Im actually looking at a Dell inspiron 1520 online now.
Laptops with good graphics cards are a lot thinner on
the ground than i thought. Dells customisation allows me to
pick a higher end one.
The assumption will be that because Dell are so widespread Linux
support should be good.
The graphics card is a GeForce GO 8600m GT.
On Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:25:46 +0100, Michael Watterson <watty at eircom.net> wrote:
> Josh Glover wrote:
>> On 02/07/07, ollie at eillo.org <ollie at eillo.org> wrote:
>>>>> Im planning on buying a laptop. Spending about €1000 give or atke a
>>> bit. I dont particularly care which brand it, though id prefer to
>>> aviod DELL. It will need to dualboot windows and linux. Ill be
>>> running Arch Linux which leans toward the DIY side of things so id
>>> prefer one that has reasonably standard set of hardware thats not
>>> going to break my heart trying to get everything working.
>>> At that price range I would not avoid Dell. Avoid their cheapest (too
> cut down) and most expensive (overpriced). I'd avoid Toshiba and Sony
> :-) Too many new models have shiny screens.
>> A new Core Duo 1.6GHz Toshiba is slower than my old Inspiron 8200,
> running Vista, or wiped and XP installed.
>> I have an old Dell latitude D505 and everything works on it from the CD
> default install of Fedora core 6, Centos, Ubuntu fiesty Fawn and Kbuntu
> Fiesty fawn.
>> My Inspiron 8200 is over 5 years old and still a good laptop, never had
> to reinstall its XP pro and it runs Linux via VMplayer. I gave up dual
> boot years ago, though needed if you are developing device drivers. The
> Debian running on the VMplayer is fine for everything except device
> drivers (LAN, CD/DVD drive, copy/paste).
>> For DirectX games, XP rather than Vista is still the way to go. Avoid
> buying anything with Vista unless you know all the XP drivers are
> available. It's only the MS Direct X 10 games that need Vista. Other
> Direct X 10 games support DX9 as game developers are not entirely stupid.
>> Running Linux as Host and Windows as Guest in VM player will not let
> DirectX or Dirtect3D work in any sensible fashion.
>> Acer are OK and competitive.
>> Burn yourself a KNOPPIX or Gentoo LiveCD and take it to the store. Ask
>> permission to boot off the CD. Make sure all of the hardware works.
>>>> In the States, at least, salespeople are usually cooperative once you
>> make it clear that their only chance of getting a sale is to let you
>> check out the hardware your way. In Japan, things are harder, but
>> smaller hobby shops and even some of the big boys in Akihabara will
>> let you have at it.
>>>> Anyone tried this in Eire?
>>> Only with DVD players and a homemade SVCD.
>> Most Retail in Ireland have a poor selection IMO.
>> --
> Mike
>>
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