Ubuntu Musings

I make no secret of the fact that, except for a server, all of the computers in my house are laptops or notebooks. All wireless capable, of course. I find using a laptop to be quite convenient, and I can do just about everything with one that I did with a desktop computer. The main difference is that I can use any of my laptops anywhere in my house, or on the deck, or on my porch.

Until recently, there were only a few places from which you could buy a Linux-powered laptop. While you can’t get one at your local electronics or computer store, there are more options available.

Big and small

Laptops come in all sizes. This is true for ones that are powered by Linux, too. When you need power, check out Emperor Linux. The company sells what it calls “professional grade Linux laptops”. They’re powerful, but pricey: between $1,400 and $5,400 (USD). You’ll get a brand-name laptop — like Panasonic, Sony, or Lenovo — and you can choose your Linux distro.

Slightly cheaper, but no less useful, are the Linux laptops from Dell, System 76, and ZaReason. Even when you customize the systems, the prices can be reasonable. The only drawback for some is that the notebooks from these companies run Ubuntu. Yeah, not everyone loves Ubuntu …

There’s also the Zonbu notebook.  Zonbu offers a subscription service, which automatically upgrades your operating system, software, and drivers. I’m not 100% sure about Zonbu, but it does sound interesting. You can learn more here.

If you need a lighter laptop, Sub500.com sells a couple that weigh under two kilograms. However, they’re a bit pricey for what you get in my opinion.

Of course, you can go even smaller with the Eee PC and the Everex Cloudbook.

You can find a long list of Linux-powered laptop resellers here.

Do it yourself

If you have an old (or not-so-old) laptop or notebook lying around, you can try installing Linux on it. A recent distro should install pretty smoothly on most notebooks that were made in the last five years or so. But you’ll probably run into at least one hardware problem. That problem might be severe, or it might just be an annoyance. The hardware that will give you the most problems are usually the wireless card, the sound card, the video adapter, and the modem. Why? Because FOSS drivers aren’t available for all of these devices, and the various Linux developers working on them haven’t been able to create drivers for them.

I’ve always had good luck mating ThinkPads with Ubuntu. But if you have another laptop and want to use another distro, then you can find out more at Linux on Laptops or TuxMobil. And you can check to see whether your hardware is supported by Linux at the Hardware Compatibility List and the Compatibility Database.

Do you use Linux on a laptop? If so, brand of laptop and what distro(s) do you use? And what have your experiences been like? Feel free to leave a comment.

Related posts:

1. A couple of new Linux-powered sub notebooks
2. Great news for laptop users
3. Linux-libre: great idea, but is the time quite right?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Hardware, Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.