Hi, Apologies if this is OT.
I have never bought a laptop before and was hoping for some recomendations. [...]
There were some of the Linux-Magazine articles (in 2001 and 2004) about notebooks and linux tests.
Here is what I found in the archives (in german only):
http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2001/01/Notebook/notebook.html
http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/2001/04/Notebook-Test/notebook.html
http://www.linux-magazin.de/Service/Listings/2001/04/Notebook-Test
I the Polish version of Linux-Magazine notebooks test was published in Oct 2004, No 9.
They tested following notebooks:
Acer Travelmate 662 LCi Asus M6700N Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S7010 IBM Thinkpad R51 IBM Thinkpad X40 Sony Vaio VGN-A 115S LG LM50
Here I pasted the test results in short (plus/minus) published by Linux-Magazine Polish Edition:
Acer Travelmate 662 LCi
Plus: + longest time or battery life from all tested notebooks (about 4:43 h, but Acer says it will work 5 h) + Great screen with 1400x1050 res, but it works best with max. 1280x1024
Minus:
- not comfortable or strange keyboard, it is hard to learn it
- smart cards reader is not working under Linux
- AC adapter plugin blocks DVD-ROM and it is hard to open it when AC is plugged in
Asus M6700N
Plus: + great screen with 1280x800 resolution + price + SpeedStep works OK + 4h battery life
Minus:
- height weight
- CPU Throttling does not work
- Linux hangs after using standby, suspend to ram, suspend to disk
- Mandrake Linux is not working (installer does not even start), Fedora & Suse works great
Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook S7010
Plus:
+ nice look and solid case
+ long life battery
+ 3:45h battery life
+ new way of battery charging which starts when the battery mAh is about 20%, that prevents for the situation called "charging till death" which causes the battery dies after 1-2 years because user uses AC adapter when battery is in the notebook what kills battery. So, it is nice feature which saves your money ;-)
Minus: - too soft keyboard (I don't know that does it mean ;-) - problems with WLAN and ACPI, temp indicator and CPU Throttling do not work - price
IBM Thinkpad R51
Plus:
+ reach equipment i.e. povides trackpoint along with touchpad, so you can use what fits your needs better
+ 4:20h battery life
+ very well ACPI support (suspend to ram, temp. indicator, CPU throtl. and speedstep work great)
+
Minus: - problms with suspend to disk and standby (no hang, no reaction) - case seems to be not very long life
IBM Thinkpad X40
Plus:
+ very small (maller than A4 paper sheet), only 1.3 Kg !!!
+ case made with metal covered by something like thin rubber, so no fingerprints are visible ;-)))
+ Thinkpad X40 easily boots from USB 2.0 drives
+ 3h battery life (it i possible to use double size battery)
Minus:
- price
- no optical drive (because of its small size)
- no FireWire
- docking station is required for optical drive for about 230 Euro + 200Euro for DVD, or you can use USB optical drive as an alternative
- suspend to ram does not work
Sony Vaio VGN-A 115S On plus the rest are minuses ;-)
Plus: + DVD recorder
Minus:
- screen light reflections
- low resoluton screen
- very height power usage, low battery life
- hard to extend
- DVD drive may not be exchanged with additional battery as it is possible in the tested notebooks above
LG LM50
Plus: + rich equipment + long battery life + solid case + price
Minus: - not well working ACPI - touchpad is not working under Linux
Best regards
-- Mateusz Łoskot, mateusz (at) loskot (dot) net Registered Linux User #220771, Debian (Sarge)
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