[ltp] Re: Best laptop for Linux

[Kevin Brubeck Unhammer]

Clément Geiger <clement.geiger@gmail.com> writes:

> Hello,
>
> I'm answering from my new x220. It globally meet all your requirement, except for the
> backlit keyboard (but there is the thinklight, which I find more handy - you can use it
> to read stuff) and the big screen (12", 1368x768 or something). But the screen is truly
> *awesome* (mat, ips, sharp and everything) and you can always plug in an external
> monitor. Personnally I was skeptic (I wanted 13" so badly) but in the end it's very
> good.
>
> As for computational power, you can custom your order with a quad-core i7 and 8Go of
> ram, and you won't find another laptop that light (1.7 kg) and that powerful (again, I
> tried :)
>
> The battery life, now, is excellent on Windows and quite bad on Linux, out of the box.
> After some tuning I have ~7h of battery (compare to 10+ on windows :( ). With the 9
> cells battery.
>
> Otherwise, linux works perfectly out of the box. I run Archlinux and a friend uses it
> with Ubuntu.
>
> I forgot to mention the keyboard, maybe the other *awesome* point of the laptop along
> with its screen.

I second that. The x220 is _awesome_. Easy to lug around, wonderful
screen and keyboard. I love the ThinkLight – I can type in the dark, but
sometimes I have to read stuff off a piece of paper …

I'm running Xubuntu on it, runs extremely stable. The only thing I've
found that didn't work out of the box was using the power button to
suspend, not a biggie since closing the lid works.

I even tried the WWAN this Christmas; it was just a matter of unplugging
the battery, adding a SIM card, and when I booted I got a prompt to
enter the PIN and select my phone company from a list (OneCall, Norway,
for me), and it worked out of the box :) Very smooth experience.

As noted, the Sandy Bridge regression affects this laptop. The battery
life is very good if I add "pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_rc6=1" to
the GRUB options; however, I have experienced one real freeze (couldn't
even do the Raising Skinny Elephants trick). So I have that in a second
menu entry in GRUB instead, for when I need longer life.

Oh, and with the SSD, it's blazing fast. Stuff compiles in no time. Just
make sure to read http://www.jwz.org/blog/2007/09/psa-backups/ first :)

> 2012/1/2 Phil Shotton <phil@stairbridge.org.uk>
>
>     I'm writing this on my trusty old T60p, brought out of retirement after a 2-year
>     switch to a Macbook Pro. I've recently trashed the Macbook and need a replacement -
>     I won't be going Mac again, even after 2 years I find the idiosyncratic keyboard,
>     the poor quality apps, and the lack of openness to be a major headache.

I too had a Macbook before the x220; I believe it was trying to type
special chars with a Norwegian layout on that keyboard that gave me my
RSI :-/
    
>     So now I'm asking the ltp fraternity, what's the best Linux laptop at the moment. I
>     love my T60p, but it's old and slow. I need something that has good CPU power and
>     high-res screen (I develop software so need compilation speed and screen clarity). I
>     also want good Linux support without messing around - the T60p has the Atheros wifi
>     chipset which is a pain, and I want good graphics without proprietary drivers.
>    
>     Doesn't have to be a Thinkpad, but I'm impressed with the build quality of the
>     machines I've had in the past.
>    
>     Must be light, powerful, good screen, preferably illuminated keyboard (best thing
>     about the Mac Pro), very Linux compatible, large ram, good cpu, big disk, robust. I
>     don't care about widescreen but nice to have if everything else in place.
>    
>     Thanks in advance for all your comments, and a Happy New Year to all.
>    
>     Cheers
>     Phil

happy new year :-)

-- 
Kevin Brubeck Unhammer