[Blackpool] A little help in finding a good laptop

[Mark Watson]

Hello Guys,

 

Long time no post on the mailing list.  Been busy with a few things so haven’t been
around.  

 

I am now wanting to get back into all the Linux stuff again,
been very interested with all the new projects that have been spoken about on
the list and on the BLUG pages. It has got me very excited with all the
possibilities of what can be done with computers again. 

 

So I thought to get the most out of all the new stuff being
worked on, I thought I would get a Linux laptop to get dabbling on.

 

So here is what my expectations would be :-

 

I would like to spend about £400, cheaper is better, as long
as there aren’t too many compromises with hardware configurations.  My old laptop was too sluggish and has too
little video RAM or RAM
to make a lot of the more exciting projects possible.

 

I think my choice of Linux would be Mint, so base any
suggests on that one distro.  I will
probably try others as live versions, but as a newb I think Mint offers the
best to get me up to speed.

 

The biggest problem I think I am having when looking at
laptops is finding the right graphic cards to work with Linux.  I know all work fine with Windows 7, but I’m
not too sure what will work with Mint Linux. 
I remember speaking to Les a while back and he said Radeon graphics
cards can be a bit tricky to get working correctly.  Doing some Googling has shown that this
situation is still relevant even now, as the drivers aren’t as freely available
as the Nvidia Linux drivers are.  Unsure what
the situation is with the Intel HD graphic cards.  So any feedback on what graphics cards are truly
100% compatible in Mint, would be really appreciative to hear about, as this
seems by biggest hurdle at this stage, in choosing the right machine.

 

The next consideration is the processor to go for.  Got pretty confused on this one, as the
choice seems to be so vast at the moment. 
Go for Intel or AMD?  Go for dual or quad processors?  Go for sandy bridge or go from Ivy
bridge?  I would like a processor that
will be powerful to do all my projects without limping to the finish line, or
causing a bottleneck to what I am doing. 
Are quad processors that much better than dual processors?

 

Other than those two factors it starts to get easy.  I think the minimum additional spec would be

 

* Minimum 4gb of Ram

* HDMI output port

* Good keyboard

* Clear and vibrant screen, 720P
would be nice, but since I don’t know much about latop resolutions a good
resolution would be fine

* USB
3 if possible (make it a little bit future proof)

* Good mouse pad

* Good quality of build

* Reliable 

 

 

As for the configuration of my new lap top I would probably
want a dual boot machine Windows 7 and Mint. 
I think I would like a virtual machine in Mint and run windows XP in
there, as I prefer XP to Windows 7 at this stage.

 

Now for my projects I want to do 

 

*    Open shot stuff….would really like to learn
more from Jon’s tutorial he did a good while back, so a machine that can work
with this, is a must, hence my desire to get the right video card
configuration.

*    Gimp…Would like to know how to use this
well, so I can edit images and integrate stuff into Open shot video projects

*    Audacity…so I can also integrate sound
samples etc into the above projects too

*    Programming…haven’t done a lot in the last
few years, but have been having ideas for some programs I now wish to write, so
want to get back into coding again. 
Noticed that the group was doing some Python work, which seems powerful
and fairly accessible to the new comer. 
So I want a good machine for developing on.

*    Also noticed that the Arduino and the
Raspberry Pi have been talked about quite a bit of late, which got be
interested in coding on them.  

 

So that is my intended project areas, for the machine.  A basic outline of the hardware spec I think
I would want, and how I would like to set up my different OSs.

 

So any feedback, links and ideas would be gratefully
received.

 

Sorry for such a long post…..

 

Mark