Minimum configuration for Laptop?--suggestions please

[Lakshmipathi]

Hi all,
I'm planning to buy a laptop with minimum configuration for linux.-i'm not going to windows on it.
I mainly going to use this laptop for Research & Developement activities.
So i don't want to buy brand new high-end laptop for it...
I'll happy if can get a laptop that performs similar to my PC,

my pc configuration is :
CPU :Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz

DDR RAM : 256MB
Harddisk : 40GB

i want a laptop that's similar to this.I have no idea about laptop configuration.
Thanks.

[RobinVossen]

Well, the pain is. When you go to a store for a Laptop you get Vista for sure.
And lots of Software you dont want you DO pay for.
I have never heard of someone who Assambled the Laptop him self.(her is just unrealistic.. I never met a Female Geek )
Anywho, Id go for a Asus then, Since they are Butget stuff.
or for one from eBay, But then.. you must See it before you buy it!
Dont Pay for Vista Please.. I know its hard to get a good laptop. but well have fun searching

[bigtomrodney]

The best bet is opt for an Intel setup - Get intel integrated graphics and an Intel Wifi card. I bought an Inspiron 6400 with this setup and everything worked out of the box. As usual with any system get as much RAM as your budget will allow, there's no point in buying a system that will spend all of its time swapping to the harddisk.

My Inspiron has a 1.6GHz core 2 Duo processor. It is only very slightly slower at encoding video than my 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad. Remember the 1.6GHz run at 1GHz until needed so battery life is saved but because it is dual core your system runs pretty fast anyway.

[Freston]

If you're quick, there still are some low-end lappies with XP on it. At least down here where I live (I'm also from the 3th rock from the sun, so I guess we live close ).

And if you want, you can get a refund for the OS... it says so in the EULA (<= this is actually a sort of joke, it says you can get a refund but they don't really mean it).

You could also opt for a second hand lappy. Or insist in the store that you run a LifeCD on the machine before you buy it, to check if all the hardware is supported (I doubt if they let you though).


For the rest, wireless is troublesome, sometimes ACPI settings are (but this can often be overcome by feeding the correct kernel parameters). Video cards have the same problems as with any PC. These are things to consider.

[Thrillhouse]

Not all laptops come with Vista. I just purchased a Dell Latitude D630 through my company's laptop program and it comes with XP Pro. Of course, you can opt to pay more for Vista but I think all of Dell's business laptops still come with XP by default. And, in my opinion, the business machines are better than the Home & Home Office.

I agree with bigtomrodney, too. Intel components work very well. My laptop has an Intel X3100 graphics card and an Intel 3945 wireless card, pretty easy to get up and running quickly.

Also, you can do a lot better than 256 MB RAM. I would get at least 1 GB. I got 2. I won't tell you what brand to buy but start looking around at ones you think you might be interested in. Then, check out some reviews of those models; there are plenty out there.