[opensuse] laptop recommendation again
Hi List! I need your advice more than ever :-) Finally I saved some money for a laptop. The main thing is that I'm windows free almost two years now, so I really want/need to run Linux (openSuSE) on it. I was thinking between Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (which was discussed earlier here in the list and seems to have good compatibility with opensuse) and Sony Vaio VGN-FZ4000. Sony looks much fancier, and actually cheaper than lenovo, but there is no much info about linux friendliness. It's on the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT and WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n w/Integrated Bluetooth wireless (and I really need wireless working). Is there any known issues with those? And in general maybe you know if there is any major issues with Sony? Also, I know it's been a long discussed issue, but is it possible to get rid of all the crap they preinstall on it (including Vista) Why do I need it If I'm gonna format it? And I get a free xp/vista here in university anyways (well I don't need it). During the online customization it's not possible to get rid of that, but maybe there are other ways? If there are any other brands/laptops you'd recommend looking for, I'd be only grateful! (I have very little experience with all that) Thanks a lot! Sergey -- Sergey Mkrtchyan, PhD Student @ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sat, 2008-02-23 at 16:27 -0500, Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
Hi List!
I need your advice more than ever :-)
Finally I saved some money for a laptop. The main thing is that I'm windows free almost two years now, so I really want/need to run Linux (openSuSE) on it.
I was thinking between Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (which was discussed earlier here in the list and seems to have good compatibility with opensuse) and Sony Vaio VGN-FZ4000.
Sony looks much fancier, and actually cheaper than lenovo, but there is no much info about linux friendliness. It's on the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT and WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n w/Integrated Bluetooth wireless (and I really need wireless working). Is there any known issues with those? And in general maybe you know if there is any major issues with Sony?
Not for me. I use a Sony laptop. There is Sony-specific support in OpenSUSE that detects it is a Sony and loads a few things. With 10.3, I simply installed it and it 'just worked'. Wireless and all. Of course, every model is different, But I would buy a Sony again to use with Linux. I see things like this in /var/log/messages: <6>sony-laptop: Sony Notebook Control Driver v0.5. <6>input: Sony Vaio Keys as /class/input/input7 <6>input: Sony Vaio Jogdial as /class/input/input8 I have to admit that I hate mouse pads in general. I use an external mouse no matter. But I think the Sony uses a rather standard synaptics mouse pad. -- Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Ramböll Sverige AB Kapellgränd 7 P.O. Box 4205 SE-102 65 Stockholm, Sweden Tel: Int +46 8-615 60 20 Fax: Int +46 8-31 42 23 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Sat, 2008-02-23 at 16:27 -0500, Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
Hi List!
I need your advice more than ever :-)
Finally I saved some money for a laptop. The main thing is that I'm windows free almost two years now, so I really want/need to run Linux (openSuSE) on it.
I was thinking between Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (which was discussed earlier here in the list and seems to have good compatibility with opensuse) and Sony Vaio VGN-FZ4000.
Sony looks much fancier, and actually cheaper than lenovo, but there is no much info about linux friendliness. It's on the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT and WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n w/Integrated Bluetooth wireless (and I really need wireless working). Is there any known issues with those? And in general maybe you know if there is any major issues with Sony?
Not for me. I use a Sony laptop. There is Sony-specific support in OpenSUSE that detects it is a Sony and loads a few things. With 10.3, I simply installed it and it 'just worked'. Wireless and all. Of course, every model is different, But I would buy a Sony again to use with Linux.
There's also ThinkPad specific support in OpenSUSE. -- Use OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
James Knott wrote:
Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Sat, 2008-02-23 at 16:27 -0500, Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
Hi List!
I need your advice more than ever :-)
Finally I saved some money for a laptop. The main thing is that I'm windows free almost two years now, so I really want/need to run Linux (openSuSE) on it.
I was thinking between Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (which was discussed earlier here in the list and seems to have good compatibility with opensuse) and Sony Vaio VGN-FZ4000.
Sony looks much fancier, and actually cheaper than lenovo, but there is no much info about linux friendliness. It's on the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT and WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n w/Integrated Bluetooth wireless (and I really need wireless working). Is there any known issues with those? And in general maybe you know if there is any major issues with Sony?
Not for me. I use a Sony laptop. There is Sony-specific support in OpenSUSE that detects it is a Sony and loads a few things. With 10.3, I simply installed it and it 'just worked'. Wireless and all. Of course, every model is different, But I would buy a Sony again to use with Linux.
There's also ThinkPad specific support in OpenSUSE.
Lenovo ships at least one model with Novell/SuSE Linux pre-installed: http://www.linux.com/feed/127261 FWIW, in January I got a Levono 3000 N100 - OS-Free, from a small local shop. With a few notes from me, they installed OpenSuSE on it successfully first try. They mostly support Windows. Actually, wife of the owner works directly with Balmer. At the moment that laptop is dual-bootable to give me a test image, and runs Compiz just fine. Wifi & camera not running yet because I haven't tried. Today's mucking about is Skype, which came right up in test, so time to install on the production image. Everything works - sound, auto detect flash drives, finds and sets up the printer. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Sat, 2008-02-23 at 16:27 -0500, Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
Hi List!
<snip>
Not for me. I use a Sony laptop. There is Sony-specific support in OpenSUSE that detects it is a Sony and loads a few things. With 10.3, I simply installed it and it 'just worked'. Wireless and all. Of course, every model is different, But I would buy a Sony again to use with Linux.
I see things like this in /var/log/messages:
<6>sony-laptop: Sony Notebook Control Driver v0.5. <6>input: Sony Vaio Keys as /class/input/input7 <6>input: Sony Vaio Jogdial as /class/input/input8
I have to admit that I hate mouse pads in general. I use an external mouse no matter. But I think the Sony uses a rather standard synaptics mouse pad.
Much as I like my Sony I would *not* recommend it for Linux use. Over time I have had to deploy various hacks to get things going, and there are still a few thing which are a little odd (sound and WiFi being the two most obvious). (However, I did not originally buy it with a view to deploying linux on it). I dread the next upgrade mainly because I know it will take a lot of work to get something usable... There is a site http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ which might be worth a look at as it has reports on quite a few laptops... - -- ============================================================================== I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. Bjarne Stroustrup ============================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHwTC2asN0sSnLmgIRAtGEAJ9VpSYV8k0Gps7YG9GvRHj4Sruj3wCg+YDH i8COiqcbw8Q/GcT1EO3TRfE= =f+yM -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 24 February 2008 03:54:14 am G T Smith wrote:
Much as I like my Sony I would *not* recommend it for Linux use. Over time I have had to deploy various hacks to get things going, and there are still a few thing which are a little odd (sound and WiFi being the two most obvious). (However, I did not originally buy it with a view to deploying linux on it). I dread the next upgrade mainly because I know it will take a lot of work to get something usable...
Thanks for info But even after workarounds there is some odd behavior? And are they horrible or one can live with that? It's all because of the Sony having a better config than same price Lenovo :-( Sergey -- Sergey Mkrtchyan, PhD Student @ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
On Sunday 24 February 2008 03:54:14 am G T Smith wrote:
Much as I like my Sony I would *not* recommend it for Linux use. Over time I have had to deploy various hacks to get things going, and there are still a few thing which are a little odd (sound and WiFi being the two most obvious). (However, I did not originally buy it with a view to deploying linux on it). I dread the next upgrade mainly because I know it will take a lot of work to get something usable...
Thanks for info
But even after workarounds there is some odd behavior? And are they horrible or one can live with that?
It's all because of the Sony having a better config than same price Lenovo :-(
Sergey
I can live with them... To be honest some of the side effects have been quite beneficial. Had to discontinue using KDE because when sound was enabled neither Firefox or Thunderbird (or a couple of other things) would load. Disable sound when using KDE or use a GNOME based window manager everything worked fin(e|ish) (the machine has an AC97 chipset which needs a rather odd tweak to work with ALSA at all but this known issue on all distros with machine). I am now using Enlightenment which suits my needs very nicely, and I feel no pressing need retry KDE because I now have the balance of CLI and GUI I can work with.... WiFi will not initiate on boot (nor for that matter with vanilla if/modprobe etc). I have a special script using hwup and a udev hack which works for the moment... (BTW was fine with 9.3). Still cannot use the Sonystick slot on the machine at all (but that is not for me a major issue as I dont use 'em anyway )... - -- ============================================================================== I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. Bjarne Stroustrup ============================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHw9KkasN0sSnLmgIRAvA9AKDW6uRwVsxklo6XayWBLeurVaULQgCgvnf0 JG5qTMTZHvc5wh63Qu1xBro= =j/a/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Tuesday 26 February 2008 03:49:40 am G T Smith wrote:
I can live with them...
To be honest some of the side effects have been quite beneficial. Had to discontinue using KDE because when sound was enabled neither Firefox or Thunderbird (or a couple of other things) would load. Disable sound when using KDE or use a GNOME based window manager everything worked fin(e|ish) (the machine has an AC97 chipset which needs a rather odd tweak to work with ALSA at all but this known issue on all distros with machine).
I am now using Enlightenment which suits my needs very nicely, and I feel no pressing need retry KDE because I now have the balance of CLI and GUI I can work with....
WiFi will not initiate on boot (nor for that matter with vanilla if/modprobe etc). I have a special script using hwup and a udev hack which works for the moment... (BTW was fine with 9.3).
Still cannot use the Sonystick slot on the machine at all (but that is not for me a major issue as I dont use 'em anyway )...
Well, ok, I'd better go with the Lenovo then (no GNOME experience ;-) and that doesn't sound like an "easy" workarounds. which I was hoping for...) Thank you very much. Cheers, Sergey -- Sergey Mkrtchyan, PhD Student @ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 23 February 2008 04:36:43 pm Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
Not for me. I use a Sony laptop. There is Sony-specific support in OpenSUSE that detects it is a Sony and loads a few things. With 10.3, I simply installed it and it 'just worked'. Wireless and all. Of course, every model is different, But I would buy a Sony again to use with Linux.
Thanks Roger, The thing is that for the same price Sony has way better configuration, so if I know that stuff will be working (even through some pains) I'll go for that. Thanks! Sergey -- Sergey Mkrtchyan, PhD Student @ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 23 February 2008 01:27:20 pm Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
Hi List!
I need your advice more than ever :-)
Finally I saved some money for a laptop. The main thing is that I'm windows free almost two years now, so I really want/need to run Linux (openSuSE) on it.
Go for it!! If you want, you can always go to your local computer big box retail store and bring an openSUSE DVD. -- kai www.filesite.org || www.4thedadz.com || www.perfectreign.com remember - a turn signal is a statement, not a request -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Kai Ponte wrote:
On Saturday 23 February 2008 01:27:20 pm Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
Hi List!
I need your advice more than ever :-)
Finally I saved some money for a laptop. The main thing is that I'm windows free almost two years now, so I really want/need to run Linux (openSuSE) on it.
Go for it!!
If you want, you can always go to your local computer big box retail store and bring an openSUSE DVD.
And leave as many computers as possible running Linux! ;-) -- Use OpenOffice.org http://www.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 23 February 2008 05:15:30 pm James Knott wrote:
Kai Ponte wrote:
On Saturday 23 February 2008 01:27:20 pm Sergey Mkrtchyan wrote:
Hi List!
I need your advice more than ever :-)
Finally I saved some money for a laptop. The main thing is that I'm windows free almost two years now, so I really want/need to run Linux (openSuSE) on it.
Go for it!!
If you want, you can always go to your local computer big box retail store and bring an openSUSE DVD.
And leave as many computers as possible running Linux! ;-)
Heh - never thought of that! /me runs off to make some live cds... -- kai www.filesite.org || www.4thedadz.com || www.perfectreign.com remember - a turn signal is a statement, not a request -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (6)
-
G T Smith -
James Bullock -
James Knott -
Kai Ponte -
Roger Oberholtzer -
Sergey Mkrtchyan