Which Dell laptop for Linux?

It occurred to me that I may want to run a form of
Linux on a new dell laptop

Any dell models more suited to Linux than others?

wrote:

It occurred to me that I may want to run a form of
Linux on a new dell laptop

Any dell models more suited to Linux than others?

Usually the business line works better since it has more standard hardware.

The real issue with Linux has been, is, and always will be the availability of
hardware device drivers for your computer in whatever distro you choose. Been
that way since my first Linux encounter way back when.

If drivers are not baked into the distro, then you are faced with the prospect
of hunting them down and installing them manually. Worst case, drivers do not
yet exist for some very new hardware.

The consequence of this is that I would not advocate buying the newest latest
greatest laptop (or any other computer) and having blind faith that any Linux
distro will install cleanly. You are better off buying a laptop that has been
in production for at least a few months, to give the Linux software driver
writers a chance to do the drivers. Maybe even a used refurb laptop with
warranty from a reputable source is a safer choice for Linux.

Do your homework in advance. Make a list of exactly which chips are in the
laptop you are considering. Then find out what you can about chipset support
in various Linux distros. The important chipsets are motherboard, video,
audio, network.

This is really no different than installing a version of Windows on a computer,
though, is it? ... Ben Myers

On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:20:23 -0500, wrote:

It occurred to me that I may want to run a form of
Linux on a new dell laptop

Any dell models more suited to Linux than others?

Nicholas Andrade wrote:

I run both Fedora & Gentoo on my D610,

Wow

Great info!

Thanks

Nicholas Andrade wrote:

3. If you don't care about OpenGL, go with the Intel card.

SHOULD I care abt OpenGL?

IOW... would you go for that?