[klug] linux laptop suggestions

[Bill Gurley]

Hey Guys:

I know that many of you now use Apple hardware (and OSX), but I'm
wondering if any of you has recently bought a laptop for linux purposes
and has a recommendation? I will be retiring soon and will need to turn
in my UT-owned laptop, so I am looking around at possible laptops for
running mainly linux (probably dual-booting Windows 8.1, for those rare
instances where I must use it).

I have read stuff on reddit and other sites, including some
linux-specific reviews. I might get an ultrabook, but have not quite
decided that for sure. I'm thinking of a screen in the 13 to 14" range.
Not necessarily a 3-pounder, but not too heavy. Good battery life.

Machines I have been considering:

Thinkpad T440 series (or maybe other Thinkpad model. Some people think
that Thinkpad quality has gone way down in recent years.)

ASUS: UX31A, Zenbook UX300 series

some Dells: maybe E7440, XPS-13


Some of these machines are quite expensive, and I'm really not sure that
I need to spend this much. But I want to get quality hardware and don't
want to have a lot of linux hardware issues. The above machines seem to
do very well with linux.

I even ran across some people who are running linux on Macbooks, but it
sounds like there may be hardware issues with the models in the last
couple of years.

And yes, I realize that I am going to have to deal with UEFI rather than
the old reliable (but flawed) BIOS.

I also read in Consumer Reports that I perhaps should wait until the
summer, due to Intel's processor upgrade cycle. Thoughts on this?

Suggestions appreciated.

--
-Bill-

---------------------------------------------
Bill Gurley, Technical Director
Department of Chemistry
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
865-974-3145 (office)
---------------------------------------------
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[Caleb Cooper]

I strongly suggest you look at the Gllago UltraPro from System76: https://system76.com/laptops/galago

I have one and it is truly the best laptop I have ever used.

I would warn you against Thinkpads, recently they have started adding wireless cards which has significant issues within Linux and replacing the wireless cards is not an option due to a lock in the BIOS: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/General-Discussion/WWAN-and-wireless-card-BIOS-whitelists-Lenovo-COME-ON/td-p/952681.

[Bret McHone]

If you can, wait until October. Prices always drop around then because it's a bit of a lull between people buying computers for school/college, business's fiscal years don't generally end/start around then and its a few months before Christmas so the current generation prices are dropping around then in preparation for stuff coming out for the holiday season. 

With that said, I'ld recommend avoiding Dell. We are moving away from them for the most part because of reliability and support issues. They just seem to feel cheaper and cheaper and break more and more as time goes on. I would lean towards the Lenovo laptops. 

Also, don't overlook running VMs. I use a macbook Pro 15" with an SSD and I can run windows or linux in a VM with about the same performance I get out of the local OS. The only limitation I ran into was controls for games. Mouse control gets a little wonky, but I don't really play games anymore. But you can have a bootcamp partition for windows and still boot it under OSX as a VM, or reboot into it as the native OS. pretty slick really.

Just something to consider. I <3 Virtualization. Also, in OSX gestures allow you to flip between the VM and OSX with a swipe of a few fingers. One caveat to my recommendations though is that I'm not familiar with mavericks or Yosemite. I never upgraded.

Thanks,

Bret

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 8:07 AM, Bill Gurley <bgu...@utk.edu> wrote:

[Michael Peek]

I'm on my 2nd System76 laptop and I've been happy with both.  System76 uses re-branded Clevo OEMs.  I bought my wife a generic, refurbished Dell Inspiron and it's been faithful for several years now.  I've bought four Lenovo Carbon X2's for people at work -- it runs Linux just fine.

I'd say that nowadays you have a pretty good chance of getting any decent major distro working on a laptop out of the box, or at worst, with a minimum of finagling.  (Personally I would still lean toward Intel hardware when possible, and nvidia graphics if video performance are important to you, but maybe I'm just a bit paranoid about such things.)

One of the things I've done in the past is use Multisystem to load up a bunch of Linux distros onto a USB stick and then walk into the store and try booting the demo machines from the USB.  I can't speak for other distros, but for Ubuntu, there's a compatibility test that will put the machine through it's paces and give you a report.  I tried it on a Dell 2-in-1 laptop/tablet with a touchscreen, and the touchscreen worked out of the box.

As for dual-booting Windows, I can't help you there.  I've heard stories about problems with the UEFI and certificates and such, but they may be worked out by now.  All I run is Linux, and if I need Windows then I use a virtual machine.

Michael Peek

On 04/01/2015 08:07 AM, Bill Gurley wrote:

[Farris, Ryan]

People still worry about UEFI? At most you just install the distro you want, reboot into a UEFI compatible livecd, install grub-efi, grub-install and update-grub. Its not nearly the issue it used to be that's for sure.

Though the system76 Galago UltraPro would be nice.

Ryan Farris
OIT Desktop Support
University of Tennessee

________________________________________
From: klug-b...@eecs.utk.edu <klug-b...@eecs.utk.edu> on behalf of Bill Gurley <bgu...@utk.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2015 8:07 AM
To: Knoxville Linux User Group
Subject: [klug] linux laptop suggestions

[Ernie Fulton]

If you want an ultrabook running Linux. Buy one from the manufacturer with Linux installed, like the Dell XPS-13 Developer Edition. I don't have this model. Can't say anything about it. But I can say this, trying to get a vanilla distro to work efficiently on an ultrabook will test your sanity. The hardware was tailored for low power and needs driver settings to match. Without the settings Linux will spike the system instead of limiting itself to fit the power profile. Can this be fixed? Yes, but it will test your sanity.

I tried this with my ASUS UX32VD. I had to disable Linux from using the Nvidia graphics and restrict it from using all the logical cores on the i7 to get more than an hour battery life. I stopped dual booting and now use Hyper-V to run Linux. This is more flexible and I can manage the power settings much easier.

The Dell E6440 line is really good, but a bit pricey. The new models come with 3 year warranty by default and you can get a Windows License. The E6440 is more of a desktop replacement than ultra portable. So power management with Linux fits the standard laptop settings provided in most distros.

If you go with System 76 or a Dell that installs Linux you do not get a Windows license.

What's your usage habits? Mostly surfing? Would a Chromebook fit most of your needs?

Ernie Fulton

[Will]

Here's a starter link http://linuxpreloaded.com/ to look for computers with Linux preinstalled.

Will Wright

On 04/01/2015 08:07 AM, Bill Gurley wrote:

Hey Guys:

...
Suggestions appreciated.

[Reed Wade]

I've had enough bad luck w/Dell (gear and Linux compat) that I promised myself I'd never buy from them again. One recent issue was same model shipping with random trackpads, some of which weren't supportable at the time under Linux.

For the past six months or so at work I've been using a Toshiba Satellite w/Ubuntu 14.04 and love it. Everything worked out of the box. Nice backlit keyboard, light, thin. We added memory (to 8G) and an SSD. Very inexpensive - base cost was under $1k. It's a bit wide -- I didn't think I'd like it at first but definitely a fan now.

I've always had good luck w/HP laptops w/Linux as well.

-reed

[Wil Wade]

I have a Samsung ATIV Book 9 (ultrabook) and have Ubuntu 14.10 on it. Works great.