wanted: suggestions for used Linux compatible notebooks

[Peter Flynn]

On 07/11/2019 15:56, M. Fioretti wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 07, 2019 16:23:07 PM +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
>> On Thu, 7 Nov 2019 at 14:37, Tom H <tomh0665 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I've installed Linux on Dell, Lenovo (IdeaPad and ThinkPad), and
>>> Toshiba laptops, so I don't see why/how you can be this categoric.
>>
> 
> OK, speaking for me only, of course: [...] 
> But in this period of my life I cannot afford to spend that kind of
> time just to get to a login prompt. Not at all. Not even close. 

I'm in a similar position now but over the decades I've installed Linux 
on lots of different machines. Most of them worked. Some didn't: Tosh 
and Sony were the worst by far for proprietary stupidity (plus weirdos 
like Windows ME boxes). IBM, Dell, and HP have always worked for me, but 
nowadays it comes down to things which aren't in most playlists:

1. Research wireless chipsets and video chipsets because they are THE 
most difficult to work around. Stick with a brand and version KNOWN to work.

2. High-end new features (fingerprint sensors) rarely work in Linux out 
of the box: they need lots of specialist drivers and much fiddling.

3. Keyboard. If you're going to use the system for writing (my job) a 
usable keyboard is ESSENTIAL. Most manufacturers just slap in some 
default clone keyboard fresh off the boat without even testing it.

[Dell used to have nice ones on laptops but their recent XPS keyboards 
are unutterably HORRIBLE, so I have ditched Dell for HP Envy and it's 
really nice to write with. But for my desktop, you will only get me off 
my old IBM M-series clickety-clickety keyboard when you prise it from my 
cold, dead fingers — and even then you'll have to fight my executors 
because I have left it to someone.]

4. Screen. My new laptop has some horrendously large resolution, which 
means some Linux apps play sillybuggers with microscopic pointer sizes, 
tiny window defaults, etc, making them unusable. Pointless to report 
them: the developers would need to have my laptop to fix the problem.

5. Disks have never given me a minute's problems, even with whole-disk 
encryption (standard on all our systems).

Overall, Dell probably comes out on top for installability, but 
definitely not recent ones for usability.

Peter