While X-Window shopping for laptops, I've come to some conclusions:
There are two target laptops:
1. Mini/mid-sized business laptop (12" screen, long battery life w/
power-saving)
- Suitable for lower-power/low-heat computing on the go
- Used to work on documents, presentations and browsing/email/SSH
mostly
- Powerful enough to support decent multimedia playback, but not
content creation
- Small profile, light-weight
2. Enterprise ready desktop/workstation replacement (15"-19"
screen, high-speed processor, extra RAM, fast HD)
- Suitable for compiling code and Linux packages/kernels
- Used to run virtualized (Xen and/or VMWare, etc. guest VMs),
supports multiple Operating Systems
- Excellent for heavy disk IO, CPU and memory intensive tasks
- Suitable for tasks such as heavy office/document processing,
graphics and video editing
(nice to haves)
- Multiple battery packs
- Multiple Hard-drives (RAID?)
- Rugged construction
While I'm not a fan off small screens on a laptop and so am pleased
at the 15"-19" models on the market, I think each size has its
specific niche/fit and it would be nice to have the best of both
worlds: power-savings and large display/resolution.
The following must be true.
* The Laptop must run recent Linux kernels and have half-decent
driver support (no broken hardware), ongoing support in recent
kernels would be nice;
* full power management/ACPI support, suspend/resume (suspend-to-
ram, etc.);
* supported WiFi and ethernet;
* fully supported video with proper graphics chipset support and
X.org configs for all supported resolutions/modes
* preferably able to use internal and external video (for
presenting) with minimal hassle (like Apple laptops)
* audio and capture devices (pre-installed and properly
configured drivers);
* able to close the laptop lid and re-open it, with appropriate
power-management.
Way back when, there was a presentation by a local computer company
selling Linux installed machines. Can someone please confirm the
name, I believe the present was from Mooney's Bay, though I see
nothing on their website indicating they sell pre-configured Linux
laptops or systems. (http://www.mooneysbay.com)
A google search for companies selling Linux Laptops turns up:
* http://www.system76.com/ (USA)
* http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html (USA)
* http://www.emperorlinux.com/ (USA)
* (the one canadian online retailer I found was a tad dated:
System500 or something)
What I don't want is a laptop I end up spending hours/days screwing
around with, as that is not my primary motivation. The primary goal
being to use the machine in production to get actual work done vs.
meta-work. IT management at a large company, would/should roast
Hardware Vendors / Microsoft if they ship broken base Windows install/
drivers and they needed to outfit their employees with laptops for
critical business on which significant contracts/deals were dependent
on.
A general consensus seems to have been reached that Lenovo models are
the most tried and tested Linux Laptops (IBM ThinkPad line). The
following URL was suggested:
* http://www.google.com/products?q=sxga%2B+thinkpad
+x61&hl=en&client=iceweasel-a&rls=org.debian:en-
US:unofficial&um=1&sa=X&oi=froogle&ct=title
I was actually looking at Eurocom (http://www.eurocom.com), for
flexibility of hardware choice, however I didn't get a final/official
word on Linux support. Their line looks nice (comments?) and they
are a local/Ottawa-based retailer. So it would be really nice, if
they could sell Linux Laptops w/ full support through some sort of an
arrangement with local Linux skilled worker knowledge base/local
support companies. From the looks of it, support is not full, and in
many cases the official vendor word is unsupported: [ http://
www.eurocom.com/support/linux/comchart.htm ]
No sound, or video in generic VESA only, isn't reassuring to someone
who is going to ostensibly cough up $2k-3k for a Linux laptop. I
would more likely laugh in their faces if they claim that is a Linux-
supported laptop.
The following are informational URLs:
* http://tuxmobil.org/ (Hardware compatibility and HOWTOs)
* http://www.linux-laptop.net/
Here are some flash based light-weight Linux (sub-)notebooks with
custom pre-installed OS (availability?):
* http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9292516116.html
* http://www.olpc.com
Aside:
The thing with true to blue Linux techs, is they'll get it running
even if there was no support previously, a little proprietary
hardware cannot frighten anyone, right? Well it helps when you have
vendor backing and a team of programmers working on the inside.
And then there is the Make It Work option:. That's when they cheat
on you and, you don't care, you take the abuse and continue writing
yet another proprietary video driver and hack up a kernel patch in
two nights.
But the price to be paid: your life temporarily goes from, hmm.. I
think I'll use this machine for __ to; look <IrcBudy> I finally made
this obscure chipset work and it only took 3 weeks, it'll only take
another month to get the rest working! (Congrats to you, a superb
hack which deserves just reward, but I'm not so easy sold on this
plan, myself hacking it would be the wrong domain of pursuit in many
ways.)
Thanks,
Allan Fields <afields [ at ] ncf [ dot ] ca>
Tel: 613.825.8658