Getting a new laptop - what shall I get?

[mattparlane]

Hi all...

The lease on my current work laptop is about to expire and I'll be getting a new one. Whatever I get, I'll be stuck with it for about two years, so I want to make sure I do this right.

I've been using an Compaq with an AMD processor and NVIDIA graphics - specifically a MCP51/GeForce Go 6100. While this has done me ok, I've had a few issues with graphics that I figure are caused by drivers, and the system has not felt as responsive as I feel it should be - on the odd occasion that I boot into Windows XP, everything feels faster and smoother.

I'm a programmer, so my work is pretty much just glorified text editing. Also, I'm not particularly concerned about having open-source drivers - if proprietary is going to do the best job, then so be it.

I can get pretty much anything I want, within reason - Intel, ATI or NVIDIA. So, my question is this - which company's hardware (and drivers) are in the best shape currently on Linux, and which company's hardware is going to serve my needs best for the next two years?

Thanks,

Matt

[Kano]

Stay away from AMD Laptops with dedicted ATI gfx chip. When you are unlucky it has an onboard VGA + extra chip then fglrx is too stupid to init at least one of me...

[bridgman]

Kano, you're talking about switchable graphics ie *two* ATI gfx chips (one integrated, one discrete) right ?

The issue AFAICS is that the switchable graphics spec calls for BIOS options to disable one of the two GPUs in order to support non-Windows OSes. It doesn't seem that all the laptops have been built with that BIOS option (or nobody has found it yet), and AFAIK it's those systems which are showing the problem.

[L33F3R]

I've been using an Compaq with an AMD processor and NVIDIA graphics - specifically a MCP51/GeForce Go 6100.

i used a 6200 on linux and it was a pure joy. Did you use the proprietary driver?

[Kano]

@bridgman

Maybe not all, but how do you see that from spec? fglrx has to fix that soon!

[mattparlane]

i used a 6200 on linux and it was a pure joy. Did you use the proprietary driver?

Using it on Ubuntu Jaunty 32-bit was very reliable, but on 64-bit I've had visual artifacts that are really annoying, unfortunately I need 64-bit to run some certain software. Also, performance on either version has not been what I feel like it "should" be, again comparing it to XP on the same hardware.

[Kano]

How about testing Kanotix64?

[mattparlane]

How about testing Kanotix64?

You mean the one whose latest release was in 2005?

http://kanotix.com/files/kanotix64/

[L33F3R]

or l33f3rox

[Qaridarium]

Stay away from AMD Laptops with dedicted ATI gfx chip. When you are unlucky it has an onboard VGA + extra chip then fglrx is too stupid to init at least one of me...

why not use an amd singlechip laptop for linux???

the amd onboard VGAs IGPs are much faster than the intel ones !

yes dualgrafic on linux fails on AMD.. but no one needs to buy this shit.