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At the top end:
https://system76.com/cart/conf...
http://www.dell.com/us/busines...
(customizable with Ubuntu 14.04)

What do you recommend for running Linux?
The latest Ubuntu LTS is a good start.

For a C++ development environment?
I really like Code::Blocks, but I'm thinking that wi'll be up to her...

An nVidia GPU helps accelerate the only "gravitational wave" program I've ever run (https://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/). Likely not relevant, but hey you did ask Slashdot.

https://system76.com/laptops/b...

Ok I'll bite. Show me where I can buy a Linux laptop, with a i7-4710, 1TB HDD, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 850M.

No trouble:

Configure your Bonobo Extreme [Desktop Replacement]

Base price $1629
CPU Upgrades start at $50.

Free upgrade to NVIDIA 870M
Upgrade to 12 GB for $69.
1 TB HDDs starting at $39.
Full range of SSD primary and HDD/SSD secondary drives, optical and tertiary SSD drives.

the inability to buy an OEM desktop machine without paying for Windows

https://system76.com/

I think this is what you call getting Scroogled

Might be funny if the commercial was not so insanely stupid. And the pawn shop stars end up looking stupid because no one clued them in.

Better off purchasing hardware from a Linux ONLY vendor, like ZaReason or System 76 as their hardware is open and more likely to let you run even Windows (can always purchase a license, at least the hardware will not prevent you, though Microsoft might via their software) if you wanted to. Fortunately there is no need for that if you purchase smart.

That commercial is just another pro Windows commercial misleading others by implying that a restricted and/or limited Windows device is somehow better for a customer. That is insane.

Windows 8 with the proprietary hardware/chipsets (because of hardware vendor buy in) that requires a MS license to install even Linux on the device, is the main reason many of us will never buy that hardware, no matter what software runs on it.

No Root Access = Dumb Device

Of course I would never purchase a Kindle, Chrome book, or any other dumb device that either did not have an operating systems (for use offline while not connected to the Internet) or did not allow for root access so that I could install what I want, when I want it, in the way I want to use it.

This rootable tablet from ZaReason,the ZaTab ZT2, blows those other restricted and limited tablets, handhelds and devices away. Full root (hackable by you) access with a USB slot, yea. I download apps on my Linux laptop into my 32GB USB Micro SD card (using a USB adapter) and use them on my tablet as I want. The Micro SD card simply inserts into the slot and voila all my data is there. Same applies to music, only purchase music that can be played on any of your devices, such is possible if your device, whatever that device is, is rootable so that you can install open applications on it.

With the ability to run web apps standalone (thanks to HTML 5), yes while not connected to the Internet, why limit yourself by requiring you to be connected to the internet to use the device, that is equally insane.

"Scroogled", only if you buy a non-rootable non-Linux device, which is insane by definition. My first rootable Linux handheld was in 2006, come on people its 2014, the improvements in Linux speak for themselves, lift up your heads, look around and learn that you only are "Scroogled" if you allow yourself to be by purchasing a non-rootable device. Or hardware that only lets you run one operating system.

Full Disclosure: I can't speak to System 76 as I have purchased my last four hardware devices from ZaReason. When I visited the System 76 site, they seem to focus on Unbuntu, where as with ZaReason I could request other distros, Debian, Arch, Mint, Fedora, basically whatever Linux distro you want instead. Of course they run Android Jelly Bean, currently, on their ZaTab ZT2tablets. So far every ZaReason hardware box has worked out of the box in all areas, video, music, wifi, bluetooth, ethernet, etc... Convenient that they work out the kinks so their hardware just works out of the box, love that!

Forgot to add this:
https://www.system76.com/laptops/

Really nice laptops and you can install pretty much any Linux distro on them.

Wow, I've never seen people who make upwards of $150 or so an hour who weren't also smart enough to cut down their costs by learning how their tools work. Granted, for video/graphics editing Macs (or other high end Unix workstations, I've seen quite the variety in my days) are hard to beat; that's just where the tools are; but there are a plethora of developers of all shapes and sizes using Macs, some of them probably drooling at the thought of a super expensive new shiny Mac Pro, and those developers I've found are normally at least 100x less productive than someone who is comfortable with a command line and Linux.

It doesn't help that colleges all over the US are offering subsidized Macbooks with the cost of tuition, and thus indenturing a whole generation into an extremely narrow thought process. Luckily it only takes a few meetups or other real world experiences for those kids to realize Macs are 100% unnecessary unless you're making iOS or OSX apps, and I usually point them to System 76 for their next purchase, typically at 1/3 of the cost and an increase in performance over their Macbook.

It's nice to know that it's not necessary to have such a grievous overhead to make so much money though. I feel sorry for Mac users that are still paying off their hugely expensive rig, when I can accomplish the exact same things with a machine often 1/4 of the price :)

I was going to say that seems a painful way to get a Windows Laptop, but I'd not looked System 76 for a while and some of their stuff looks pretty nice

I'm typing this from a Ubuntu computer delivered to me just 2 days ago from http://system76.com.

Is it fair to blame Ubuntu for all the issues that come with building a computer from scratch?

But with that said, I agree the current Linux distros aren't ready for the average computer user. It's not Linux that's the problem. It's the fact that distros just don't put in ( or have for that matter ) the resources necessary to "polish" the OS.

We know Linux can do this because we use Android phones, and they work just fine for most users.

And personally I believe until distros put philosophy aside and concentrate on bringing in enough resources to fund continued development, Linux will remain inadequate for the average home computer user.

More comment, less "distros". ugh.

I'm typing this from a Ubuntu computer delivered to me just 2 days ago from http://system76.com.

Is it fair to blame Ubuntu for all the issues that come with building a computer from scratch?

But with that said, I agree the current Linux distros aren't ready for the average computer user. It's not Linux that's the problem. It's the fact that distros just don't put in ( or have for that matter ) the resources necessary to "polish" the OS.

We know Linux can do this because we use Android phones, and they work just fine for most users.

And personally I believe until distros put philosophy aside and concentrate on bringing in enough resources to fund continued development, Linux will remain inadequate for the average home computer user.

I won't even buy an OEM install because it's got so much crap on it -- my mother in law and my wife's laptops took so much time to disable all of the shit it wasn't funny. What should be on paper a decent machine with nice specs is full of shit that slows it down and makes it unusable, because there's no memory left.

I was tired of removing crap and just ordered a nice machine from these folks without any crap on it

...why not try these guys? https://www.system76.com/ Desktops and laptops available.

Here's something a little more upscale: 17.3" core i7 8 Gb/500 Gb For the same price https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/bonx6 Personally, upgrading to the two 1Tb drives, at $1,660, makes this a !@#$ing phenomenal Ubuntu machine.

I just bought a custom-built i7 laptop from System76 with Ubuntu installed. Of course, when I get it, I'll still have to uninstall ubuntu and replace it with kubuntu.

System76 sells good hardware with Linux pre-installed. I've been using a Gazelle Professional for a few months now and am happy with it. 15.6" 1920x1080 screen, i7-3630QM@2.4Ghz, 8gb ddr3@1600Mhz, 256gb 6Gb/s ssd, ~$1200. https://www.system76.com/

I'm a notebook fan - need the portability for various reasons - and have bought from a few places.

If you want Windows, try Velocity Micro http://www.velocitymicro.com/ and look into their NoteMagix line. I just checked and you can pick between various Windows 7 and 8 flavors.

Or perhaps Sager Notebooks http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php I bought a gaming notebook from them 3 years ago and it is still going strong (although I upgraded it to Windows 8 and swapped the HD for an SSD since then).

Or try System76, I bought a linux notebook from them and was happy with it. http://www.system76.com/

I just purchased a laptop from https://www.system76.com/ their laptops come only with Ubuntu, had excellent customization options, and reasonable pricing (why is it so hard to customize laptops nowadays, when did this happen =\ ) My colleague recommended them and I get my laptop Monday so I don't have first hand experience yet, but I just had to make this decision and that's what I ended with selecting.

As it is impossible to sell a computer without Windows outside of a very small niche - most users don't even know what an OS is - that gives Microsoft such bargaining power that when they demand, OEMs have no choice but to comply.

That is completely false, see Apple, System76, Dell, Zareason and others. That is a pretty sizeable 'niche', but of course Microsoft have that much control because end users want Microsoft's product and those OEMs are invested in building products for them and (outside of Apple) those vendors of the alternative operating systems - and their supporters - spend all their time focussed on what Microsoft is doing and whinging about it rather than producing a product that people actually *want* to use. The only thing stopping Linux adoption is Linux and its community, just look at what happened when a competent company with a focus on the user took Linux and made it palatable for the masses - they squashed Microsoft and RIM in the smartphone market! Desktop Linux distros are built by developers for developers, that's why the vast majority of non-developers don't use them.

I found one in 15 seconds on google. Can we stop pretending these don't exist now?

I've never purchased from them, but they're the first ones I thought of:

https://www.system76.com/

I have found that building such systems myself will end up costing a bit more because I cherry pick better components all around when less powerful options would have sufficed. If this is for an office setup and you're the one that's going to end up doing support for them then you'll want to know what's inside. If you can afford it though it would be better to pass this support issue over to someone else that's already doing desktop linux like System76 - Desktops.

only vendor i know https://www.system76.com/

Got a new Ubuntu laptop from them recently...its terrific.

system76.com

They have a broader choice of configuration options than Dell. At the moment they're the only vendor I know of that is consistently Linux-friendly in their hardware designs.

There are several makers of Linux laptops, at this point:
I've had great experiences buying from ZaReason, I know people who have had great experiences buying from System76, and ThinkPenguin is another option.

I'm writing this from a ZaReason UltraLap 430 (see recent review on Ars Technica, and a video review by Tom Merritt [note that there are a couple of mistakes about specs in the video]), which I love even more than the Thinkpad X-series that it replaced.

My wife has a ZaReason Alto 4330 that she loves even more than the Thinkpad X-series that it replaced.

For work, I've had several ZaReason machines--including some Alto 3880 laptops (the previous generation of what my wife now has). We got the Altos with 8-way multiprocessing (4-core + hyperthreading) and gobs of RAM, with run-times of 3-4 hours on a single charge and weight just over 4 lbs; they've made fantastic developers' laptops for us.

And, for what you get, the ZaReason machines aren't even that expensive (seriously--a monster-power Alto is only ~$1k).

If you ask for it, the computers even come with whatever username you want setup--you don't even have to fill your name into the account; you just turn the computers on and use them (if you don't ask for it, they infer it from the name on the order).

As I understand it from my friends, System 76 is basically the same way, except that they're Ubuntu only.

Take a look at this System 76 laptop:
https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/lemu4

With comparable specs it comes to $1008, upgraded from base model:
3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor ( 2.40GHz 6MB L3 Cache - 4 Cores plus Hyperthreading )
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 4GB
256 GB Crucial M4 Series SATA III 6 Gb/s Solid State Disk Drive

As for differences:
Dell is 13.3 in, System76 is 14 in
System 76 is 2.5 pounds heavier (4.5 pounds total)

Am I missing something else?

That's great but; and be completely honest here, how much time did you put into getting your linux distro working with all your hardware?

Installed Kubuntu, then checked the box in the driver manager for the proprietary nvidia drivers. I think Kubuntu took 20 minutes (including downloading updates while installing), proprietary driver about three minutes, including the reboot. That was it... Now, getting Windows 7 working on it... That requires me to download a whole bunch of drivers and install in different ways. Some stuff I have to navigate to an inf file (the card reader), others have an installer (graphics card) etc. I'm pretty certain getting a 'base' system takes me a few hours on Windows.

Did you buy hardware specifically because it had known compatibility with linux?

I guess Linux OEMs like System76 would count as a 'yes'? And stuff from Arbico and PCSpecialist would count as a no?

As for people saying I'm buying hardware for windows; be honest here, pretty much all consumer PC hardware has solid windows compatibility.

Except it doesn't. I've had to deal with imaging numerous systems and every big move performed for a Windows upgrade (ie: XP > Vista > 7) just made a subset of hardware useless. I can't say I had the same experience with Linux (SuSE 9 > SuSE 10 > SusE 11). This was both from respective major OEMs that support those operating systems officially.

So really, how much time did you spend getting your *nix just right so that you don't have issues with graphics/audio/bluetooth for any apps/games?

I guess if I installed from scratch, under two hours, including download time for the ISO, burning, installing Kubuntu, checking a box in the driver manager, installing crossover games, installing steam and then downloading (where about an hour is eaten) and installing left 4 dead.

No configuration files or terminal prompt, just running installers.

If they move to Linux they will fail.

I would be inclined to agree, but only because moving right now from a platform where they make a lot of profit to a platform where they are currently making no profit is likely to be suicide. You'd want to actually have a bigger market in the target market before moving.

I myself am a gamer and all my friends who also game aren't techies.

I think your credentials are lacking to just plainly accept your opinion on this matter without any... depth behind it.

There is no way in hell they will be installing Linux on their computers.

Why would you install Linux on your computer? You don't install Windows on your computer, it comes with your computer. Just buy it with a computer like you do with Windows. Why are you making this harder than it is really?

If they focus their product dev to Linux it will sink the company.

Is this the same sort of experienced gamer knowledge that have us predictions that Microsoft would never be able to make a game console that would be profitable etc when they initially announced they would make a game console?

Note: I am not the grand parent poster.

Like it or hate it, Device Manager is a cake-walk to use and anybody can figure it out in a few minutes.

You get "Unknown device" in the device manager and you have no idea what it is or what driver or anything, you can't grab a driver from windows update, because windows update doesn't have it. The only way to know is if the driver is installed that you don't have installed because you don't know what driver you need which is fairly difficult if you're just given a machine, with no information as to what it's components are and expected to install a version of Windows with whatever drivers it needs without opening the case.

At least on Linux you can do a lspci and identify what hardware is there and what drivers you need to install. With stuff like "Hardware Drivers" (in Ubuntu) where you just point and click to install proprietary drivers when you want them, it's not really any worse than Windows at that point.

Is there a good resource for finding Linux friendly hardware?

Some Linux OEMs like:

http://system76.com/
http://www.dell.com/linux
http://www.hp.com/linux
https://www.avadirect.com/
http://cosmos.linuxbeach.net/
http://www.eightvirtues.com/
http://www.emperorlinux.com/

I have been looking for this because I am in the process of trying to build a machine that is Linux friendly and I have been struggling with this.

Linus uses Apple hardware at the moment to my knowledge.

For proof I direct you to this page of over 100 show stopping bugs which

I was taking you seriously, but very quickly turned off when I started reading the first section, about video drivers - Which apparently is important enough to be first place, so should be good enough to judge the rest of the list.

Coming up with issues like framebuffer drivers being an issue with proprietary drivers when proprietary drivers offer their own framebuffer systems to begin with.

Or even how GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc with Mesa is meant to be a big issue.

Like anyone using a decent Linux desktop installation would even make use of Mesa (software rendering instead of GPU). This makes me feel that this whole list was just a bunch of scare mongering on your part, trying to spread FUD among less knowledgeable users in the matter. The opensource and proprietary drivers provided in xorg for nVidia, Intel and AMD (and probably others, but I haven't checked) chipsets have full support for GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc - If you're relying on software rendering, you've got bigger issues than s3tc.

I get the feeling the issues with driver arguments that users experience were also from using hardware not made by Linux OEMs like System 76. It's really no different from people complaining stuff doesn't work right on Windows 7 when the hardware was provided by the OEM with drivers and such for Windows Vista only.

No unified API for H.264 AVC/Microsoft VC acceleration. VDPAU is only supported on NVIDIA GPUs. Intel's VAAPI is still immature and it's not yet merged and accepted (by mplayer/ffmpeg/xine/etc.)

You mean how it's called "GL_NV_vdpau_interop" because it's not been formalized in an OpenGL specification yet? If AMD, Intel do end up supporting it without even reaching the specification, guess what the major non-unified code difference will be...

GL_AMD_vdpau_interop
GL_INTEL_vdpau_interop

And this is obscured behind a libvdpau library which has fall backs for non-support, so userland applications don't even need to be aware of it. I also wasn't aware that applications had to adopt a new technology the moment it's introduced.

Really, these arguments hold little weight with me.

Linux has beautiful UIs, and tons of software, but retailers like myself won't ever touch your product if we install it on a system and 6 months later its broken its own drivers because some dev got a bee in his butt to futz with some low level system files and trashed my customer's WiFi or sound...ohh God sound, WTF were they thinking with Pulse?

I can't recall instances in the corporate environment where this happened with SuSE and Lenovo hardware it came with, nor can I recall consumer instances where this happened with Ubuntu and System76. What Linux OEMs and distro are you referring to in your examples?

I need a new system. My 5 year old Dell (preloaded with Ubuntu 7.04, now upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04) is starting to really show its age. I am posting this from it with my original wireless card. While all of my favorite Windows games (RCT2, Battle Zone, Fallout, Death Rally) work perfecty under WINE and the rest, (ROTT, DOOMxxx, Cold War, DEFCON 1) have been natively ported to Linux, I can't run the lastest games like "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" with the best performance. It is playable but slow.

I got tired of upgrading Ubuntu every 6 months - while pretty easy compared to a Windows upgrade, you still have to download a lot of stuff and it took awhile. After LTS 8.04, I just upgraded every 2 years. Now at 12.04, the LTS cycle is 5 years, about the max life of a PC.

If you want a Linux computer, buy one with it preinstalled. That way, all of your shit works. I got mine from Dell, though I am not sure they offer them anymore. No mattter. I am drooling over one of these, but might have to settle for one of these.

I need a new system. My 5 year old Dell (preloaded with Ubuntu 7.04, now upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04) is starting to really show its age. I am posting this from it with my original wireless card. While all of my favorite Windows games (RCT2, Battle Zone, Fallout, Death Rally) work perfecty under WINE and the rest, (ROTT, DOOMxxx, Cold War, DEFCON 1) have been natively ported to Linux, I can't run the lastest games like "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" with the best performance. It is playable but slow.

I got tired of upgrading Ubuntu every 6 months - while pretty easy compared to a Windows upgrade, you still have to download a lot of stuff and it took awhile. After LTS 8.04, I just upgraded every 2 years. Now at 12.04, the LTS cycle is 5 years, about the max life of a PC.

If you want a Linux computer, buy one with it preinstalled. That way, all of your shit works. I got mine from Dell, though I am not sure they offer them anymore. No mattter. I am drooling over one of these, but might have to settle for one of these.

You say that like it is simple.

He never said it was simple just suggested it as an option.

There are people who expect their machines to work. They expect wireless, sleep, hibernate, 4G dongles, etc. to work in order to do business. They expect dock / undock with multiple large monitors to work.

Just like you wouldn't buy a computer with hardware that didn't work well with Windows, you shouldn't expect hardware not designed with Linux in mind to work well either. I have a Linux laptop I bought from http://system76.com/ and it does all of the things you mention perfectly. There is also the OSX option. I hear Macbooks do the stuff above pretty well.

With a learning curve like that, why would anyone want to run Windows?

Because most users don't install Windows themselves?

And here we have it: the simple answer.

The way to have more people using the Linux desktop is to HAVE IT PREINSTALLED by vendors, because most people are unwilling to install an OS themselves from scratch, no matter how incredible it is. Of course, this is much easier said than done, but I think that blaming GNOME/KDE/Unity for Linux's 1% market share is missing the point by a mile.

Buying pre-installed linux is possible already, especially in the US. I just bought one of these: https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/lemu4. Everything pretty much just works, and they support future releases of ubuntu as well. Another old laptop I have is a dell inspiron 1501. It didn't come with linux pre-installed in the market I bought it in, but I knew the hardware was supported because the same model was sold with linux on it in some markets. A linux install is actually quite painless nowadays if all the hardware is supported. If you like an ultrabook you can try the Dell XPS 13: does not come with linux preinstalled yet, but they will in the future so everything should be well supported.

Please give some in depth information about how Linux does not "just run" on systems like http://system76.com/

Thanks.

Maybe next time by your laptop from a vendor like System76?

And yet, audio has always worked for me under Windows (and OS X), but it's always been a gamble on Linux.

Out of curiosity, did you buy your Linux system from a Linux OEM like System76 ?

You can avoid all the pain of researching hardware by purchasing a pre-configured Linux machine.

https://www.system76.com/

I've had great experiences from them. Great support, both official and community. Computer comes ready to go, with a system76 repo for support of very new hardware. After less than a year, my laptop now works with vanilla Linux without need of system76's software.

Ships with latest Ubuntu, but if you're not a fan of Unity, xubuntu is great.

You make it sound like vendors such as HP, System76, Lenovo etc. don't have already existing, presupported hardware setups for Linux that have full hardware acceleration. Maybe in future you should buy supported hardware to run on Linux instead? Because if you aren't going to buy properly supported hardware, VALVe supporting Linux isn't going to magically make it work anymore than it is now.

I'm using a System 76 laptop for about 4 months now. I like the choices of hardware options. Here's the downsides. I had a rocky ordering experience: Billing address and shipping addresses were different and 'broke' their system so it took a phone call to fix the problem. Then I had to reinstall the operating system to fine tune Ubuntu; Not a biggie since I normally make my own install on any new box. Since then it runs like a clock. Laptop (Lemur is the model) is light, fast, has a nice touch...everything I wanted and no MS TAX. check them out at https://www.system76.com/ Maybe if there's more demand for open hardware...more people will build it.

Wow, you're really on a roll trolling Linux today. Earlier Debian "sucked ass" and now this. Check this out, if you want a good experience with a modern general purpose distro, you might want to have at least semi-modern hardware to go with it. For P3's there are appropriate distributions like Lubuntu. Those distro's are much more appropriate in your situation. As far as your Flash Player not working, maybe you didn't install it correctly. If an OS complains that an installation file is "missing" that usually means it is.

P.S. And if you want the best experience of all do what 99 percent of the computer using public already do: buy your computer with the OS of your choice already on it.

Just to add to you're point, I literally just bought a laptop from System76 that came with Ubuntu pre-installed.

It works great. I do have one problem, which may be my fault more than the machines. My older other laptop is an HP that came with Windows XP, was upgraded to Vista, broke horribly crashing and blue screens just about every day, then had Linux Mint installed and it's run with no issues for the last 5 years. It's primarily my MineCraft/Media server now, which seems to absorb all of the memory on the machine. I was able to get some games I had bough from GOG to run on a XP VMware installation on the old machine. The same games will not run on an XP VirtualBox installation on the new machine. I've only had the new laptop for a week, but I suspect it's one of two issues. It could be differences between VirtualBox and VMWare that are causing the issues. Or it could possibly be the cheapy Intel graphics card that came with the new machine. I won't know for sure until I have a chance to install VMWare and try running the same games under that instead of VirtualBox.

Long rambling point short, System76 is a great place to get a Linux pre-installed laptop if you're trying to avoid getting one with Windows preloaded.

System 76 will sell you a Linux-based laptop, as well as other companies (don't have additional links offhand) that take regular hardware (Lenovo, Dell, etc.) and will install Linux on it, and support it. At this point I buy hardware only from companies that support exactly what I want (e.g. MacOS, Apple, Linux, System76). Maybe I'm getting old (git off ma lawn!) but tracking down bleeding edge drivers for this and that equipment has ceased to be any fun; I want my machine to start up, get to a desktop, so I can do *my* stuff.

Except for the fact that every non-Apple x86 computer sold has Windows preinstalled, and when W8 comes out

No that is not correct.

every non-Apple x86 computer sold will have W8 preinstalled, along with secure boot.

And that stops you from running Linux on it how? I don't think you know what secureboot is and just see it as a thing that locks out non-Windows OSes. If you have a key and a signed linux bootloader you install that key using secureboot custom mode, if not then you can't use secureboot and you just turn it off, very simple, not a hard concept to grasp.

$2000 for a laptop sounds like a lot of money. Does your sister *need* Window$? If not, I recommend a System76 Pangolin Performance. For $923 you can get the features you want: SSD, screen resolution and GPU, good CPU plus 8GB of ram.
https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/panp9#

System 76
ZaReason

That's two. If you search, I'm certain you can find more.

I haven't actually used a System76 laptop, but they look really good: https://www.system76.com/laptops/

Their 15.6" Pangolin comes with all your criteria plus more (and even more if you want) except for maybe the heat issue, which I'm unsure about. It's around $1000.

I think it's the way to go. If I had $1,500 to spend, I would probably go straight for their computers.

This is what you would get for (15.6" Pangolin) $974:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit
5 Free GB of Ubuntu One Online Storage and Sync
15.6" 1080p Full High Definition LED Backlit Display with Glossy Surface ( 1920 x 1080 )
Intel HD Graphics 4000
3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor ( 2.30GHz 6MB L3 Cache - 4 Cores plus Hyperthreading )
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 1 X 4 GB
500 GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 4 GB SSD +$75.00
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive
Intel Centrino 1030 - 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
No Bag
1 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 1 Yr. Technical Support

I'm sure that'll suite your needs. :)

both have nice websites with the obvious base choices for you being:
https://zareason.com/shop/Strata-6770.html
Stock at $849
with a 160GB SSD comes to $1,148

and for me the winner would be:

https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/gazp7
3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor
Stock at $899
With 180 GB SSD comes $1178

Btw, for what you are asking for, your budget seems high actually :).

Mod grandparent up ... I also purchased a System76 laptop 8 months ago or so and absolutely love it. It has the full numeric keypad and has real Fn keys. My only complaint would be the touch pad ... I hate all touch pads.

While my laptop came pre-installed with Ubuntu, I eventually migrated to Fedora 16. Everything worked on the default installation; no special drivers were required. I hope to not buy another laptop for another 5 or 6 years, but when I do, I'll be looking at System76 first.

Disclaimer: I do not work for, nor own stock in System76. I'm just a very happy customer.

Mod grandparent up ... I also purchased a System76 laptop 8 months ago or so and absolutely love it. It has the full numeric keypad and has real Fn keys. My only complaint would be the touch pad ... I hate all touch pads.

While my laptop came pre-installed with Ubuntu, I eventually migrated to Fedora 16. Everything worked on the default installation; no special drivers were required. I hope to not buy another laptop for another 5 or 6 years, but when I do, I'll be looking at System76 first.

Disclaimer: I do not work for, nor own stock in System76. I'm just a very happy customer.