Buying a new laptop

Support & Help Requests
1

Hi There

I am in the market for a new laptop. How do I find out if UM 16.04 supports a certain cpu, chip set, WiFi card, etc.

Thanks.

2

The easiest is to buy from a seller that ships laptops with Ubuntu installed:

https://slimbook.es/en/

Those are usually clevo-based laptops. Some providers of clevo laptops don't ship with Ubuntu installed such as:

Edit:
Also WiFi cards from Intel usually work with Linux.
Also see the SPECS thread if you know exactly what hardware is in the laptop:

3

Ubuntu tends to run on almost everything. It works perfectly in my MacBook, as well as my friend’s Windows 10 hardware. I think you should go for a laptop with good battery life and good screen. Ubuntu isn’t too heavy on storage, so I think 256gb SSD will be enough.

Some of my recommendations include:

System76 Galago Pro OR Lemur

Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (15 inch works fine too)

MacBook

4

Similarly, Dell has a whole line that you can buy with Ubuntu preinstalled.

5

According to myself, the most secure way to test a new machine is to create a live usb stick and trying to boot the new PC in the store

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6

I purchased a Dell Inspiron 3542 in 2014. Everything worked out of the box with Ubuntu 14.04.1 at the time. Ubuntu 16.04 and Xubuntu 16.04 yielded the same results, as well as Ubuntu Mate 16.04 today, and a handful of various live sessions over that time. This is a inexpensive laptop (Core i3 4th Gen / 4 GB / 500 GB) that has been very reliable and Linux compatible.

They still sell similar laptops today.

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/inspiron-15-3000/spd/inspiron-15-3567-laptop/fncwck141h

But I’m the kind of person who likes to take lower end machines, wipe their hard drives, and turn them into lean and reliable Linux boxes. :slight_smile:

7

Hallo

You might want to try

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/

The website was completely re-worked about 3 days ago. It’s now available in German and English.

There have been comments by hardware reviewers this year relating to the various “tweaks” that various GNU/Linux builders add to distros that they pre-install for customers. If you want “vanilla” Ubuntu-Mate you may want to consider buying the computer without a pre-installed OS and installing Ubuntu-Mate yourself.

I have a Tuxedo desktop and would buy from them again. :penguin: :slight_smile:

8

I just went through this several months ago. It doesn’t seem as straightforward as it used to be. I priced a Clevo laptop at a retailer (not System76) who told me the BIOS on their off-the-shelf machines was set up for Windoze only, and had to be “unlocked” for an additional fee in order to use Linux. Some of the current laptops have discrete Nvidia graphics cards as well as the GPU on the chip, but they are set up to use the Nvidia Optimus system instead of functioning like the old-style discrete graphics cards which could be run independently from the CPU-based GPU with a simple BIOS setting instead of additional software that can add some headaches with Ubuntu on some machines. If you can go with a Dell, System76, or the like with Ubuntu pre-loaded, you can most likely avoid a lot of headaches, but they seem to be priced higher than similarly configured Winblow$ machines.

9

Hallo elcste

I heard on a podcast, or read on a Linux website, that even the Dell “Linux” (i.e. Ubuntu) Laptops don’t have a wireless card that (‘is supported in the Linux kernel’ WRONG, EDIT 24.12.2017 SHOULD BE “that doesn’t work with Ubuntu out of the box”) - which means you need a driver!

EDIT (24.12.2017)
Here’s the source of that information, in the third paragraph:


END OF EDIT

I can’t vouch for this through personal experience, but be warned it might be the case. Then if you wanted to install another Linux distro you might have problems.

The advice from ClarusAD is sound. Or buy from a dedicated Linux builder. :slight_smile:

10

See here.

Not unreasonable price, and no work to do. nVidia/Intel switch requires a reboot (but that’s not Entroware’s fault), but both work fine. (Intel support needed if you want to use laptop on battery, as nVidia card drains power rapidly, for no advantage if only using laptop’s screen).

Have upgraded to 17.10 with no issues whatsoever (related to laptop).

11

Our Dell Inspiron 3542 wireless card has been supported by every version of Ubuntu starting with 14.04 and forward. This was originally a windows 7 laptop that I purchased to covert to Linux.

Perhaps the newer models no longer have a supported wireless card, but I would find that a little hard to believe.

12

All

In the end I went for this Clevo based system
https://www.dubaro.de/Gaming-Notebook/Dubaro-Notebook-Clevo-N650DU::3447.html

And it worked all out of the box with UM 16.04.

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