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Available OOTB Laptops/Notebooks that Support Linux?

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  • Laptops
  • Support
  • Linux
Last response: in Linux/Free BSD
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November 10, 2013 3:29:58 PM

I was looking in a price range of 3-500$ for a laptop which OOTB can support Linux (Favroite distro is Mint so far) I'm starting my IT college classes and I would like to have something I can easily carry from class to class and then home with little hassle but it seems near impossible to find a pre-build linux machine for my price, and It is quite difficult searching for one and then looking up all the parts. Basically what I am looking for is something like this
(Would Prefer)
Thickness of less than 1in
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
Between 11.1" to 15.6" screen.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I would be happy to hear them. Appreciate any help.

More about : ootb laptops notebooks support linux

November 10, 2013 5:09:07 PM

I have a Lenovo Ideapad Z580 and its never run anything but kubuntu, everything works like a charm. That's last year's model but this year's equivalent (the Z510) doesn't look like it's got anything that'd be a problem for a newish distro either. In general unless it's got something really weird in it, I would expect most things to "just work" out of the box.
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November 10, 2013 5:34:42 PM

jasonditz said:
I have a Lenovo Ideapad Z580 and its never run anything but kubuntu, everything works like a charm. That's last year's model but this year's equivalent (the Z510) doesn't look like it's got anything that'd be a problem for a newish distro either. In general unless it's got something really weird in it, I would expect most things to "just work" out of the box.


I'm not going to lie, I'm new to Linux, I've been playing around with Mint in Oracle VB so my main concern is having to update drivers. I plan on Dual Booting it so I just don't toss myself directly into Linux with nothing else to use.That being said, I've seen a lot of people saying how GPU's and Wireless cards seem to be a big problem with any kind of driver support in Linux and that is my main concern with any laptop purchase.
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November 10, 2013 6:00:45 PM

driver problems are way less of a thing than they were a few years ago. 99% of stuff you're liable to get in a store-bought laptops are going to be 100% supported out of the box.

If you're worried about driver hassles with GPUs, stick with a laptop that uses the Intel CPU's built in graphics. Those are all 100% supported in the kernel out of the box. Wireless drivers are also pretty ubiquitous these days, stick with a big name and it should be fine. If you're really worried get the specific chip off the manufacturer's specs page and google it real quick.
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November 10, 2013 6:24:58 PM

jasonditz said:
driver problems are way less of a thing than they were a few years ago. 99% of stuff you're liable to get in a store-bought laptops are going to be 100% supported out of the box.

If you're worried about driver hassles with GPUs, stick with a laptop that uses the Intel CPU's built in graphics. Those are all 100% supported in the kernel out of the box. Wireless drivers are also pretty ubiquitous these days, stick with a big name and it should be fine. If you're really worried get the specific chip off the manufacturer's specs page and google it real quick.


Thank you for all the help so far, I really appreciate it and I just have one last question. Have you heard of Avatar brand laptops and desktops? I saw one with really good specs (including a 32GB SSD on top of the 500GB HDD) I haven't seen much on my them.
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