On 25/01/15 05:21 PM, John Moniz wrote:
I need to get a computer for a project that requires a program that is only available for windows. However, I intend to dual boot with Linux and want to make sure that I buy something that is nicely compatible. And I'm looking for the portability of a laptop.
There seems to be a general appreciation of Thinkpads on this list. I have my eye on a Thinkpad T410 and was wondering if anyone has reason to suggest that I should stay away from that particular model. The store will be installing Windows 7 and they apparently have enough Linux knowledge to install a dual boot system. [...]
Unfortunately, the model number isn't enough to go on by itself. While ThinkPads tend to be pretty good in general, it depends on some specific hardware inside it (and even the same model can come with slight variations). Does it have a standard Intel onboard graphics card, or does it have a Nvidia graphics? There are only proprietary Nvidia drivers available for GNU/Linux, whereas I think Intel graphics are usually good for free software drivers. The other tricky this is wireless, and going with Intel isn't enough... I have Intel wireless adapters for my ThinkPad X60 and T61, both of which do *not* work with free software and require proprietary drivers in GNU/Linux. I thought I was okay because the wireless cards were "intel" when making the purchase, but I was wrong about the particular type of Intel wireless adapter. (My workaround has been to buy a USB wireless adapter from ThinkPenguin for ~$25.) In my (limited) experience, it's the graphics and wireless cards that you need to watch out for. Some may not work with free software drivers in GNU/Linux.