cheap laptop suggestions that will boot to ubuntu without hassle

[Mike Marchywka]

On Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 02:00:09PM +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
> On Thu, 28 Nov 2019 at 13:20, Mike Marchywka <marchywka at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I had previously been concerned with booting from syslinux or grub with older computers
> > such as e-machines. This new Dell Precision with uefi seemed to work well with Ubuntu
> > installed by Dell so I never fiddled with it once determining that the USB sticks will
> > boot too ( Dell had originally been pushing kernels until efi partition filled up but it
> > looks like they fixed that much ).
> 
> They were putting kernels in the EFI partition? That's not normal!
> 
> > With all the brew-ha-ha about holiday deals,
> 
> (?)
> 
> Oh! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouhaha
> 
> > and remaining interest in using "lo tech" or obsolete machines in niches,
> > I looked around amazon briefly and found this older model asus for 170 USD,
> > ( If they had a "cite" button or supported BoMTex, I could just paste a cool
> > biblio or bill-of-materials like description designed by them lol)
> >
> > https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Ultra-Thin-Processor-L203MA-DS04-Microsoft/dp/B07N6S4SY1?ref_=Oct_DLandingS_D_b59e35aa_62&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
> 
> Looks very low-spec. I'd much prefer a used Thinkpad or something.
> When researching UEFI boot problems on my girlfriend's Lenovo
> minitower, I found to my great surprise that my Thinkpad X220 has UEFI
> that's emulating a BIOS. It's been so trouble-free I never realised.

Actually maybe something like the raspberry PI? I guess besides cameras
generally unattended data recording of control of simple "lab" type
instruments. I presume many of those are USB- I think I got a digital
multimeter with a USB port but no documentation although it
could be reverse engineered ( maybe there was a windohs CD or something).

The laptop is nice because of the battery even if many peripherals would
stop with the line power. 

> 
> I hate UEFI myself and Dells are among the worst I have encountered.
> Laptops and desktops both.
> 
> Thinkpads, no problem.
> 
> > it comes with windoh's but curious if there are known problems putting ubuntu on it and having
> > boot on power up well. Do you know if any of these will turn on with power applied or
> > do you need a server for that?
> 
> Usually a BIOS/firmware setting, I think. Called something like "power
> on after power outage".
> 
> >  I was debating about using something like this for
> > a security camera system - it comes with a camera and could probably just add more -
> > or similar unattended functions
> > and the battery should keep the included camera up during power outages. During extended
> > outages though wanted to see it it would turn back on, I guess many computers
> > have a net wakeup mechanism although this one does not appear to have a wired NIC.
> 
> I'd favour a NUC or something for that but I take your point about
> working during power outages.
> 
> I'd still prefer an old Thinkpad to a cut-price anything else, laptop-wise.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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-- 

mike marchywka
306 charles cox
canton GA 30115
USA, Earth 
marchywka at hotmail.com
404-788-1216
ORCID: 0000-0001-9237-455X