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Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

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Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#1
What would you recommend? What do you use? Do you know of something interesting about to be released?

Please, do not recommend me to use Windows or Mac OS, we are not discussing this right now. I am specifically interested to find a nice ultrabook to use for programming on linux.

Yes, I am aware of the most popular things like the Dell Linux Ultrabook and the Chromebook Pixel (and I might choose one of them). But yet, someone might know of something better.

So here are the rules:

1. It's OK if it comes with another OS, as long as it's not very hard to install linux. The hardware must work well with linux. Some minor exceptions are acceptable (eg - not working fingerprint reader)

2. Full HD or better.

3. SSD

4. Keyboard of great quality.

5. Good battery life.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#2
Have a look at the Zenbook UX32VD, http://zenbook.asus.com/zenbook/?c=prime_ux32

It's full HD 1080p IPS screen, switchable intel HD/ nvidia graphics, expandable RAM and HD. I've had one since November and find the keyboard and build quality to be excellent.

Since I bought it I've upgraded the HD to a SSD and add a additional 8gb for ram to bring it up to 10gb total.

Linux compatibility seems good http://www.linlap.com/asus_ux32vd

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#3
I'm very happy with my Samsung Series 9.

Different marketing people mean different things by "full HD", so I'm not sure if it meets your specs, but 1600×900 is decent enough for me on that size; and it really, really is a gorgeous display.

Battery-wise, when I was travelling and had wifi/bluetooth off, low screen backlight, etc, it was pushing 9 hours.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#7
post #2

Have a look at the Zenbook UX32VD, http://zenbook.asus.com/zenbook/?c=prime_ux32 It's full HD 1080p IPS screen, switchable intel HD/ nvidia graphics, expandable RAM and HD. I've had one since November and find the keyboard and build quality to be excellent. Since I bought it I've upgraded the HD to a SSD and add a additional 8gb for ram to bring it up to 10gb total. Linux compatibility seems good http://www.linlap.co…

Also consider the UX32A [edit: I meant UX31A], which doesn't have switchable graphics (which don't work well under Linux anyway), has an SSD instead of an HDD (good), doesn't have upgradable RAM (bad), and is cheaper. Same screen on both.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#8
post #3

I'm very happy with my Samsung Series 9. Different marketing people mean different things by "full HD", so I'm not sure if it meets your specs, but 1600×900 is decent enough for me on that size; and it really, really is a gorgeous display. Battery-wise, when I was travelling and had wifi/bluetooth off, low screen backlight, etc, it was pushing 9 hours.

1600x900 is my old (current) ThinkPad T410. And it's 3 years old. I don't want to be stuck at this resolution for 3 more years. Especially having seen the Pixel...

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#9
I'm considering getting the Pixel and running Linux on it, but am extremely annoyed by the lack of upgradable storage.

The $250 Samsung ARM Chromebook has USB3 (~100MB/s) and a fast (~50MB/s) SD card controller. The $1300 Pixel only has USB2 and a slow (USB2) SD card controller and no real PCIe slots, which means that you can never get more than ~17MB/s when trying to increase the tiny internal storage.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#10
post #6
post #4

Dell just released their native-linux-running XPS: http://www.dell.com/Learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-lapt... 1080p screen and you can assume the hardware works with linux.

No NVIDIA or ATI card? How is the graphics performance?

Not sure. I haven't seen one in the flesh, but I've heard good things about it. Nothing first, or even second hand though.

Personally, I wouldn't buy an ultrabook for the graphics performance, cooling is just too problematic to do anything overly shiny in my view, but I can't imagine you'd have issues running a shiny window manager or decoding 1080p video, which is the two most graphics intensive tasks I do.

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