Ask Slashdot: GNU/Linux Laptops?

"I'm an OS X user looking to switch to a Linux laptop. I like the Unix/BSD aspect of OS X. Simple things like when I close the lid the laptop goes to sleep, the sound card works out of the box, long battery life, minimum cooling fan noise, and a comprehensive but relatively straightforward backup system and 'AppleCare' package are important to me. What all-inclusive model of laptop and distro would you recommend?" He didn't mention it, but I am presuming that working Wifi should be on that list too.

Comments

Not a troll but....

[SultanCemil]

Honestly, wouldn't a MacBook of some description be the best choice? You "like the Unix/BSD aspect...", hardware working, good battery life, AppleCare-type support, etc. Why switch? Are you looking for cheaper hardware? Philosophical leaning towards Linux?

Re:Not a troll but....

[SultanCemil]

Your username implies a bias :-)

Re:Not a troll but....

[GreatDrok]

A modern MacBook has no mouse buttons since it is multitouch. They are simply the best mouse pad on any laptop currently available.

My feeling having gone the other way some time back is that a MacBook is the cheapest way of getting a decent UNIX laptop with all the hardware working, plus the hardware is well built and the OS works nicely. You can even run Linux on a MacBook if you really want to go that route. The build quality of most PC laptops is so poor that you end up paying just as much for a good Windows laptop to run Linux as you would buying a MacBook.

Re:Not a troll but....

[exomondo]

he wants to fit in with the cool gang at Slashdot

also,

IT"S THE YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP

yeah but he wants a linux laptop ;)

Re:Not a troll but....

[Anonymous Coward]

Because you like the feeling of completely owning and controlling your laptop?

Try a laptop from System 76. Everything works right out of the box.

Re:Not a troll but....

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a System76 laptop. They're good, and they have good support. They're pricey though (but nowhere near as bad as Apple).

Re:Not a troll but....

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Why not put Linux on a MacBook? I have.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBook

"I listen to Fela Kuti and I Vote!"

Re:Not a troll but....

[PCM2]

I am not saying that you can't find a laptop, but it is truly becoming like pulling teeth. The entire industry outside of Apple has decided to jump on the Windows bandwagon.

I'm not sure what mythical age you're referring to when PCs didn't come pre-bundled with Windows.

What does seem to have changed, though, is that laptops now seem almost completely homogeneous. You can pick from just a few screen sizes -- 14" and 15.6" seemingly being the two most popular. But guess what? Whichever size you pick, they all have the same resolution: 1366x768. For the majority of models, the graphics will be powered by Intel onboard graphics -- which, by the way, are now actually integrated into the CPU dies. You can pick from a few different hard drive sizes -- 320GB, 500GB, and now 640GB being typical. Those will be 5400rpm drives, BTW. And the drive sizes will be closely tied to the CPU speed for pricing reasons -- so you might find a Core i3 with a 500GB drive, but if you want a Core i5 for just $50 more or so, it will come with a smaller drive. If you want the whole shebang, you'll have to pay more, plus they'll throw in something extra you didn't want (like WiMax or something).

Basically it's just an all-out price war, where all the manufacturers are producing virtually identical models while trying everything in their power to undersell the other guys. That means most of them are cutting a lot of corners. One reasonable shopping strategy is to find a configuration you like, list all the specific models that have those exact specs, and decide which brand you trust not to build a complete piece of shit -- but you can't even rely on brands these days, it seems.

Re:Not a troll but....

[jmelchio]

Until recently I had an old PowerBook G4 and a Macbook Pro. When the Powerbook died I had to make a choice of forking out significant money to replace it with another apple product or get something cheaper. The Macbook Pro allows me to do iOS development which I need for work, the second machine is really more for wife and kids so it's not that important what it runs but I still like the idea of having a Unix/Linux system.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ubuntu listed several laptops on their site that would work with their distro so I ended up getting a Dell Inspiron 15 which I re-partitioned. After that I installed Ubuntu 11.04 without a problem and everything works after installation.
Wife and kids use the Windows 7 partition and I use the Ubuntu partition when I use it which is actually quite often. The machine is obviously not as nice as a Macbook Pro but it costs only a third of what the smallest Macbook Pro costs and as far as I've been able to tell it works just as well for most purposes.

If you're after a good Unix/Linux experience for a reasonable price I think this is a good option.

Re:Not a troll but....

[mspohr]

Having recently switched from Linux on a Dell laptop to a MacBook Air (which I bought because I fell in love with the design), I would have to say the the Mac UI definitely has a few oddities that just don't make sense (except in a historical context). My biggest gripe is the menubar on the top of the primary screen. I can understand that this made sense in 1984 when screens were small (and there was only one). Now that it is the 21st century, it drives me crazy to have to mouse up to the menubar at the top of the screen. I go absolutely batshit insane when I have a window on my secondary monitor and I need to use the menubar which is many thousands of pixels away at the top of the primary screen. The keyboard is missing a bunch of keys (a real delete key, pgup, pgdn, home, end, etc.). They also have this odd Command key (flower power) which seems to have taken over a lot of the functions of the Control key (but not all... I'm still figuring this out). Build quality seems fine but I'm not that happy with the chiclet keyboard. Touch pad is nice but I still prefer a mouse. I think I much prefer the Linux UI (any of them, all of them) and standard PC hardware.

BTW, a good backup solution for Linux is "Back in Time" which is a nice shell built on rsync similar to Apple's Time machine. Linux on my Dell was just fine. Everything (including power management) "just worked".

http://www.system76.com/

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.system76.com/

System76 is the closest your going to get to a Apple experience with Linux.
Pre-installed so you don't have to muck around with drivers
Comprehensive testing and configuration of the hardware by professionals.
Support and documentation.
Company officially supports Linux.
Provides custom driver bundles to make upgrading effortless as possible.
etc etc.

You will get NONE of those things if you go with a Windows system from a large OEM and then try to install Linux on it yourself. You will be your only source for OS support and hardware configuration. You can have Ubuntu forums and mailing lists, but to be honest the chances of you getting useful answers is about 1 in 4.

Re:http://www.system76.com/

[Rastor]

Yeah, it would be good to get it from a supplier who has actually heard of Linux. So System 76, or maybe Emperor Linux or The Linux Laptop or Linux-Certified or ZaReason etc.

Re:http://www.system76.com/

[seandiggity]

Typing this on a 4-year-old System76 now. Great hardware, and it's important to support GNU/Linux vendors.

System76 has an update tool that will install anything specific to their hardware as a .deb package, so you shouldn't have any driver problems as long as you only upgrade your distro when System76 says they support it. For some time now, however, I haven't needed any updates directly from System76, as driver support for all my hardware is now available in the default repos.

There are actual lists ya know

[jmorris42]

Ubuntu has a list of Certified Hardware for ya. But I have yet to get a Thinkpad at least 90% running. I don't have the fingerprint reader on my X200s working with Fedora but everything else works, including the dock. The boss's Thinkpad T520 runs Ubuntu and has everything working except audio through the dock, but dual DVI displays on the dock do work.

Of course once you get a laptop working expect updates to constantly break things until you just get tired of rolling back failed updates and just stop, only taking critical security updates you can't live without.

It is worse with Linux because almost no OEMs are involved in keeping it working, most aren't even involved in initially getting it going so folks have to guess. But raise your hand if you haven't had to roll back a driver or update on that 'other' popular OS. Last week I had to roll back a mouse driver on a Dell laptop to get the pointer working.

My $0.02

[someSnarkyBastard]

System76 and ZaReason are both good dedicated Linux laptop companies. Personally, I have a Dell n-series laptop .

These issues are largely gone.

[reiscw]

This weekend, I went to Office Depot, bought an HP 2000 laptop for about $329, brought it home, backed up the windows image, and installed Ubuntu 11.10. All of the conditions of his post are met. Battery life is good, fan is quiet, sound works, closing the laptop lid causes the machine to sleep, etc. Not sure what he means about backup - I use grsync which is easy enough to back up my home directory to a flash drive (primitive, I know, but I've never been burnt). No special configurations were necessary to install Ubuntu. It's funny that people keep bringing up WiFi. The last time I had problems with WiFi on Linux was a Broadcom chipset on Ubuntu 8.04. After that, everything has worked without issue (and I could get it working by extracting / copying firmware). Sometimes I think a lot of the Linux complaints about sound and wifi are out of date.

I'm not sure what "AppleCare" is unless it's some sort of extended warranty / replacement program. Unless you're very unlucky, a decent laptop is cheap enough that you're better off self-insuring. While it might make sense for an Apple product (I'm being generous) I don't think it makes sense for a basic laptop workstation.

Fan noise?

[devleopard]

" ... minimum cooling fan noise ..."

I have a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. The new i7 quad-core + new GPU gets crazy hot. Often the temp gauge jumps to 80 degrees C + and the fans spin up. Those 2 fans maxed out at 6200 RPM is anything but quiet.

SLASHDOT...SERIOUSLY STOP COMMENTING AT THE BOTTOM

[TheDarkener]

It gets really annoying. 'I presume he wants working wifi, too'... ok, how about a working video chipset? If you're presuming, and you live in a 3rd world country, maybe you'd presume he wanted a modem.

If this is dude's submission, don't mess with it, it just doesn't help the guy get the answers he needs. Besides, most wifi chipsets I've used recently have been pretty damn good.

More-so I am aggravated at the editorial nature of these footer comments in general. Nerds don't like editorials, they like facts. Maybe that's my assumption, but I've been reading Slashdot for 11 years now. It. Gets. flippin'. Old.

I probably should have ranted on some other, more deserving article footer comment...oh well. I love you guys

Re:SLASHDOT...SERIOUSLY STOP COMMENTING AT THE BOT

[Bob9113]

oh well. I love you guys

A worthwhile point that made me smile -- always remember, Slashdot, we wouldn't bitch about you if we didn't care. :)

I believe he needs my username.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

I believe he needs my username