When I see a cheap laptop in a store (like the Compaq Presario V2555US for $599) I immediately check linux-on-laptops.com to see if it is a good choice. But the cheap laptops never seem to be in the list. I know I should be looking at chipsets for the various components, but sometimes that information is hard to find too.

Does anyone have any positive experiences with cheap laptops running Linux? I'm a Fedora person at the moment, but am open-minded (Ubuntu sounds like it might be a good choice for laptops). How are the Linspire laptops? What about the GQ laptops, the Winbooks, the Aspires--do they hold up well under moderately heavy use? Do they play nice with Linux?

HP Laptop -- take Mepis Live CD to store with you

HP Laptops have fewer proprietary features, this makes it somewhat easier to install Linux (though I wish they didn't use Broadcom wireless --- Broadcom is a bad word in linux ;-)

Take a live CD to the store with you, say Mepis, Kanotix or Knoppix -- if you are considering an AMD 64 bring a 64-bit live CD as well -- give it a test drive

This will give you more confidence when you decide to buy

Mike

That's a good idea. I really need to get a new laptop. I will say, though, that my old (I do mean old) Thinkpad from 1999, with a 733 MHz processor and 256 MB RAM seems to perform at least as well with Fedora Core 2 as much newer machines running Windows. So I definitely want to stick with Linux going forward. I converted to a Linux enthusiast not from Windows, by the way, but from the Mac.

Those are other distros I suggested

If you are used to FC it will work

I wouldn't suggest Windoze

Mike

Seems like Ubuntu is better for laptops than Fedora, just from reading online. Do you agree?

What I want to do is go to the store, buy a cheap laptop, take it home, put some distro of Linux on there, and everything just works. End of story. Am I naive?

As you may have guessed, I'm a Mepis Lover ...

I think it's the best distro ... no 64-bit but that isn't important ...

It's very good on laptops

Personally I don't like Ubuntu ... Ubuntu does have a lot of people testing laptops, so it's good on hardware recognition ...

I have never used FC4 ... people do use it on laptops, but I think it would have more difficulties than Mepis, Kanotix, Ubuntu or Knoppix ...

Build quality is best in IBM, Sony or Toshiba

If you are used to Thinkpad you could be disapointed with a "cheap laptop"

But maybe not ... look them over

Here's the Ubuntu laptop Wiki https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportMachinesLaptops

Mike

Kewl!

I like my Thinkpad a lot... how are the Lenovo ones? I don't want to buy an older IBM one, I already have one of those. I also have an HP, a Toshiba, and an iBook. Out of those three, the Toshiba has seemed the most robust, though the HP is fine too.

The Thinkpad works great with FC2 although the WiFi was a long struggle in the beginning (works easily now). I like FC2... but the most important thing for me is ease of use. I don't want to have to do a bunch of editing in /etc just to have a working laptop. I want to install and use--and tell all my friends that they really should be using Linux, since it's just as easy as Mac and Winbloze and way better.

So... I know if I want to avoid having to use ndiswrapper I have to be careful of the WiFi chipset, and I know some distros don't handle weird screen resolutions, and things like that. It's just so hard to keep track of, and when I'm in the store I can't always find out easily what chipsets, video resolutions, etc. the laptop I'm looking at has...

So here's the thing about that Wiki. It does list a lot of models, true, but it doesn't address my initial question. I go into the store, I see the Compaq Presario V2555US for $599 and the Toshiba Satellite M55-S141 for $699. I look on the Wiki and those machines aren't there. In fact, I can't find any info on the web about anyone installing any distro of Linux on those machines. Is it that they're too new? Too inexpensive? Do people who like Linux only buy high-end but also old laptops?

I have Mepis running on 2 laptops

HP L2000 (clone of Compaq V2000z) AMD 64 Turion ML-37, Broadcom wireless, 2 x 512 memory, ATI Radeon X200 integrated video (uses 128 MB memory)

Toshiba M45-S331 Centrino, IPW2200 Intel Wireless, 768 MB memory, Intel 915 integrated video

The Toshiba has somewhat better build quality, but the HP is newer and is configured with top of the line AMD Turion. HP is easier to get running (fewer proprietary features) though I did need Ndiswrapper for the HP's Broadcom wireless

I have not updated these laptops to the newest version of Mepis, but I plan to.

Both run Linux well, though I am using acpi=off on the Toshiba and I don't have all the Toshiba utilities working ... and i'm using 915resolution and i810 video driver ...

The HP is also running Kanotix-64 to use the 64-bit capability, as there's no 64 bit Mepis yet ... Kanotix is working well, seems faster, though the installer is rudimentary (I still have part of my install in German by mistake)

Mike

And once again, bring the live CD of your choice to the store -- Mepis loads quite fast

They will let you try it out

Mike

Buying a cheap laptop (http://www.linux-laptop.net/cheap-laptop.html)

I have been successfull with linux, on two toshiba laptops, the latter being of the "cheap" variety Toshi M35x-S114, and the first being a few years old was an 1135-S3553... I think, I have since sold it on ebay dual booting win and suse linux. SuSe linux has nice laptop and mobile support, and currently Ubuntu was plug and play right out of the box. I am still quite new to linux, but one day vow to be free of microsoft windows. The only distro's that have really given me any grief, are the newer graphics driven distros such as RR-4 and LG-3D, both very neat distro's but my graphics card is too low on the food chain to operate in these enviroments.