i'm buying new laptop (but think of swiching to linux)?

Rasputin_RU · 24 Nov 2006 at 08:55

i was looking for advice on is linux better than windows or not, i hear a lot of people chat about switching.
would people of this forum advice to me to install linux as soon as i buy it?
i've also read that programs such as flash are available for linux, but do they work as good?

toy_soldier · 24 Nov 2006 at 11:14

You havent really given much details of what you want from your laptop. Do you have any experience with linux? Do you have any reason not to use Windows? Are you an advanced user etc?

If you have no experience of linux then by all means install it but maybe as a dual boot with Windows XP, otherwise I think you would find yourslef quickly uninstalling it.

You are correct that Flash is available for linux but I dont have any experience with it to answer any questions about it. Overall programs and drivers for linux are a lot more comlicated to install compared with Windows.

deano · 24 Nov 2006 at 11:20

Hi

IBM / Lenovo laptops are currently the most compatible with linux. so would suggest looking into IBM laptops to save on headaches later on with drivers etc etc.

a good resource is :-

http://www.linux-laptop.net/

cheers
Deano

Hate · 24 Nov 2006 at 11:26

One thing i would advise is get an nVidia graphics card, avoid ATI - their driver support is shocking

GarethDW · 24 Nov 2006 at 12:25

Another piece of advice... get a good book, if this is your first attempt at working with Linux. You will find that a lot of things are done differently to how Microsoft like people to do things, and unlearning the MS way of things is one of the hardest parts. A good book, such as the Linux Bible series by John Wiley, is good for this.

AJUK · 24 Nov 2006 at 14:10

I agree with deano, IBM Thinkpads (Lenovo) offer very good compatibility. I used to have an R50e and Ubuntu worked fantastically well on that little beauty.

D.P. · 25 Nov 2006 at 13:20

I have an IBM T60p that runs floorlessly with KUbuntu. This also has an ATI gfx card which hasnt given to many nightmares.

Clarkey · 25 Nov 2006 at 20:03

flawlessly. Oh and fwiw my Fujitsu Amilo M notebook has run every distro i've thrown at it with no real problems.

Captain-Fungi · 25 Nov 2006 at 21:25

I would imagine the biggest concern when installing on a laptop is the support for WiFi, this gave me a lot of pain when I first began Linux on my old Dell Latitude.

Check the chipset and card model for support as to save yourself a lot of grief once it comes to install/use Linux.

Clarkey · 26 Nov 2006 at 00:14

intel wifi cards are supported by every distro i've tried.

pinkegobox · 26 Nov 2006 at 00:32

AJUK said:
I agree with deano, IBM Thinkpads (Lenovo) offer very good compatibility. I used to have an R50e and Ubuntu worked fantastically well on that little beauty.

looky bugger - i have the same laptop and ubuntu 6.10 (edgy) is not loving my wifi card. it seem to detect it and all, but it's not actually connecting to the network

need to get around to updating the drivers, but suffice to say it's not working out of the box (although it did first time, then stopped working... and no, it's not because of the hardware killswitch)