# Best Linux-compliant laptop

## ZeNTuRe

I found no laptop with all features (such as irda, agpgart, even gfx card or ethernet controller) working under GNU/Linux.

Do you know any?

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## ckdake

Apple hardware is a pretty good choice.  The hardware is pretty well supported and well, it's pretty good hardware too. (Typing this on a 3+ year old Powerbook G4)

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## stgreek

If you are looking for x86 laptops, the most linux-compatible by far are IBMs. However, with 2.6 changes, quite a few things have changed so it will be more difficult to setup a laptop in perfect working condition.

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## ckdake

also, if you need irda, none of the newer apple hardware has it.  they want everyone to use bluetooth...

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## nevynxxx

I havn't had any problems with my sony viao and 2.6.

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## JetAce44

Since Dell seems to be one of the most popular brands out there, how is their compatability?

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## 8230

 *JetAce44 wrote:*   

> Since Dell seems to be one of the most popular brands out there, how is their compatability?

 

I have setup three dell laptops with Gentoo so far:

Latitude CPi Pentium 2 450

Latitude CPx Pentium 3 650

Latitude C600 Pentium 3 850

Gentoo runs beautifully, all onboard hardware is supported.

I love my Dells.......lots of good ones to be had on eBay.

All of mine are refurbs that I won/bought off eBay.

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## Rhysem

If you get the most bleeding-edge laptop it usually doesn't work quite right. My Dell Insipron 300m went from "mostly not working" to "mostly working" over the last 6 months or so. I can't say for sure on the modem or bluetooth, I haven't tried either, but the rest of stuff seems to work. I'm not sure all the suspend modes work right, I haven't really worried about it since I'm usually near a plug.

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## Doomwookie

About all the normal features work great on my Toshiba Satellite P25-S607.  It is the fancy of-the-wall items like the tvtuner and mce remote that I can't get working.  The GeforceFX graphics card and ethernet work beautifully.  The IRda should be working on mine, but I havn't got around to testing it yet.  I also have not tried the SDcard reader since I don't have any Secure-Digital cards, CDs and DVDs are much cheeper storage.

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## gorjusborg

I have to agree with the previous post that IBM laptops are very linux-friendly.  

I am using the 2.6.0-test11 kernel on my IBM Thinkpad X31 right now.  I had 3d acceleration with DRI when I used to use the 2.4 kernel, but I haven't tried to hard to fix the problem since I don't play much for games on my laptop.   The only thing I must warn you about is the Centrino bullsh#t wireless cards that are pretty popular right now.  Make sure that any laptop you own has a Prism2 or Orinoco based miniPCI card in it (or, a Cisco Aironet like I have..).  IBM will supply an Aironet card as an option when you build a notebook through them.

Good luck

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## chefakito

I've got a Dell Inspiron 8500 that I've got +90% working:

Linux kernel: mm-sources 2.6.3-mm1

video: nvidia Geforce4 4400 Go -- working with nvidia-kernel/glx

sound: intel8x0 -- working

network: broadcom 4400 -- working

cpufreq: working

ACPI: appears to work 

    -- battery -- working

    -- throttle -- working

    -- power -- working

    -- thermal -- working

    -- buttons -- working

IEEE1384 (firewire) -- working

PCMCIA -- yenta_socket -- working

Display: mostly working -- can't control backlight via software, otherwise it works fine.

Modem -- not tested

IRDA -- not tested

battery life: ~210min average (typing in open office)

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## JetAce44

 *chefakito wrote:*   

> I've got a Dell Inspiron 8500 that I've got +90% working:
> 
> Linux kernel: mm-sources 2.6.3-mm1
> 
> video: nvidia Geforce4 4400 Go -- working with nvidia-kernel/glx
> ...

 

Wow, that battery life is impressive. This was one of the laptops I was looking at for college, guess I look more into it!

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## m33sb3w

This thread may help you.

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## jcmorris

 *stgreek wrote:*   

> If you are looking for x86 laptops, the most linux-compatible by far are IBMs. However, with 2.6 changes, quite a few things have changed so it will be more difficult to setup a laptop in perfect working condition.

 

Oh, I love my 4-week old R40.  EVERYTHING, including my built-in Cisco wireless, works (as of 2.6.3).  I get 4-5 hours of battery out of this bad boy.  Oh, use APM, it is more functional than ACPI currently is, and it was not difficult to set up (in fact, no configuration at all to make it sleep when the lid is closed).  My only difficulty has been some failures while resuming (when suspending in X), and sometimes it locks when I've left it idle for a while.  Maybe as 2.6 stabilizes, these will disappear.  And DRI is perfect on its Radeon 7500. Get IBM!

jcm

Edit:  Forgot to mention, I never tried the modem, but it is supposed to be supported (not sure which driver, though)

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## chefakito

 *Quote:*   

> Wow, that battery life is impressive. This was one of the laptops I was looking at for college, guess I look more into it!

 

Dell seems to have stopped producing the 8500 -- however, I believe they replaced with the Pentium M based 8600. I have a buddy with one and it appears he has double the battery life(in Windows) I've got. I'm not sure how well supported the Pentium M is, but its battery life is great.  :Smile: 

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## missyvortex

 *Quote:*   

> Wow, that battery life is impressive. This was one of the laptops I was looking at for college, guess I look more into it!Wow, that battery life is impressive.

 

i admit 3 1/2 hours is impressive for a pc laptop but the old cloured ibooks and the 14" screen white ibooks all have 6 hours as long as its a new or good condition battery. i can get 6hrs out of my blueberry for browsing the net or typing. 

and my boyfriend has one of the white ibooks 12" which has shorter life of 5hours for some bizarre reason -  though mandrake linux for powerpc ran just fine on it. neither of us has tried gentoo on them (i won't be since i'm selling mine soon but my boyfriend was thinking about it.)

whats more the older ibooks (g3's) have suddenly price dropped on ebay since the new g4's came out and i think its possible to get them for £200 at the lowest - but its more for the white ibook though they are much slimmer and lighter (and have good reinforcement!)[/quote]

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