Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#1

Post by captain_vyom » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 8:57 AM UTC

I got an Asus few months back, only too find out Nvidia Drivers support is very bad for the graphic chip I have. Bumblebee project used to work for sometime, but its currently not working. Its been a pain since then, I'm running Ubuntu in 2D mode for more than a 2 months, will re-install 13.04 once its out to test my luck.

If the attempt fails, then I may be looking for a new laptop. So, which laptops in market has good overall Linux support, especially graphics.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#2

Post by coolsunglasses » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:08 AM UTC

Thinkpad T430 with intel chip and drivers (aka, RandR works fine), accept no substitute.

Use it with my Crossover 27Q (2560x1440) and Xmonad.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#3

Post by microwise » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:10 AM UTC

Personally I've found that HP and Dell laptops have good support for Linux, almost all the PC's I have tested have run just fine without any major pains

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#4

Post by secure » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:16 AM UTC

Most computers with an Intel GPU are fine. The ThinkPad series is very popular and thus well-supported — note that I am only talking about the “original” series, i.e. ThinkPad X and T, e.g. the X230 or T430.

Personally, I am running a ThinkPad X200 since 2008 with nearly no software problems.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#5

Post by mrmonkington » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:22 AM UTC

secure wrote: post #4

Most computers with an Intel GPU are fine. The ThinkPad series is very popular and thus well-supported — note that I am only talking about the “original” series, i.e. ThinkPad X and T, e.g. the X230 or T430. Personally, I am running a ThinkPad X200 since 2008 with nearly no software problems.

Agree! Thinkpad T-series for me have had good graphics support, good power management, and all the 'special' keys work as intended with major distros. They seem to recondition well and there are loads of 410 and 420 models on ebay.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#6

Post by malteseunderdog » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:25 AM UTC

Look at project sputnik from Dell

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#7

Post by etfb » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:25 AM UTC

My experience with laptops is moderately recent. I've mostly had Toshiba, and apart from the need to download drivers for wifi, ethernet and sometimes video, they've been fine. I had a Lenovo Thinkpad L512, and it was fine too and quite robust, but I wasn't thrilled with its speed. Had an Acer for a week; returned it because it had half a dozen things wrong with it and my too-late google research revealed very little chance of them being fixed.

In general, I've been happiest with Toshiba, but I know they're pricier than some others. I hear from computer salesmammals that HP, Compaq and MSI all have huge problems with returns, and of course Acer are horrendous for tech support. Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo and Dell all have good names for Linux support, but bleeding edge is always less well supported.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#8

Post by eLobato » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:36 AM UTC

I have an Asus as well, I'm on 13.04 and my card is a NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 635M with 2GB DDR3 VRAM. Bumblebee seems to work well with the latest nouveau drivers, I normally use the intel chipset for everything but playing Counter Strike. I spent a lot of time trying to fix this as well but nowadays it's pretty easy, for me it was just installing the xserver-xorg-video-nouveau driver from xorg-edgers then bumblebee and boom: optimus works.

If I had to recommend a laptop, I'd recommend this one, an Asus K56CM:

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/K56CM/

Probably like 3 or 4 months ago I would not recommend it, but these days optimus support is decent at least for a typical setup.

PS: get an SSD for that computer and you'll have the ultimate linux dev. laptop right there.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#9

Post by vaidik » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:38 AM UTC

secure wrote: post #4

Most computers with an Intel GPU are fine. The ThinkPad series is very popular and thus well-supported — note that I am only talking about the “original” series, i.e. ThinkPad X and T, e.g. the X230 or T430. Personally, I am running a ThinkPad X200 since 2008 with nearly no software problems.

Agree. ThinkPad series is really good for Linux.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good laptops for Linux right now?

#10

Post by smnrchrds » Sat, Apr 06, 2013, 9:39 AM UTC

microwise wrote: post #3

Personally I've found that HP and Dell laptops have good support for Linux, almost all the PC's I have tested have run just fine without any major pains

I have a Dell Inspiron n5110 laptop and although bumblebee works fine for me, I have a video tearing problem on Ubuntu no matter which graphic chip I use. When I play a video file, it becomes like this[1]. So I wouldn't recommend buying an arbitrary Dell laptop without enough research.

[1] https://bitly.com/YZebSi