new laptop - what brand? what type

[eavy]

i am thinking of buying a new laptop - but all the laptops i see have win 8 installed and fast boot - will that be a problem to install mint 13 LTS next to win 8 ? how does this fast boot thing work ?

anybody some suggestions about brand and type - nothing fancy for me - 15inch and 4 MB of ram is enough for me - i does not have to do heavy stuff - just some mailing - wordprocessing - an occasional speadsheet and now and then some photo editing - that is all

thank you for your info and suggestions

regards

eavy

[kc1di]

I would advise you to stay away from win 8 machine not because of fast boot but UEFI secure boot. you'll have to jump sum hurdles to get mint 13 installed.

I think at this point you would do well to look and Zareason or System 76 there maybe others that pre-load Linux.
http://zareason.com/shop/Alto-4330.html

https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/lemu4

[eavy]

I would advise you to stay away from win 8 machine not because of fast boot but UFEI secure boot. you'll have to jump sum hurdles to get mint 13 installed.

I think at this point you would do well to look and Zareason or System 76 there maybe others that pre-load Linux.
http://zareason.com/shop/Alto-4330.html

https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/lemu4

thanks for the info but i am living in belgium - this means keyboard is azerty and not qwerty - so i think they do not sell laptops with azerty keyboard - but thanks anyway for the help - do all win 8 laptops have this UFEI secure boot ?

[kc1di]

yes

Here is a sight that is EU:

http://linuxcomputers.nl/desktop-computers/69-notebook-naos-pcm10.html

and here is a page with may you can explore:
http://linuxpreloaded.com/

here an article on how to get around UEFI if you decide to go that root.

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20121126#feature
Look under questions and answers section.
you should be warned though not all manufacturers have a means of disabling the UEFI feature.

happy hunting.

[eavy]

ok thank you for the info -- i have found a deal now with hp - a hp630 laptop - do you think that is a good choice to run mint 13 LTS ? i haven't bought it yet, but it seems to be a good laptop - or any other hp laptops that are interesting ?

[bigj231]

Not to try to turn you away from HP, but I haven't had very good luck with my USA market consumer HP laptops. One had a hinge and screen fail (not at the same time) and the other has some weird issue. I've not been impressed by the build quality of the other HP consumer laptops I've seen either. Their business models are okay.
If you get a chance to try out a similar laptop before you buy that one, and you like the build quality, then that laptop should be fine. Check for weak hinges and sloppy keyboards. It does look like their cheap US G-series laptops though. Those are garbage unless you don't plan on moving them or opening them very often.

[kc1di]

having never use one of those particular machines I could not say for sure , but the specs look ok.

[bwat47]

Lenovo thinkpads generally have decent linux compatibility.

You can try looking here for well supported models: http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/

Mint is based on ubuntu, so an ubuntu certified laptop should work well.

[kkruecke]

Someone bought a System76 laptop, but with Mint he has issues with Suspend mode. He "loses the HDMI output of the graphic card" when he resumes.

See http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=119359&p=658177&hilit=system76+laptop#p658177

[lexon]

I have a fairly new HP/Compaq laptop that came with W7 and no issues. I guess HP now sells Compag. Both labels are on the machine.
Three years ago I bought an Acer laptop and no issues with Mint.

Look below in the Open Chat forum. One fellow just bought an Asus laptop with W8 and he said no issues loading Mint. He just wiped the drive and installed W7 and Mint. He did not like W8 anyway.

L

[sammiev]

I have many Toshiba laptops using many versions of Linux and never had trouble with any at all. All laptops are 100% Intel based. I would suggest finding one with Windows 7.

[Helmut]

My Netbook is a Toshiba NB520-11N. It was a Xmas gift and came with Win7 Starter.

I have tried every version of Mint, and some other distros, but there remain two grave issues:

1) Display is not recognized. It defaults to 800x600 4:3, but should be 1024x600 16:9

2) Brightness control does not work. The "sun"-icon for brightness does come up, and the bar does move according to change of setting, but has zero influence on the display, which remains glaringly bright. Too bright tolook at for any length of time without getting me nauseated.

The GFX in this Tosiba Netbook are Intel 3650, and it seems the Linux-support for the Intel 36xx Series is practically nil.

[MADDSNIPER]

I just bought a reconditioned Acer Aspire 5742 with intel HD graphics of ebay for around £300. i replaced windows 7 on it with just Linux Mint 14.10 64bit MATE and it has been perfect! great combination.

[ch_123]

I usually buy Lenovo's Thinkpads, although that may be a bit expensive if you just want a basic machine.

I don't think there's any serious issues with getting Secure Boot disabled, it's just a BIOS setting AFAIK.

[famicommander]

Here's some anecdotal evidence based on four years of sales and warehouse experience at a large computer retailer regarding laptop brands:
-HP laptops are returned at a higher rate than any other brand we sell. Not one person who works at my store would buy an HP.
-Dell's consumer grade machines are crap, but their business class machines seem reliable.
-Acer/Gateway/eMachines laptops seem to have the lowest build quality and a return rate nearly as high as HP
-Sony machines are always very nice but always way overpriced
-Fujitsu laptops are garbage. No exceptions.
-Samsung makes incredible displays, tablets, phones, and other electronics but their laptops get returned. A lot.

When I buy or recommend a laptop, my choices are always (in this order):
1. Toshiba. Their Windows installs generally come with a lot of bloatware, but their hardware is by far the most reliable and they seem to have few issues running Linux. Toshiba laptops are also usually great in terms of bang for buck.
2. Asus. Just a solid company all around. Would never hesitate to recommend their stuff in any situation
3. IBM/Lenovo. Great Linux support in general, higher returns than Toshiba/Asus but by far lower than HP/Acer/Dell/Samsung. Lenovo is also usually very reasonable with pricing.

[sammiev]

Here's some anecdotal evidence based on four years of sales and warehouse experience at a large computer retailer regarding laptop brands:
-HP laptops are returned at a higher rate than any other brand we sell. Not one person who works at my store would buy an HP.
-Dell's consumer grade machines are crap, but their business class machines seem reliable.
-Acer/Gateway/eMachines laptops seem to have the lowest build quality and a return rate nearly as high as HP
-Sony machines are always very nice but always way overpriced
-Fujitsu laptops are garbage. No exceptions.
-Samsung makes incredible displays, tablets, phones, and other electronics but their laptops get returned. A lot.

When I buy or recommend a laptop, my choices are always (in this order):
1. Toshiba. Their Windows installs generally come with a lot of bloatware, but their hardware is by far the most reliable and they seem to have few issues running Linux. Toshiba laptops are also usually great in terms of bang for buck.
2. Asus. Just a solid company all around. Would never hesitate to recommend their stuff in any situation
3. IBM/Lenovo. Great Linux support in general, higher returns than Toshiba/Asus but by far lower than HP/Acer/Dell/Samsung. Lenovo is also usually very reasonable with pricing.

+1 for Toshiba and the Intel based units.

[rbeltz48]

I have used IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads since I started using Linux 3 years ago. They are built for business and are very rugged compared to some of the "toy" laptops I've seen for sale at Best Buy and elsewhere. I have used an R51, T60 and T61s and bought then all used or refurbished, either from IBM or on eBay. There have been NO compatibility problems with any version of Linux I have used or tested. Personally, I highly recommend IBM/Lenovo for long-term use with Linux. Be sure to get one with a matte screen to avoid glare.