[NCLUG] Linux on laptop - can I buy any laptop I want, or do I still need to check for hardware compatibility?

Ryan J Nicholson rjn511 at gmail.com
Sat Aug 28 13:46:03 MDT 2010


The major problem I've had with recent laptops is making suspend (or
rather, resume!) work. Usually it happens on machines with some binary
driver. So I made a point to buy a laptop with Intel graphics (845/945
series) - full hardware rendering with zero fiddling. I also decided,
to minimize fiddling (I do enough as it is), to shop within the
ThinkPads.

I bought a used T43 four months ago and use it as my everyday machine.
It is wonderful. If you take the time to research your purchase and
pop a KNOPPIX cd into some of your friends' laptops, you'll get a feel
for what hardware works and what isn't even worth dinking around with.
Since I was shopping for a ThinkPad, I read extensively on
www.thinkwiki.org - but the Debian wiki also has excellent info for a
range of laptops.

http://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn

There is an HCL at http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/ that I look at, but
it's not anecdotal.



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