Dear Talk List Members I am brand new to Linux, open source, etc. I am a user, not a developer. I am interested in buying a laptop and installing Ubuntu on it—I like the idea of a free alternative to Windows or MacOS, and price is a big factor. A while back I saw some relatively inexpensive laptops on Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled. Unfortunately these are no longer available and only a high-end developer system is available with Ubuntu preinstalled. So I have started looking into laptops with Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and installing Ubuntu. I’ve done some research, but still uncertain. Intel processors seem to be a must and 4GB RAM—which is the most I can find on a Chromebook. Does anyone have any experience with Ubuntu? Any help/advice would be appreciated. Best IB Irwin Barrer irwin@irwinb.com
From a spec perspective, once you find something you want, google for linux support and peoples experiences. You could even find out what dell models had ubuntu pre-installed, and find
You may want to approach this the other way. I you go to newegg.ca for example, i see the cheapest chrome book at about 400$, instead, do search on 8GB portable (4GB is cutting it close), and you will see many refurbs come up 350-400$ (order by price increasing), and new coming in at 550'ish. the windows equiv. being sold refurb. for cheap (i would guess). With bloatware on cheap windows licenses, the cost of windows factored in is about 0$ (at least it would be on a refurb.) I just can't help but think if you drive the search from something certified to linux (or chrome) from supplier (pre-built), you will severely narrow your HW options. Having said all that, I have at least twice built up a linux portable from a wiped windows one, and had video go black after grub screen, just to have to research to add a boot time option for a intel video issue, and this type of thing, since you are not a dev., would drive you mad. If you can find people reporting trouble free install from Linux Mint, or Ubuntu, it should be a safe bet. You can also try to run a live DVD/CD on the machine before you buy, that would really cement the process. You could also consider a live DVD/CD with a purchase that has full return policy. Good luck! nice to see you attempting the Linux route. Also, intel processors isn't a must, can run linux fine on amd (and a whole bunch more for that matter). And I would go for 8GB ram at min. Trouble spots are usually touch pads with multi-finger support, touch screens, and wifi module, at least a few years ago, could still be a pain. -tl On Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 3:53 PM, Irwin Barrer via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Dear Talk List Members
I am brand new to Linux, open source, etc. I am a user, not a developer.
I am interested in buying a laptop and installing Ubuntu on it—I like the idea of a free alternative to Windows or MacOS, and price is a big factor.
A while back I saw some relatively inexpensive laptops on Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled. Unfortunately these are no longer available and only a high-end developer system is available with Ubuntu preinstalled.
So I have started looking into laptops with Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and installing Ubuntu. I’ve done some research, but still uncertain. Intel processors seem to be a must and 4GB RAM—which is the most I can find on a Chromebook.
Does anyone have any experience with Ubuntu? Any help/advice would be appreciated.
Best IB
Irwin Barrer irwin@irwinb.com
--- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On Tue, 22 Nov 2016, ted leslie via talk wrote:
You may want to approach this the other way. I you go to newegg.ca for example, i see the cheapest chrome book at about 400$, instead, do search on 8GB portable (4GB is cutting it close),
I've been using Mint on a Dell Inspiron i3 with 4GB for a couple of years without any problems. I normally have 20 workspaces open, on which I always have at least 2 shell windows open, as well as Firefox, emacs (usually 2 or 3 frames as well as one instance as root), alpine and slrn each in its own shell window, Gentoo file manager, audacious, often xboard, etc.... -- Chris F.A. Johnson, <http://cfajohnson.com>
On Tue, 22 Nov 2016, Chris F.A. Johnson via talk wrote:
On Tue, 22 Nov 2016, ted leslie via talk wrote:
You may want to approach this the other way. I you go to newegg.ca for example, i see the cheapest chrome book at about 400$, instead, do search on 8GB portable (4GB is cutting it close),
I've been using Mint on a Dell Inspiron i3 with 4GB for a couple of years without any problems.
I normally have 20 workspaces open, on which I always have at least 2 shell windows open, as well as Firefox, emacs (usually 2 or 3 frames as well as one instance as root), alpine and slrn each in its own shell window, Gentoo file manager, audacious, often xboard, etc....
And I forgot VLC, often two instances open. -- Chris F.A. Johnson, <http://cfajohnson.com>
On 22 November 2016 at 21:34, Chris F.A. Johnson via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On Tue, 22 Nov 2016, Chris F.A. Johnson via talk wrote:
On Tue, 22 Nov 2016, ted leslie via talk wrote:
You may want to approach this the other way. I you go to newegg.ca for example, i see the cheapest chrome book at about 400$, instead, do search on 8GB portable (4GB is cutting it close),
I've been using Mint on a Dell Inspiron i3 with 4GB for a couple of years without any problems.
I normally have 20 workspaces open, on which I always have at least 2 shell windows open, as well as Firefox, emacs (usually 2 or 3 frames as well as one instance as root), alpine and slrn each in its own shell window, Gentoo file manager, audacious, often xboard, etc....
And I forgot VLC, often two instances open.
I'm with Chris on the memory requirements: 4GB will be satisfactory for nearly anything you're likely to do (unless you decide you need to run virtual machines). I highly recommend more memory, but given your cost constraints - that's usually the most expensive part. And it's the easiest to upgrade later if you come into some money (assuming of course it's upgradeable at all - that's not a given ...) I also agree with Ted's approach of shopping by what's available and then searching for people's experiences with that model. Be EXACT about the model: there's been a lot of discussion of the Asus Zenbook 305CA on this list (I'm typing on one now), and it's NOT the same as the Asus Zenbook 305 - which was an American model with better support ... This means doing considerably more research than you would to just buy a Windows laptop, but unfortunately this is an important step when migrating to Linux. Put in the time for your reading. Older computers are generally better supported: by the time they've been out for a year, most models are fully supported. Good luck! -- Giles http://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
Irwin: See my responses in-line. On Tue, 2016-11-22 at 15:53 -0500, Irwin Barrer via talk wrote:
Dear Talk List Members
I am brand new to Linux, open source, etc. I am a user, not a developer.
Glad you are giving Linux a try. It is an excellent OS and platform for computing.
I am interested in buying a laptop and installing Ubuntu on it—I like the idea of a free alternative to Windows or MacOS, and price is a big factor.
I do not know what your price range is, but I assume it is less that $949 (US) since that is the cost of the Dell XPS 13. want to throw out a couple of decent options: * System76 Lemur ($699 w/ Ubuntu Installed) - https://system76.com/lap tops/lemur * Shop the Lenovo Outlet - http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/laptops/ #facet-1=1,2&facet-3=14,19 The Lenovo T540/440 and 550/450 units are known to be Linux friendly. You would have to search to see how Linux friendly the 560/460 range is.
A while back I saw some relatively inexpensive laptops on Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled. Unfortunately these are no longer available and only a high-end developer system is available with Ubuntu preinstalled.
Dell also has a good document on installing Ubuntu: http://www.dell.com/ support/article/us/en/19/SLN151664/en
So I have started looking into laptops with Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and installing Ubuntu. I’ve done some research, but still uncertain. Intel processors seem to be a must and 4GB RAM—which is the most I can find on a Chromebook.
I would personally trend away from the Chromebooks due to their having a much smaller hard drive. With research you can likely find out if the sub $400 laptops made by Dell still work well with Ubuntu or not. Charles
Charles Thanks so much for your response—it’s very helpful. Best IB On 22-Nov-16, at 22:47, Charles Profitt via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote: Irwin: See my responses in-line. On Tue, 2016-11-22 at 15:53 -0500, Irwin Barrer via talk wrote:
Dear Talk List Members
I am brand new to Linux, open source, etc. I am a user, not a developer.
Glad you are giving Linux a try. It is an excellent OS and platform for computing.
I am interested in buying a laptop and installing Ubuntu on it—I like the idea of a free alternative to Windows or MacOS, and price is a big factor.
I do not know what your price range is, but I assume it is less that $949 (US) since that is the cost of the Dell XPS 13. want to throw out a couple of decent options: * System76 Lemur ($699 w/ Ubuntu Installed) - https://system76.com/lap tops/lemur * Shop the Lenovo Outlet - http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/laptops/ #facet-1=1,2&facet-3=14,19 The Lenovo T540/440 and 550/450 units are known to be Linux friendly. You would have to search to see how Linux friendly the 560/460 range is.
A while back I saw some relatively inexpensive laptops on Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled. Unfortunately these are no longer available and only a high-end developer system is available with Ubuntu preinstalled.
Dell also has a good document on installing Ubuntu: http://www.dell.com/ support/article/us/en/19/SLN151664/en
So I have started looking into laptops with Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and installing Ubuntu. I’ve done some research, but still uncertain. Intel processors seem to be a must and 4GB RAM—which is the most I can find on a Chromebook.
I would personally trend away from the Chromebooks due to their having a much smaller hard drive. With research you can likely find out if the sub $400 laptops made by Dell still work well with Ubuntu or not. Charles --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk Irwin Barrer irwin@irwinb.com
| From: Irwin Barrer via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | I am brand new to Linux, open source, etc. I am a user, not a developer. Devil's Advocate Mode: if you are used to Windows, switching to Linux takes some work. Do you care enough to subject yourself to this? (Many of us do, but you have to answer for yourself.) | I am interested in buying a laptop and installing Ubuntu on it—I like | the idea of a free alternative to Windows or MacOS, and price is a big | factor. Do you already have a machine? If so, you can easily boot a "live" Linux system off a USB stick to see what Linux is like without any affect on the other OS already installed. | A while back I saw some relatively inexpensive laptops on Dell with | Ubuntu preinstalled. | Unfortunately these are no longer available and | only a high-end developer system is available with Ubuntu preinstalled. Perhaps this one? <http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-15-3551-laptop-ubuntu/pd> | So I have started looking into laptops with Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and | installing Ubuntu. Fundamentally Chromebooks come with too-small "disks". 16G is enough for ChromeOS. Linux can usefully exploit larger drives. Linux is fine with 60G but more really is better. I'm fairly happy on 120G systems. Of course it depends what you do. | Intel | processors seem to be a must In theory, ARM should be OK, but things go much better on x86. In fact, you want 64-bit UEFI (which excludes some cheap systems). Oh, and Atom-based x86 systems might run into this bug: <https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109051> | and 4GB RAM—which is the most I can find on | a Chromebook. 2G is OK; more is better. I usually find low-end Windows computers are OK for Linux. Except those with 32-bit UEFI. ============= I generally buy a computer assuming it will run Linux. Sometimes I'm disappointed, but not too often. But I can often fight my way through problems (like the one Giles mentioned) -- that may not be a suitable approach for you. So: pick a machine and google for it and "ubuntu" or perhaps "Linux". You might find out what others have experienced.
Ubuntu on a chromebook is normally a layer on top of ChromeOS. Easy but a little awkward; e.g., ChromeOS retains control of some underlying devices which you may want Ubuntu to take over. Unlocking the hardware write protect can be risky. IMO, ordinary laptops are a better bet; you replace W$ or add other OSs as multiple boot options - many Linux distro's available. I use Fedora alone on an old Acer. On 11/22/2016 03:53 PM, Irwin Barrer via talk wrote:
Dear Talk List Members
I am brand new to Linux, open source, etc. I am a user, not a developer.
I am interested in buying a laptop and installing Ubuntu on it—I like the idea of a free alternative to Windows or MacOS, and price is a big factor.
A while back I saw some relatively inexpensive laptops on Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled. Unfortunately these are no longer available and only a high-end developer system is available with Ubuntu preinstalled.
So I have started looking into laptops with Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and installing Ubuntu. I’ve done some research, but still uncertain. Intel processors seem to be a must and 4GB RAM—which is the most I can find on a Chromebook.
Does anyone have any experience with Ubuntu? Any help/advice would be appreciated.
Best IB
Irwin Barrer irwin@irwinb.com
--- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
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participants (7)
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Charles Profitt -
Chris F.A. Johnson -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Elliott Chapin -
Giles Orr -
Irwin Barrer -
ted leslie