New laptop for law school

[Rocks and Water]

I'm going to be starting law school in September and plan on purchasing a new laptop sometime before then. I currently run Ubuntu on my desktop, which works great for me, and I'm hoping to do the same for my laptop. Since my desktop is my main computer, I don't need anything insanely powerful. My laptop will mostly be used for taking notes in class, research and writing papers in the library.

The main things I'm looking for, and not necessarily in this order, are:

1) portability
2) battery life
3) good keyboard for typing
4) linux compatibility

Many netbooks meet most of those criteria, but I find the 10" screens too small and the typing experience too frustrating. Any suggestions for 12" or 13" laptops that would serve my purposes?

[L33F3R]

http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=89

this might do you good. check out the other system76 products.

Dell also gives ubuntu as an option but im not sure under what products its supported. It will all come down to the hardware.

[Rocks and Water]

http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=89

this might do you good. check out the other system76 products.

Dell also gives ubuntu as an option but im not sure under what products its supported. It will all come down to the hardware.

Yeah, I was looking at the System 76 products and really like the idea of a built for ubuntu system, but 4.4 lbs is a bit heavy and the battery life isn't too spectacular either. I'm not sure if it's something I'd want to take with me from class to class everyday. I'm still considering it though... Any other suggestions?

[L33F3R]

4.4lbs heavy? are you by any chance a stick man?

[rv65]

Yeah, I was looking at the System 76 products and really like the idea of a built for ubuntu system, but 4.4 lbs is a bit heavy and the battery life isn't too spectacular either. I'm not sure if it's something I'd want to take with me from class to class everyday. I'm still considering it though... Any other suggestions?

Check out the Dell Studio XPS 13. It too has a linux option though it's an older version of Ubuntu thats highly customized. You could probably update it to Jaunty if you want to have the latest version. 9.04 is Jaunty Jackalope.

[rv65]

Rocks and Water,

How about the XPS M1330. Thats under 4 lbs. 4.4 lbs is pretty darn good I'd say for a laptop.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

You can get it with Ubuntu pre installed. Hope this helps.