wanted: suggestions for used Linux compatible notebooks

[Doug McGarrett]

On 11/07/2019 09:04 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Thu, 7 Nov 2019 21:23:40 +0000 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> 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.
>
> Intel for both. Only hardware vendor for either that actively supports *open
> source* drivers. (nVidia provides drivers for Linux, but they are semi closed
> source and break with kernel upgrades -- not worth the hassle.)
>
>>
>> 2. High-end new features (fingerprint sensors) rarely work in Linux out
>> of the box: they need lots of specialist drivers and much fiddling.
>
> Right.  *Never* buy a new Laptop.  Ever.  It is about as bad an idea as buying
> a new car (different reasons -- new cars are financially a bad idea, new
> laptops are bad due to bleeding edge unsupported tech).
>
>>
>> 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.

Yes, the older Dell laptop keyboard was at least usable, but see below.

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

AMEN, brother! I have three of these--one is a shorty, hooked to a 
laptop, two are full size. Got them all used at least 17 years ago, and 
they are still working perfectly! Just not good for a commercial office, 
they're too loud. (If you must use Windows, left-Alt plus Esc is the 
Windows key to log in.)

--doug

— 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
>>
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