Opinions invited on Linux laptops

Geico Caveman · *nix forums beginner Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 29

Hi folks,

I know the website linux-laptop exists and I do go through it now and then.
However, it is not easy to separate out current hardware from discontinued
hardware on that website. Hence, I am inviting some suggestions.

I have a LinuxCertified LC2210D laptop that I purchased in April 2004. Came
preloaded with Linux (no M$ tax there - check). However, I was less than
happy about the quality of the hardware. No complaints about service - it
was great (perhaps one of the best I have seen) - they shipped me a
replacement CMOS battery which failed 6 months after purchase (odd in
itself) for free, replaced the battery that died within 6-7 months for
free, the hard disk died a little over a year later, which they also fixed
for free, and finally when the BIOS started failing, they sent me a
replacement laptop (refurbished). Now, the display of this laptop has
started giving me problems (some loose connection in the hinge, I guess). I
am definitely past the warranty period, so I cannot expect them to fix it
again, but I cannot help contrast this experience with my experience with
an IBM ThinkPad i1300 which lasted me about 3 years and I gave that up only
because it started overheating.

LinuxCertified is a great company as far as service goes, but I am not
really interested in having my laptop gone for servicing so many times for
15-20 days (the overall turnaround time, including shipping) at a time. My
work needs my laptop around and if components like CMOS batteries start
failing six months after purchase and hard disks start failing about a year
after purchase, it does not reflect well on the parts supplier that
LinuxCertified uses.

Any suggestions as to which new laptop I should buy ? My current laptop has
an Intel 855GM graphics chipset, and recent versions of Xorg (I run Debian
Etch (Testing)) have a ValidatePCI bug associated with it :

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=345914&trim=no

Now, I cannot seem to find the Debian source packages for xorg even after
adding :

deb-src http://debian.lcs.mit.edu/debian etch main contrib non-free

to my apt sources.list.

That apart, Intel graphics chips use system memory, which means that
accelerated graphics can become a hog on the system as a whole. Hence, I
want to go for a machine that has a video card with on-board memory (like
nvidia - I have had good experience with an nvidia GeForce 2MX on my old
desktop). I have found an HP laptop
(http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12446_div/12446_div.HTML)
that might be good and during a chat with their sales rep, I found that you
can have the laptop preloaded with FreeDOS (no M$ tax). Further, this
laptop (among many others that HP offers) is certified for SuSE Linux (and
RHEL - no Debian certification here, but if it works with one linux distro,
it must work for all major ones).

What do you folks think of this choice / HP laptops in general (the ones
that are certified for Linux) / other major brands that allow the no M$
choice ?

Thanks.

Google