Buying new laptop, what should...

xf · 2012-10-06 19:24:25

Hi ew,

if you have the money, buy a Thinkpad from Lenovo. If you do not play games on this laptop, then buy a business class thinkpad. For business work I am using a T420s with a ssd and this machine rocks. Intel Graphics, Intel Wireless, Intel CPU. Linux (Debian) runs perfect on it.

X (extreme mobile, but have small displays) or T Thinkpads, nothing else.

Sometimes you get Thinkpads without an Windows OS - save money and don't support proprietary software. If you buy a Thinkpad and you do not have the choice to get one without a Windows pre installed. You can try to refund the license costs directly from Lenovo or your vendor.

Here you will find a quick guide from us (FSF Europe) how to refund your money: https://wiki.fsfe.org/WindowsTaxRefund There is no guarantee, but a try will help all free software out there.

Cheers,
Chris

Last edited by xf (2012-10-06 19:34:27)

tao te · 2012-10-06 20:47:49

ew wrote:

...
Yes, I will study all thinkpads very thoroughly. I need USB 3, so if the last series didn`t have that, then it`s not a option.

The T420s got one. wink

*edit*

xf wrote:

Hi ew,
if you have the money, buy a Thinkpad from Lenovo. If you do not play games on this laptop, then buy a business class thinkpad. For business work I am using a T420s with a ssd and this machine rocks. Intel Graphics, Intel Wireless, Intel CPU. Linux (Debian) runs perfect on it.
X (extreme mobile, but have small displays) or T Thinkpads, nothing else.
...

Same here, the T420s with SSD is a puma!

Last edited by tao te (2012-10-06 20:50:05)

ew · 2012-10-06 22:48:15

xf wrote:

Hi ew,
if you have the money, buy a Thinkpad from Lenovo. If you do not play games on this laptop, then buy a business class thinkpad. For business work I am using a T420s with a ssd and this machine rocks. Intel Graphics, Intel Wireless, Intel CPU. Linux (Debian) runs perfect on it.
X (extreme mobile, but have small displays) or T Thinkpads, nothing else.
Sometimes you get Thinkpads without an Windows OS - save money and don't support proprietary software. If you buy a Thinkpad and you do not have the choice to get one without a Windows pre installed. You can try to refund the license costs directly from Lenovo or your vendor.
Here you will find a quick guide from us (FSF Europe) how to refund your money: https://wiki.fsfe.org/WindowsTaxRefund There is no guarantee, but a try will help all free software out there.
Cheers,
Chris

Thanks for the advice. Norway is not a member of EU, we`re just connected through EEC, so I`m not sure if this applies to me. Anyway, I don`t know if it`s the same everywhere, but here it`s not much to save by choosing to buy a pc without OS. All the bloatware pays for the OS. Therefore I always delete everything that comes with the pc. I don even bother to have a look at the configuration from the machine producer. Until now I have used Windows, and the very first thing I do is to launch Diskpart to clean the entire hdd:)

X is to small for me, T is the preferred one, but I may consider the L-series if I get a very good deal with my preferred online store. The T-series is almost twice the price, and I`m not sure it`s actually worth it. I can get two L-530 for the cost of one T-430.

ew · 2012-10-06 22:59:32

tao te wrote:

Same here, the T420s with SSD is a puma!

Yes, but they get slower for each day you use them, and I`ve heard that trim-support is a bit buggy with Linux. The harddisk I use now is more than 10 years old, and still scored 5.3 in Windows Experience Index. I seriously doubt that the ssd`s of today, still will be running 10 years from now. If it was me, I would use SSD for backup and files that I rarely use. That way I would increase the lifespan of the SSD. Maybe it would last forever big_smile :D:D

VDP76 · 2012-10-07 00:01:20

hi ew,

I am writing this from my new L520-i5, and I would recommend it...#! on it is very fast. cool
Overall the laptop fells very solid..but it is probably not the lightest out there..

el_koraco · 2012-10-07 00:26:30

ew wrote:

Yes, but they get slower for each day you use them, and I`ve heard that trim-support is a bit buggy with Linux.

All of your information is wrong.

ew · 2012-10-07 00:54:12

VDP76 wrote:

hi ew,
I am writing this from my new L520-i5, and I would recommend it...#! on it is very fast.
Overall the laptop fells very solid..but it is probably not the lightest out there..

Hi WDP,

Best news ever. I`m more interested in a solid feel and a good display/screen. Are you happy with the screen? I prefer matte screen, but sometimes they are a bit to dark and not sharp enough...

VDP76 · 2012-10-07 10:09:47

^ overall I am happy with it...even though the glossy display of my old Amilo has more contrast, with this new matte display I am able to see things decently even with light shining directly on it..

ew · 2012-10-07 13:19:57

VDP76 wrote:

^ overall I am happy with it...even though the glossy display of my old Amilo has more contrast, with this new matte display I am able to see things decently even with light shining directly on it..

Yes. That`s just the way it is. You can`t get it all. To bad it doesn`t come with something in between, like semi-glossy:)

saturn9 · 2012-10-09 16:07:35

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience of this laptop, preferably with #! ?

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&sor … ermfr=1181

Thanks,

sano · 2012-10-09 17:10:36

The case looks exactly like my friend's laptop, and the specs are almost the same (she has an i3-2330, not i3-2370). It is actually a Clevo laptop. In her case it came with a realtek wifi card that is working very unreliably with #! (or Linux in general, I guess).
It also runs ~10ºC hotter ( at around 45º to 50ºC) than my samsung with i5-2450m, I suspect the fan or generally the heat dissipation to be of lower quality. The case doesn't get hot, though, and I have never seen it above 65ºC, even on high loads.

el_koraco · 2012-10-09 17:34:33

Stay away from Clevo.

lcafiero · 2012-10-09 20:52:14

raken wrote:

Would something like this work?
https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/gazp7
I know Ubuntu is on there, pretty sure #! would work out of the box.

Sure, but if you're going with a Linux hardware vendor, go with ZaReason. Though ZaReason offers Ubuntu as well, they also offer other distros as well, and they'll even install CrunchBang for you, if you ask them (or sell you no installation at all, if you want to do it yourself).

I have a ZaReason Alto 3880 laptop, which they're no longer making, and it's a pretty solid machine. Yes, it's running Statler.

http://www.zareason.com

saturn9 · 2012-10-10 17:01:54

Thanks sano, that's interesting.

el_koraco wrote:

Stay away from Clevo.

Can I ask what specifically is the issue with them?

I'll prob go lenovo anyway but I don't need all the windows bobbins.

J

el_koraco · 2012-10-10 17:21:24

saturn9 wrote:

Can I ask what specifically is the issue with them?

Poor cooling, horrible keyboards as opposed to most of the competition.

ew · 2012-10-10 23:03:26

sano wrote:

The case looks exactly like my friend's laptop, and the specs are almost the same (she has an i3-2330, not i3-2370). It is actually a Clevo laptop. In her case it came with a realtek wifi card that is working very unreliably with #! (or Linux in general, I guess).
It also runs ~10ºC hotter ( at around 45º to 50ºC) than my samsung with i5-2450m, I suspect the fan or generally the heat dissipation to be of lower quality. The case doesn't get hot, though, and I have never seen it above 65ºC, even on high loads.

I second that. I have experienced a lot of headache trying to get realtek wifi to work with Linux. Sometimes I have achieved it, and other times I have just given up. RTL8188CUS is one that I have nightmares about. I got it to work for a few seconds now and then:)

dura · 2012-10-10 23:11:58

ew wrote:

The only thing that I don`t want to hazzle with is Wifi. That just has to work:)

ha

ew · 2012-10-10 23:23:45

d! wrote:

ew wrote:
The only thing that I don`t want to hazzle with is Wifi. That just has to work:)
ha
ha

lol. Yes. It`s a pain having to use another pc to find and download drivers and fixes, or alternatively, running down the stairs and connect the pc with a cable to the router down in the basement. There`s a third alternativ. I could strecth a 50 meter cable from the basement up trough the stairs, trough the hall, and into my livingroom. My wife doesn fancy that to much:)

pvsage · 2012-10-10 23:42:47

There's another third option: fish a cable through the walls. But then you have to worry about wall studs, plumbing, mains conduits...

I still haven't been able to get my RTL8192CU to work with any kernel other than 3.1 / 3.1.0-0.bpo.1...3.2 / 3.1.0-0.bpo.1 and later occasionally work, but the d@mn wifi firmware is unreliable with those kernels.

Good luck with your search, ew! I regret that I don't have any recommendations for you; only recent experience I have with laptops was with my lovely Dell Mini.

gutterslob · 2012-10-11 00:21:36

pvsage wrote:

There's another third option: fish a cable through the walls. But then you have to worry about wall studs, plumbing, mains conduits...

http://www.tp-link.com/us/products/?cat … &ref=pline

falldown · 2012-10-11 00:33:55

gutterslob
Set up one of these units a couple of months ago for a family member.
It was a smaller netgear unit.
I was surprised by just how well it worked.
There was about 40 feet between the two units with just a very small loss in connection speed.. about 4%.

ew · 2012-10-11 00:52:14

pvsage wrote:

There's another third option: fish a cable through the walls. But then you have to worry about wall studs, plumbing, mains conduits...
I still haven't been able to get my RTL8192CU to work with any kernel other than 3.1 / 3.1.0-0.bpo.1...3.2 / 3.1.0-0.bpo.1 and later occasionally work, but the d@mn wifi firmware is unreliable with those kernels.
Good luck with your search, ew! I regret that I don't have any recommendations for you; only recent experience I have with laptops was with my lovely Dell Mini.

Well, I could fish a cable through the walls, but it seems a bit drastic when my wireless network is in very good shape and provides me the mobilty that I won`t get connected by a cable. I use cabled network for my stationary computer though;)

I`m only sure of one thing, I will not buy anything without intel wifi:)

In the meantime I`m working with preparing a custom desktop for my new pc, filled up with several conky windows, tint2 and maybe som other eye-candy too:)))

merelyjim · 2012-10-11 02:55:23

ASK the Tech guy at the store which runs Linux well.

Lots of places that work on computers have a few LiveCD's or bootable Flash-drives for getting into machines that have Windows broken. Booting into KNOPPIX and taking the machine out for a test-drive does the machine no harm, and since it's based on Debian, #! should run well, too. I've done this while working at the store [Office Depot], but only after the store manager has left - he thinks I'm getting ready to summon a demon everytime I pull out my flash-drive. tongue

pvsage · 2012-10-11 05:37:25

@merelyjim: So you're one of those tech support Morlocks I've heard so much about? lol

@gutterslob & falldown: Wow, that power line network solution almost sounds too good to be true! yikes

merelyjim · 2012-10-11 06:11:51

@merelyjim: So you're one of those tech support Morlocks I've heard so much about? lol

Better a Morlock than an Eloy. big_smile

Odd set-up; bring in a sick machine, we hook it up to the network and let technicians elsewhere work on it remotely. Most often they fix viruses and Windows SNAFU’s just fine. The Corporate Offices never really addressed what happens when things don’t work out the way it’s supposed to.

In these cases, the Boss knows I can do something. His view is that Linux and Open Source are something akin to witchcraft, but there’s not a lot he can do other to refund the service. tongue

Last edited by merelyjim (2012-10-11 06:12:35)

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