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Best Ultrabook for Linux?

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Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#71

Post by Periodic »

btipling wrote: post #55

The various warnings about drivers, touchpad and wifi in these answers is almost amusing if not a little depressing. Remember the promise of the Linux Desktop? I remember giving ubuntu a good try in 2006, but after nightmares with xorg configs, flash, audio drivers and a clipboard that couldn't copy and paste across different applications I eventually switched to mac. It doesn't look like things have changed much in…

With both my desktop and my wife's, I can't remember the last time we had a major hardware incompatibility with Linux. Both were built piecemeal. Since Ubuntu added their restricted drivers installer, I haven't had a problem with many hardware issues. Wireless cards, video drivers, it's all been there.

There has just been one thing I haven't been able to get working quite right and had to compile my own driver for, and that's a Logitech G13. It's different enough that generic drivers don't work, and rare enough and complicated enough that no one else had submitted drivers before.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#72

Post by HackR »

tdoggette wrote: post #28
kijin wrote: post #18

Beware of touchpads with multi-touch and integrated buttons (a.k.a. "clickpads"). A lot of laptops nowadays seem to have these MacBook-esque touchpads, and especially ultrabooks since they're often trying to mimic Apple products. But driver support for PC clickpads in Linux is hit and miss. Often you'll find it very frustrating to perform right clicks and drag-and-drop operations. Cutting-edge distros like Ubuntu 12.…

I could never own a laptop without 3 hardware buttons, ideally set up like a thinkpad: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nVGyx975u38/SkzCHnkMbAI/AAAAAAAAGg...

You realize Macbook touchpads are buttons right?

They have left click and right click with button action. It's just as intuitive as having 2 separate buttons, and even more so because of how customizable it is.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#73

Post by glesica »

btipling wrote: post #55

The various warnings about drivers, touchpad and wifi in these answers is almost amusing if not a little depressing. Remember the promise of the Linux Desktop? I remember giving ubuntu a good try in 2006, but after nightmares with xorg configs, flash, audio drivers and a clipboard that couldn't copy and paste across different applications I eventually switched to mac. It doesn't look like things have changed much in…

We're talking about Ultrabooks here. Which is a "new" form factor with, probably, weird hardware to get the size/weight down. You can't install OS X on a Thinkpad, either, the hardware wasn't meant for it. So yes, as long as OEMs don't provide Linux drivers, you won't be able to install Linux on any random device without worrying about hardware issues (and I'm not trying to say that they should provide Linux drivers, no value judgement going on here).

However, if you use hardware that is fully supported, the Linux experience is trouble-free. Just like the OS X experience is trouble-free if you use a fully supported device (a Mac).

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#74

Post by wickedchicken »

spindritf wrote: post #12

I'm not aware of any fully supported ultrabook. Something always seems to be unsupported or not fully supported but usually inessential, like a fingerprint scanner, or an accelerometer. A friend of mine is using a Zenbook but it takes some serious efforts to get it to run properly https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AsusZenbook It's also a matter of what you consider an ultrabook. I have a Dell V131. It's a laptop IMHO…

The touchpad on the Zenbook is absurdly bad, nearly unusable. I was hoping they would stick with the Elantech found on the Eees (these are rather well supported) but instead it's a 'Sentelic.'

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#75

Post by glesica »

HackR wrote: post #72
tdoggette wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could never own a laptop without 3 hardware buttons, ideally set up like a thinkpad: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nVGyx975u38/SkzCHnkMbAI/AAAAAAAAGg...

You realize Macbook touchpads are buttons right? They have left click and right click with button action. It's just as intuitive as having 2 separate buttons, and even more so because of how customizable it is.

Not quite the same. For example, what happens when you run out of room on a drag-and-drop operation? You're holding down the whole track pad so you have two options: add a second hand to hold the button, which can make the cursor do weird things, or start over giving yourself more room. With a hardware button this isn't an issue.

That said, the Apple track pads are incredibly high-quality and I generally like them. I do miss the hardware buttons from time to time, though.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#76

Post by andrix »

I own an HP dm4 (http://goo.gl/uCRa) running Ubuntu 11.10, it's not an ultrabook, but everything run out of the box and all working (except fingerprint device - which I don't care a bit about it). HP in my case has been always a choice, their products work excellent with linux and just right out of the box. I recommend you also, that you make sure that everything is Intel (including the wifi card) because previoulsy I had another HP laptop with Atheros wifi that was unusable!

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#78

Post by Arwill »

kijin wrote: post #18

Beware of touchpads with multi-touch and integrated buttons (a.k.a. "clickpads"). A lot of laptops nowadays seem to have these MacBook-esque touchpads, and especially ultrabooks since they're often trying to mimic Apple products. But driver support for PC clickpads in Linux is hit and miss. Often you'll find it very frustrating to perform right clicks and drag-and-drop operations. Cutting-edge distros like Ubuntu 12.…

I'm waiting for a notebook with touchscreen, and no touchpad at all. For me its just wasted space.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#79

Post by victorbstan »

buster wrote: post #63
whalesalad wrote: post #61

One thing that has always killed me in regards to non-Apple laptops is the touchpad. Everyone does it wrong. By this I mean that they're small and not very sensitive, the attempts to integrate scrolling are janky. Anyone care to comment on the current status of that? A lot of people dislike Apple but the subtle things like this are what keep me here. It's so simple to scroll and click and right click with just light…

Nott sure what you mean, could it be that you are just too accustomed to the apple touchpad? I can scroll and move the pointer just fine on mine.

If a cat is born and kept in a dark room during it's infancy, it will grow up to be blind... it's a metaphor, but you don't know what you don't know. So try it out, understand how it works and then you can make a proper appraisal. I guarantee you will think every other means of scrolling is inferior...

For example, I can scroll (smoothly) in every direction, that means diagonally and in circles, whichever way my two fingers want to go on the trackpad. I can accidentally rest a few fingers on the trackpad and, click down with my thumb and move one of the fingers and I will successfully select and drag my selection, try that anywhere else, Linux does not support this even on the Mac trackpads, although they are making inroads...

I have successfully installed Ubuntu 11.10 on a MacBook pro and it works great, you can triple boot Mac, Windows and Linux, so at this point the trackpad issue is a software problem for Linux to solve.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#80

Post by brains20 »

I got a Thinkpad x301 (if you can get one) using Arch Linux and newest KDE. I am completely in love. Everything works lovely and fast with its 128GB SSD except for the fingerprint reader (haven't bothered to check if I can get it to work).

It has modest battery life but you can replace the DVD drive with an extra one. Amazingly light, perfect wifi and a light that illuminates your keyboard from the top.

I can do light gaming (age of empires 2, or America's Army 2.5) with integrated intel. KDE just flies.

I set circular scrolling and high sensitivity in touchpad, that way I can scroll without ever lifting the finger and work faster than with a mouse.

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