[ale] Good Linux laptops

Doug Hall doughalldev at gmail.com
Fri Apr 12 10:59:42 EDT 2013


Geoffrey, I looked on Emperor's website. I can't seem to find where they
mention model numbers. This is probably intentional, of course. Do you know
of an easy way to figure these out? I'm looking at the Toucan (Lenovo)
models, specifically. I just wanted to do some before/after price
comparisons to see how much Emperor charges for preconfiguring these
machines. If it's reasonable, I might use or point people to them in the
future. Their choices of hardware seems pretty good, on the surface.

Thanks,
Doug


On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Geoffrey Myers <lists at serioustechnology.com
> wrote:

> I always look at the models www.emperorlinux.com uses.
>
> --
> From my iPhone
> Geoffrey Myers
>
> On Apr 12, 2013, at 9:12 AM, Michael Campbell <michael.campbell at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I always have problems with that functionality for some reason; maybe
> > it's my aura.  ;-\
> >
> > Having said that though, I have a Lenovo U310 that works with Mint
> > (14, xfce) very well, and suspend/resume DOES work.
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 11:55 PM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> I didn't specifically test the suspend/resume. When he gets his second
> unit,
> >> I'll be sure to test it. (He gave the first one away to a close family
> >> friend.)
> >>
> >> Doug
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 9:51 AM, James Taylor
> >> <James.Taylor at eastcobbgroup.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I can't speak for that model, but I picked up an envy last summer and
> I've
> >>> been running, openSUSE on it. Initially 12.2, now 12.3.
> >>> Everything worked out of the box (sound, hdcam, wireless, buttons,
> >>> touchpad, mic, etc...), including suspend/resume. The only glitch I've
> run
> >>> into, is that the screen light turns off during boot, and I have to
> turn up
> >>> the brightness before Iogin. I ran across a fix somewhere once, but I
> lost
> >>> the link and haven't been irritated enough to go search for it again
> yet.
> >>>
> >>> -jt
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> James Taylor
> >>> The East Cobb Group, Inc.
> >>> 678-697-9420
> >>> james.taylor at eastcobbgroup.com
> >>> http://www.eastcobbgroup.com
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>>> Ed Cashin <ecashin at noserose.net> 04/09/13 9:08 AM >>>
> >>>
> >>> Thanks for all the great info.
> >>>
> >>> Does suspend/resume work well?  Any surprises?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 12:11 PM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> I told you all that I'd let you know what he ordered and how the
> install
> >>>> went. He decided on the HP Envy DV6 laptop. It has a 3rd gen i7 chip,
> which
> >>>> seems pretty quick. I haven't run any performance tests, but if
> someone
> >>>> knows of a good performance test suite, and is interested, I'll give
> it a
> >>>> run.
> >>>>
> >>>> Here's what he bought:
> >>>>
> >>>> <
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AFHP55S/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
> >
> >>>>
> >>>> Predictably, Windows 8 seems slow in comparison to Ubuntu 12.10. I
> think
> >>>> an SSD drive would have made a big difference. Quite honestly though,
> he's
> >>>> giving this one to a friend who's a computer novice, and will
> probably order
> >>>> another one for himself.
> >>>>
> >>>> The Ubuntu install didn't go as smoothly as I thought it should. I'd
> >>>> heard about the Windows "safe boot" mode, and predicted that there
> would be
> >>>> some problems. The thing is, the problems didn't manifest themselves
> as they
> >>>> might should have. If you try to install, or simply choose the option
> to
> >>>> verify the install CD, it fails to read a particular sector of the
> CD. It
> >>>> makes it look like the CD (DVD) failed to write correctly. I think I
> made
> >>>> three or four DVDs, from two different DVD burners before I realized
> that
> >>>> this just wasn't the case. The MD5sum for the ISO was correct, and
> the DVD
> >>>> burning software verified the contents of the DVD after each burn. The
> >>>> problem was, the BIOS was expecting a "Secure Boot" image. Yea!
> Microsoft!
> >>>> Thank you for protecting us, digital overlords!
> >>>>
> >>>> There were two different settings in the BIOS which I had to change to
> >>>> get everything working. Under the "System Configuration" of the BIOS,
> there
> >>>> are settings called "Legacy Support" and "Secure Boot". The notes for
> the
> >>>> Legacy Support setting says: "When Legacy Support is enabled, BIOS
> will load
> >>>> Compatibility Support Module (CSM) to support Legacy OS such as
> Windows 7,
> >>>> Windows Vista, Windows XP, and DOS. When Legacy Support is disabled,
> it will
> >>>> boot in UEFI Mode without CSM to support newer OS such as Windows 8."
> >>>>
> >>>> I've forgotten, but I think I had to enable Legacy Support in order to
> >>>> install Ubuntu, but then I could turn it off. It's now disabled, and
> with
> >>>> Grub2 controlling the Master Boot record, it works just fine. By the
> way, I
> >>>> had to manually install Grub2 over the Master Boot record. The Ubuntu
> >>>> installer wasn't smart enough to figure out where to install Grub,
> even
> >>>> though I specifically said to "Install alongside Windows 8" when I was
> >>>> configuring the install. I created a "Linux Secure Remix" install CD,
> which
> >>>> included a "Boot Repair" application to fix the Master Boot Record.
> >>>> <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LinuxSecureRemix>
> >>>>
> >>>> The "Secure Boot" setting is also disabled in the BIOS setting.
> However,
> >>>> Grub2 provides a "Windows UEFI bkbootmgfw.efi" and also a "Windows 8
> Boot
> >>>> UEFI loader" option (which I assume are equivalent, because both of
> them
> >>>> work), to boot Windows 8.
> >>>>
> >>>> As to my overall impressions of the laptop, I think I'd rate it an 8
> out
> >>>> of 10. It's alright, and perfectly acceptable for most people. But I
> >>>> personally don't like the keyboard layout. The Enter key is massive.
> The
> >>>> arrow keys are stacked in such a way that the up and down arrows are
> >>>> squashed, to make the two of them the same size as a the left and
> right
> >>>> arrows. (I use these keys, so it sucks for me.) He didn't want me to
> tear
> >>>> away the plastic covering the webcam, but from the picture it
> generated
> >>>> through the plastic, it looked acceptable. The monitor was nice, if
> maybe
> >>>> just a little dimmer on the top left corner, than the rest of the
> screen,
> >>>> but it's not very noticeable. I think he likes his choice very much.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks again for the help!
> >>>> Doug Hall
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 9:40 PM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> A coworker, whom I switched to Ubuntu a little over a year ago, is
> >>>>> looking for a nice new linux laptop. I know the Lenovos are usually
> a pretty
> >>>>> good choice. Does anyone else have a laptop they're thrilled with,
> which
> >>>>> will run Mint or Ubuntu? He's not a techie, so compatibility is
> important. I
> >>>>> think he uses it for basic things - pictures, email, web, etc.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Thanks ahead of time!
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>  Ed Cashin <ecashin at noserose.net>
> >>>  http://noserose.net/e/
> >>>  http://www.coraid.com/
> >>>
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> report
> >>> it: Report Spam
> >>>
> >>>
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