[ltp] What to take care of when buying a Lenovo?

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Sat, 08 Mar 2008, Tobi wrote:
> Is there anything I should take care of, when buying a Lenovo notebook
> for Linux? Any trouble with specific hardware components, unsupported
> features or missing drivers? Any trouble running a 64-bit Linux?

Speaking as one of the people who look at ThinkPads *very* closely from a
kernel point of view:

1. Prefer ATI over nVidia on the GPU, at least for the next three years.
   We should press nVidia to release docs, like ATI is now doing.

2. Prefer Intel over anything on the GPU if your needs have extreme 3D
   performance anywhere below "required".  It will work better than ATI,
   extremely better than nVidia, and it will save a LOT of power over 
   ATI and nVidia.  Buying Intel GPUs and WiFi is a "vote with your wallet"
   issue, as they provide *FAR* better support, documentation and resources
   for open drivers than ATI (some docs, getting better) and nVidia (no help
   whatsoever).

3. Get one with the better FlexView-like displays, non-glossy.  It is worth
   every cent.

4. Non-Intel WiFi in Lenovos means Atheros radios, which are good, but the
   open Atheros driver is not anywhere close to stelar quality yet (and the
   madwifi driver with that binary-only HAL is a nightmare).

   Unfortunately right now the drivers for new Intel WiFi are not stable
   yet, but they should get there in less than one year.

   Again, it is a vote with your wallet issue.  I'd buy Intel, at least they
   are writing the open driver for their hardware, unlike Atheros, which
   won't give documentation, let alone open drivers.

   Intel 4965 doesn't do 802.11b, but it does 802.11n (I don't know which
   pre-release version of 802.11n, though).
   
-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh