I agree with Jason. I have an HP laptop. Its wireless card is supported (ath5k) and so is the graphic board (ATI - with open source drivers).
2010/2/6 Jason Filippou <jason.filip...@gmail.com> > On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 2:22 AM, Daniel Dalton <d.dal...@iinet.net.au> > wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > I'm having great difficulty in finding a laptop suitable for my > > needs. I'm vision impaired and a student, so primarily will use the > machine for > > school, and at home. > > > > Here is what I'm looking for: good debian linux support, including wifi, > > ethernet, sound, and the general hardware of the machine. > > I'm looking for something fairly recent, so I've got half a chance at > > locating one in Australia, but any suggested models would be greatly > > appreciated. I'm looking for something with a core 2 duro around 1.6 > > ghz or more, and I want something with really good battery life, perhaps > > 5 hours or more. I have about $1,000 to spend give or take. Finally, I'm > > going to be carrying it around school every day, so portability is > > important to me. > > > > So basically it must have: > > - Good debian support including wiffi > > - core 2 duro 1.6 ghz or more > > - Good battery life 5 hours or more. > > > > I've been looking mainly at lenovo, hp, del, acer and maybe tosheba. > > > > Any suggested models would be greatly appreciated. > > > > Cheers, > > Dan > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > > Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) > > > > iEYEARECAAYFAktTqc4ACgkQQCYsNYjKJVDaoACgtMC+QMAti5qQS2eJfqLHu5Ob > > XqMAoIc7+DsdVSBi2TKwSnGleWZ+0wLN > > =Aips > > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > > > > Hello, > > When it comes to good Linux support, I always advise looking towards > the acquisition of an hp laptop, perhaps with an Intel GMA or other > sorts of Intel onboard GPU, (for people like yourself wo are not > interested in heavy duty graphics support) primarily because you will > virtually never have any problems with closed source graphic card > drivers (Intel's drivers are free software and are henceforth included > by the official Debian distribution). I have been especially pleased > by my 4-year old Pavillion laptop, which runs Debian smoothly @ 1GB of > ram and with a Centrino processor. It's construction is also pretty > solid and ergonomic, albeit based on PVC, which is not the healthiest > of materials (like most of today's laptops). HP is also very dedicated > to receiving and processing complaints about faulty hardware, and the > company has frequently made public announcements regarding free > substitutions of battery models that have been known to overheat, for > example. By buying an HP laptop you're also helping a company that > sponsors free software to an extent, they were among the main > contributors to the most recent DebConf ( http://debconf9.debconf.org/ > ). > > There are a few downsides to my proposal, of course, the most notable > of which being that I'm not very sure what vision support you'd like > from a laptop's screen in order to assist you in your work. Perhaps > you're looking into a specialised system, with a 19'' screen at least. > Also, my HP pavillion has an integrated GMA graphics card which, even > though very helpful in the sense that I've never had to care about > drivers (for the reasons I've mentioned earlier in this mail), is also > quite weak. I can't run the KDE 4 effects from my laptop, but I used > to run some Compiz Fusion effects when I was running Ubuntu (desktop > cube, mainly). Of course this isn't a real problem, you can always get > an HP laptop with a strong graphics card. Nvidia cards work well with > Linux and the company provides well-functioning proprietary drivers, > I'd look into that after a friend of mine had serious trouble with the > discontinuation of ATI's support for his Radeon. I also noted your > need for a strong battery, yet I don't think any out-of-the-box HP > laptop (not any I have come across, at least) has such a strong > battery, you'd need to order a larger one yourself. This last > observation is very prone to error, though, due to my limited > knowledge of different battery types. > > I see you've increased your budget, this could help you look into one > of those new pavillions with an i7 processor (if you REALLY want to > step it up) but you don't need such a strong machine for office work > imo. > > All in all, I'd go for an HP laptop both because of the high-quality > of their pavillion laptops and because of their support of open source > and Linux, both financially and technically. > > Jason > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-laptop-requ...@lists.debian.org > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact > listmas...@lists.debian.org > >
