Having become rather irritated with the shortcomings of my current Macbook (which I use for both schoolwork and leisure), I've decided to look for a new computer, perhaps by the start of the schoolyear late this month. I've semi-recently delved into Linux, and quite like the system, but I know that it won't be sufficient for some of what I do at school. Ideally, I'd like to dual-boot Linux and Windows 7 on whatever computer I get, using Linux primarily and Windows for whatever cannot be used through WINE. I do, in fact, have a license and a disc for Windows 7 already, so saving some money by buying a computer without a preinstalled OS may be worth contemplating. (I would be installing Linux myself.)
I already have my eye on a particular computer, the
Gazelle Professional from System76. System76 ships computers with Ubuntu Linux (saving me the price of preinstalled Windows-- I can overwrite Ubuntu with any distro I want, of course), and are currently having a deal that allows a free upgrade to either a 500GB hybrid drive (with 4GB SSD) or a 750GB hard drive. Not having dealt with hardware comparisons in quite some time, especially with recent hardware, I have several questions regarding this (under the assumption that budget is not a problem):
(full list of hardware possibilities can be found under the "customize" option)
1. Is this a decent choice for a laptop in the first place? If not, what other brands would you recommand (ideally ones that are known to be Linux-friendly)?
2. Which of the choice of hard drive would be preferable? Should I go with one of the free upgrades, (most likely the regular HD, since I don't know how well Linux handles hybrid drives) or just get an SSD (which, as I understand, may not be worth it due to its newness-- I prefer to use tried-and-true hardware if new models have the possibility of breakage)?
3. With relation to the other hardware, e.g. RAM amounts and processors, I know little of how much is the "usual" as of now. Are the defaults fairly powerful? Ideally, I'd like to get a computer that's a bit ahead of the average so that it can ultimately last longer before becoming obsolete.
4. Graphics card. I've heard horror stories about Nvidia/ATI on Linux, especially with relation to laptops and powersaving. On the other hand, I've heard that Intel graphics cards, while not as powerful, have pretty decent Linux support. Being open source and thus more easily malleable by Linux devs, I am inclined to think they are superior (support-wise, perhaps not by raw performance). Is this indeed true?
5. Battery life. I've heard that battery life on Linux can be a bit lower than when running another OS, but I have only tested this on a Mac, which is very heavily optimized for Mac OS. I generally bring a charger with me everywhere I go, so this shouldn't be a problem. Or will it?
Also, things that particularly intrigue me with relation to the laptop I mentioned are:
- The keyboard. My Macbook has a very similar keyboard and I find it excellent.
- Multitouch scrolling. Another Mac-related favorite.
- A built-in numpad. My current laptop doesn't have a numpad, but I like the use of it on my desktop. I play/code roguelikes fairly often, too, so this is a nice bonus I suppose.
- Generic enough to run Windows. This is something that the Mac fails at in some cases, particularly with relation to battery life.
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Topic: Laptop queries (Read 1282 times)