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It will save you much aggrivation and probably a lot of money as well.

Yes, but how long does it take to set up when you're not sure that your hardware is 100% ?

be sure.

If you waste 8 hours or so of your time setting it up, how much is that worth to you ?

Better than wasting my time doing something i already know how to do. Or watching tv, or something else that doesn't teach me anything new. And if I already know how to do the install, it'll only take me about a half hour, and it'll be setup the way *I* want it. Hell, isn't that why i'm running linux in the first place?

My portable: sony vaio pcg-n505vx 128m 20g, debian SID, reiserfs, all hardware except the winmodem working, tho i haven't tested the firewire as i have no firewire devices. You got someplace thats gunna set that up for me?

--sean, on his fujitsu laptop running openbsd, since his vaio was left at work.

A quick reference:

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

A few years ago I had my heart set on the Toshiba Portege 3110ct, but before I bought the computer I checked to see if linux would run on it (using the linux laptop website).

When I bought the machine I had confidence that it would work. I knew there would be issues with winmodem , but since I had internet connection using 10BaseT I choose to ignore this downfall.

Over the years I have tried several versions of Linux, updating to get a clean install every so often. My lastest install was Mandrake 8.0, this managed to auto detect all hardware (also informing me I should go to a particular website for winmodem drivers).

Moral of story, if there is one. Use the web and goto the linux laptop website, as other people give some accounts in what works or does not work with there notebooks under linux. They will note such issues with soundcard, modems, etc. Note: If they installed on a older version of linux, expect some better support for there unsupported hardware (try searching for web for +linux +part or +linux +notebook, and you will most likely find someone working on finish implementing that part)

Why not check laptop ratings at the Linux Hardware Database? For the most comprehensive resource I've found, visit Linux on Laptops. Individual laptops aren't rated, but you'll learn if anyone's had success with the hardware you hope to use.

Helevius

Before you buy, be sure to review the model information on the "Linux Laptops page"

If your laptop model is not there, I'd think a bit before buying it.
I've had great success with Linux on a few IBM notebooks (old and newer) with a little help from this website.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
Anomaly

Check out the Mobile Linux User's Guide and Linux for Laptops.

700 MHz Celeron

14.1" XGA TFT

128MB SDRAM

Internal 56k Modem (supported!)

Internal 10/100 ethernet (supported!)

10GB HD

8X DVD

Modular Floppy

100MB Zip

I especially like the fact that onboard modem and ethernet are supported, so I don't have to waste PC card slots for my network access. Check out the Linux on Laptops site to see how others have tweaked out their laptops for linux.

I've met some Dell tech support people in the past, and they seem to know their chicken. Between that and the 3-year warranty I purchased, The only thing I expect to have trouble with is my wireless network at home (There are no linux drivers for Acer Warplink cards *sigh*)

(And no, I don't work for them, so don't flame me...:-)

I did install Solaris on there once, but it does not support the ATI Rage Mobility video card, so you either have to buy a commercial X server or use XFree86, if you want a GUI. But if you get it with the Intel PRO/100+ MiniPCI network card, that is supported in Solaris. Only one pcmcia nic is supported, and I am not sure it is readily available.

For Linux, the Linux on Laptops site is a good source of information.

Laptops are always nightmares. They contain a great deal of hardware, typically customized in proprietary, non-public ways, that can NOT be swapped out or changed. To make matters worse, Microsoft, being the evil money-grubbing bastards they are, now encourages (or is that requires) laptop manufacturers to distribute win98 (or whatever they are up to now) in a completely-wipe-and-rebuild-the-entire-system cd. So forget about installing windows after reformatting/partitioning the drive. Even if you have a different copy of windows, you'd still be missing all the customized drivers.

All that said, Linux on a laptop is incredibly, unbelievably useful. My recommendation is that you check out http://www.linux-laptop.net/. They are one of the best sources for getting Linux up and going on your laptop.

One or two other pieces of advice:

• To get both win98 and Linux on my laptop, I needed to clean-wipe-and-reinstall win98, then BEFORE booting into win98 for the first time, resize the windows partition, and create the linux partitions. Win98 wanted to create a swapfile at the end of its partition, which prevented the partition from being resized. My friends in the windows world tell me there's an easier solution. I just needed to buy certain additional software programs. But, as seldom as I use windows, I was damned if they were going to get any more money out of me!

• Installing Red Hat 6.2 locked up my laptop's keyboard whenever I hit the second stage install. (I tried every option from ftp to nfs to floppy to cdrom boot.) Solution: In BIOS, I set closing the case lid to suspend the computer, booted Red Hat off cdrom, closed the lid when it froze, reopened the lid, which unfroze Red Hat, and continued the install. Only problem: Forgot I had set this "feature". Later on, tried to ssh into the laptop after I had closed the lid....