New Laptop wht should I buy?

Ok all here is my problem. My dell e1505 is on its last leg and im looking to get a laptop that's very linux compatible out of the box. I ran the e1505 with ubuntu 8.04. Only problem was it was a pain to get the dell wireless which was a broadcom 41xx?? i do don't remember the model but the drivers did work but poor and a pain to set up. also it had ant ati x1400 mobile which was a pain to setup too. once setup and working loved this little box these past couple years.

So im looking for a laptop around $800 or so that supports lnux out of the box well. Minimal setup is preferred but i will go through the work if their is good driver support.

If no one can come up with good solution i might just go macbook for $999 but am curious what is the unix it runs? is it BSD?

Any thoughts or suggestions?? Im open to other distros of linux such as Open Suse, fedora, and open solaris, or debian if ubuntu isn't the way to go with new laptops. I guess im just used to running it.

Thank you,

Joseph Swager

I've had good results with Dell and Ubuntu since 7.04. I'm running 9.04 on a Latitude and Inspirion currently, and all of the wireless (wifi, bluetooth, and USB broadband) work just fine. My grandson is running EdUbuntu on an old D600 Latitude as well.

Thanks for the reply rubberman,

SO would you suggest getting a dell with the intel wireless n and and intel graphics card? I will not be gaming. Im just looking for a robust system to do development work on. I'm think of running ubuntu 9.10. Whats the real advantages 9.04 or 9.10 have over the 8.04 i use?

Well, Dell does directly support 8.04 on a number of systems, so at least you can be assured that the appropriate dirvers and support is available for those systems. In my case, I have two laptops - a D630 with nVidia video, and an Inspirion 17", also with nVidia video. Both work very well with 9.04 and all of the wireless worked without problems, including the bluetooth and my Sprint broadband USB modem, as well as 3rd party webcam. I have also had 0 problems with power control, suspend, hibernate, etc.

Thanks again Rubberman thats good to know about driver support with Dells

here is the system im thinking of ordering off their site for $839.

Quote:

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Inspiron 14 Notebook
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
14.0” High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife™
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
8X CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
IntelJWiFi Link 5100 802.11agn Half Mini-Card
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
High Definition Audio 2.0

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Any one built a ubuntu 9.10 system with similar configuration?
Is the Intel chipsets on wireless and video better supported??
Also not critical but does the intel GMA 4500MHD support 3d so i can turn on compiz? I have grown quite fond of it as my environment.

Also anyone's input on getting the new mackbook 13"?

Thanks,
Joseph Swager

intel graphics are well supported, but have had some issues as of late in the 'buntus, not sure about the wireless.

MacOS is unix, its not any specific version of BSD. My gf bought her sister a macbook 13" and I'd say its pretty nice, but a little pricey for my taste.

Cool so the intel video card seems from what i read to setup easy.

Has anyone ever used an Asus laptop?
here is one i was also considering and it has its own dedicated video card

Newegg.com - ASUS K40 Series K40IN-C2 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6600(2.20GHz) 14" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce G102M - Laptops / Notebooks

yeah i agree coopstah13 the macs seem to be pricey but im really looking into them. $999 seems to be the limit of my budget though. I have heard the batteries on the Macs seem to last better so that could be worth the money since this system has to last me 3 or 4 years like my dell e1505 did but i did have to buy two batteries for it over its life time.

My personal opinion: I will never purchase another computer that relies on Intel graphics!

Intel graphics are OK if you only surf the web or only play low-res SD videos. Don't ever expect it to play HD video. On anything that needs GPU hardware acceleration, Intel video chokes.

ANY nVidia graphics chip is better than the best Intel video chip. Mainly because you can then use the nVidia proprietary driver. A good combo to look for is the Intel Atom Dual Core n330 (1.6 GHz) coupled with the nVidia ION chip (9400M). The ION is fairly new, so there are only a few notebooks/netbooks with it. The HP Mini 311 is one. Here is a link to a list of many ION products. There are a few notebooks and netbooks listed.

LinuxTECH.NET - Overview of all available Nvidia Ion Products (Motherboards, PCs, Netbooks)

I have a Toshiba Satellite A505 with a T6600, 4GB Memory and nVidia 230M GPU. Very nice LT. everything works in linux, but only about 3 hrs battery life.

Great video performance, And for $800 I am very pleased.

Do you think a laptop buyer should chose a laptop with a Nvidia card?

I am sure this question still gets asked a lot but with so many laptops being equipped with a recent ATI card nowadays, it makes sense to ask about ATI support when it comes to Linux.

Many of the ATI cards are the recent mobile Radeon 4560/4650 or similar so how are owners faring with these cards in Linux? Maybe you buy them thinking the support will steadily improve so it's not too bad?

I am also wondering if I should choose a laptop with a certain card for heat/power consumption reasons. I visit the site, notebookcheck to see how the graphics card stands up performance-wise but also for how much power it is using.

However, if many Linux users are recommending I get a laptop with a Nvidia card, then I have to eliminate contenders that have ATI cards. ;-) I have had only one desktop that had a discrete ATI card. It was okay but I think it's supported by the open source radeon driver now. I have since given it to someone and I have a Nvidia card in my desktop now. It works fine and I'm used to the driver install.

I suppose most wifi cards in laptops are either Intel or Atheros so I should be fine there. I want a fairly recent laptop so most of the hardware will be recent. Thus, I am mostly wary of the mobile video card and support.

I'll dual boot Windows, too... (sorry!) so I'm not concerned about support there.

Anyway, I hope some of my questions will be of interest to the OP and I am sure any answers or opinions will only help! :-)