[John The Bad]

Hi. I will have some money soon, around €400-500, and I am going to invest it in a new laptop. I am currently using Ubuntu and have been for a few years now. In general I like it -- it's free, open source and does what I want it to. I have also been using a second-hand laptop for the past couple of years. This was fine as I couldn't afford anything else. But now that I can afford a new laptop I want to know what is the best laptop for Ubuntu, or the best linux for a new laptop. I will mostly use this machine for internet but it will need to be able to handle sound and video editing without slowing up.

So, with that in mind, what advice do people have for me?

[Khannie]

I think more or less any laptop should do you. I've never had any insurmountable problems with any laptop. My advice would be to pick one that you like, then google for people having issues with it. There will always be some, but if there are a lot showing up then that's probably worth investigating further.

[Johnboy1951]

it will need to be able to handle sound and video editing without slowing up.

Video editing in particular is heavy on resources, so it seems what you need to do is to get the highest spec hardware in your price range.

If you can use a LiveCD or a LiveUSB of your intended distro to test the laptop before purchase, then that should indicate how compatible its hardware is.

[Stuxnet]

you can get a quality systems76 linux laptop for ~500

http://www.system76.com/laptops/

[ntlbell]

You really can't go wrong with any thinkpad when it comes to linux/BSD etc they just seem to work. (mostly)

[Johnboy1951]

Originally Posted by Stuxnet

you can get a quality systems76 linux laptop for ~500

http://www.system76.com/laptops/

Pity they do only US keyboard .....

[Stuxnet]

Originally Posted by Johnboy1951

Pity they do only US keyboard .....

ooo never thought of that :-(
was thinking of getting one in the summer

[EarthlyPangaea]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/

This site sells No-OS laptops afaik.

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk

This site sells Linux laptops and desktops.

Link to a list here: http://mcelrath.org/laptops.html

[croo]

Do be careful with systems that have nvidia's optimus video as it is causing lots of problems for people.

Optimus is a video technology that switches between the graphics integrated in the CPU and the main nvidia graphics card. The theory is it only switches on the nvidia card when it is needed so saves the battery. It definitely saves battery - I've gotten as much as 6 hours on my laptop using it.

The problem is linux (the X server in particular) is not designed for, and has a lot of trouble, switching graphics cards on the fly for this to work.

Some laptops allow optimus to be disabled in the bios which is very useful.

And some people are having success with Ironhide (it's working fine for me). Ironhide is a tool to enable the switching on linux but it's not yet core linux so there seems to be varying degrees of success.

Anyway, there are options but this is just something to keep in mind and to checkout for any specific system you are considering.

ps. I think AMD have an equivalent system to optimus but I'm not sure what it's called.

[Scruffles]

Originally Posted by Johnboy1951

Video editing in particular is heavy on resources, so it seems what you need to do is to get the highest spec hardware in your price range.

If you can use a LiveCD or a LiveUSB of your intended distro to test the laptop before purchase, then that should indicate how compatible its hardware is.

though am also of the same thought,it isnt a given that live versions will indicate how compatible itll be with the hardware,or show how well it will run,have personaly found some live versions to be unworkable while the installed versions once updated runs with no compatibilityissues and are completely stable.

linux is like a cat,it will do what it wants to do and not what its human wants,if it wants to go crazy with a particular user or computer spec-it will do,but will put a bet on that there will be a number of people who dont have problems with the same combination,as is the complexity of linux and computing.

have installed many linuxes since the millenium year on a good few different PCs and laptops,and not one has ever presented with any big problems in terms of compatibility and recognition,have almost always stuck to mid range acer or toshiba laptops-as from own experience these have a tendency to work with no issues and are incredibly good builds [well,toshiba is-acer isnt as stable],plus theyre both good value if are not going to be looking to them for support.

not sure how much itd cost to ship to ireland,but woud recommend having a look on ebay-specificaly,look on the argos outlet store- http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Argos-Outlet
they have some great bargins on there for laptops,the one am using now- a acer ferrari one:
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/ac...view-49303769/
came from there december before last,the range was classed as returns/refurb,but there had been naff all wrong with this one and had got a lot of money off what they normaly cost plus it still had a big enough warranty.
-can recommend the ferrari one for those needs up to an extent,its perfect for linux/unix-have had ubuntu,gentoo,backtrack and freeBSD on it,but am sold on fedora lovelock at the moment and it runs exactly how want it to.
however,will need to get more than a allround mid range laptop to deal with optimum video editing as the main use; as johnboy said.

perhaps coud save up a bit more,or consider PCs [which have far better heat disipation for processor intensive tasks like regular video editing], and the second hand market as well.