New laptop derecommendations

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

Before giving up on something that dies at the splash screen, I'd kill 
the splash screen, and see what's really going on.  So, for example, 
edit your GRUB line, and remove... well, darn.  I've already removed it, 
or I'd share.  But, for me at least, it's everything after (and 
including) "quiet".  That's one of the first things I get rid of, 
because I *hate* splash screens: I don't want to see pretty graphics at 
boot, I want to see why stuff doesn't work.

$.02,

-Ken


On 2018-10-18 14:41, Peter Flynn wrote:
> I'm looking for a new laptop.
> 
> I am NOT looking for recommendations (but if you have them, by all 
> means
> send them directly to my email address) because I suspect one or other
> variant of Ubuntu will run on pretty much all modern laptops.
> 
> What I am looking for is warnings: DON'T use XYZ laptops because...
> 
> Knowing what to avoid is probably more useful than knowing what to
> choose from, and I already have a checklist of things it MUST have.
> 
> I have been using an ancient but reliable Dell Latitude D810 through
> many versions and distros of Ubuntu. I've been using Dell for many 
> years
> but recently got a loan of an XPS 15 which should have been wonderful
> but which has been a disaster: the keyboard is horrible and the only
> distro which would install on it was Mint 18 — everything else hung at
> the installer's splash screen. Weird for a machine whose smaller 
> brother
> (XPS 13) is actually sold with Linux preinstalled). So Dell is out.
> 
> ///Peter