra M10. Dell laptops are also an option, since they are known to work well with Linux. ZaReason sounds interesting, but I don't fancy having to send the laptop all the way to California every time I need technical assistance... might be better to go for a laptop with preinstalled Windows. Regarding the OS: I was thinking of Ubuntu (I have some experience with it and found it OK), or possibly OpenSUSE (recommended by friends). I never tried Mint -- is it better than a standard Ubuntu to which I have added flash, codecs, etc.? Thanks again. |
Jaesche (15399) | ||
| 827479 | 2009-11-08 22:30:00 | I haven't tried Mint myself but I don't think it's that much different to Ubuntu with a green theme + codecs. They have a different menu, more like OpenSUSE's slab, and a different application for installing software, but other than that it's pretty much the same. I can't see Mint becoming very big. It wouldn't survive without Ubuntu, and if it gets large enough someone's going to come after them for distributing codecs and other software illegally. I've been trying OpenSUSE 11.2 and coming from Ubuntu the package management seems a bit complex and confusing but I'm getting the hang of it. The overall appearance of OpenSUSE + KDE 4.3 is really nice. Another laptop to consider would be a ThinkPad. They're made by Lenovo rather than IBM now, but I've heard they usually work pretty well with Linux. Seeing as Dell are shipping laptops with Ubuntu in the US, a Dell should work well too. Always do a bit of investigating before deciding though. |
ad_267 (6193) | ||
| 827480 | 2009-11-08 22:48:00 | If all Mint Linux is is just Ubuntu with more codecs then what's the point? Just install Ubuntu and then install the codecs yourself.... |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
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