# Hi and What laptop would be best?

## markfl

Hi

Im new to these forums. Just halfway through installing Gentoo on my P2 400Mhz

its taking a while but no longer than i expected. got the first bit done without a hitch.

took me while to master the x config files after spending a good 6 hours emerging x

got that as nicely sorted as you can get it under twm  :Smile: 

decided i wanted to talk to ppl so emerged aMSN and then mozilla (bout 5 hours) started KDE at 7:30 this morning and its still going (8:00 pm)

im liking it so far

neway

on to the point of my first post

im considering getting a laptop and i know they have issues under linux with hardware

which laptop would you reccomend (new) i would like to keep it under £1000

im not sure what that is in dollars so you may have to do some maths - i'd like onboard lan and wlan (will settle for cards if i must) but i wont need a modem that works

thanks

MJ

ps sorry if this was a bit long

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## asubedi

sony vaio pcg-grx500 working fine here. I haven't tried getting firewire, winmodem, memory stick and jogdail to work, but have heard that all of these work too. ACPI works great. I've heard some issues with dell laptops, so I would avoid those. I've heard good things about Toshiba laptops...

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## ronmon

Ten different people will give you ten different answers, which will be confusing at best.

A good idea would be to check out Linux on Laptops.

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## zenlunatic

Their are quite a few people, including myself, who run Gentoo and Debian on the apple ibook. All of the hardware is supported, including the internal software modem, volume control hot-keys, the i2c digital sound system (OSS and ALSA), and accelerated video drivers. I am very fond of mine, and would definitly get another one shoudl i ever need an additional portable. Some links to check out would be penguinppc.org and ppckernel.org if you are new to the ppc architecture.

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## bLanark

I use a Dell Inspiron 8000, and am really thinking of buying an 8500. I use gentoo on it, after using RH for a year or so. Everything works fine, modem, ethernet, wireless, RAM....

If you buy from the dell outlet (returned systems that have been reconditioned) you can possibly stay under your £1000 budget (certainly excl vat). Best thing about the Inspiron is the massive screen - mine is 2.5 years old and only 1400x1050, but they are now doing 1920x 1200 which is mouth-watering.

There's a yahoo group about linux on dell laptops - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-dell-laptops/

You could consider a second-hand laptop, I guess. Several places in the UK sell them - http://www.clonesuk.com/ have a good name. 

HTH

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## markfl

thanks for your help guys

this forum is so friendly#

MJ

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## 3vilinside

Hey

Just wanted to drop a line concerning the choices of laptops. I'm currently running Gentoo rc3 (1.4 obviously   :Smile:  ) on a HP Pavilion ze4294 (p4 2ghz, 512 ddr ram, etc). 

Before installing Gentoo people told me that it would be very difficult to set up Gentoo on this particular laptop (I don't know why they said so up to know   :Very Happy:  ). In fact the installation went very smoothly, even sound worked from the very beginning (thank to the gentoo-sources kernel, that provided the exact drivers I needed for my soundcard). 

You know it's really comfortable to enjoy mp3s on a gentoo laptop   :Very Happy: 

Up to know I can just recommend this laptop to anybody who wants to have a rocksolid OS on a lighning fast laptop!

The price isn't as low as you want it to be but if you want something *really* good, give this LT a GO

BTW: DMA 1 brought following results: 

```
 hdparm -Tt /dev/hda: 
```

/dev/hda:

 Timing buffer-cache reads: (...) 278,98 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads: (...) 21, 56 MB/sec

 :Cool: 

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## xmit

I would like to add the IBM Thinkpad X24 to the list of gentoo friendly laptops. If you look for a light, small, fast, about 3h unplugged living laptop, I recommend this one. Linux on laptops is better than its reputation. Debian installation was troublefree also. ACPI is somewhat  complex.

BTW: Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.60 seconds = 24.62 MB/sec  :Wink: 

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## cerri

I prefer IBM for its large support to linux community.

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## 3vilinside

Yeah, IBM's support concerning LINUX is great. That's one of the main hindrances for people who think of buying a laptop with linux to actually buy one. Since HP officially does not support LINUX on any of their laptop products (maybe even desktop variants...) this might be one of the main problems when setting things up. It took me quite some time to get the refresh rates for my lt...   :Sad:   (3 calls and 4 mails) 

Nevertheless if you write them a mail they will answer you immediately and do their best to refer you to any other sites where you can find information about linux on your laptop (product). 

Eventhough they do not support linux on their products Gentoo is running GREAT on the ze4294 (after some slight modifications   :Laughing:  ). If you plan to learn something while setting up give this laptop and gentoo a go!!

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## markfl

Thanks for your help again. I don't mind it being a challenge but i dont want it to be impossible  :Smile: 

IBM is sounding good so i can pester some guy on the phone for tech specs for everything when i need them.

Of course i'll have to look at the prices and what they come with.

Thanks

MJ[/list]

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## snutte

My Acer 522 TXV works fine. Pentium3 600 mhz, 512mb , 20gb , dvd 100mbit. it all works in Linux.  :Very Happy: 

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