[arch-general] Off-topic: Good laptop to run Arch on?

[Brendan Long]

On 05/22/2010 09:33 AM, Magnus Therning wrote:
> [snip]
> What laptops should I have a look at?
> Is there some brand (Dell, HP, ...) that is more Linux friendly than others?
>
> /M

I have an HP dv6 that works perfectly in Arch. After my first laptop, I
realized (like some other people suggested) that you should go with
Intel parts if possible, so my current laptop is pretty much 100% Intel
(lspci is a big list of "intel", with one "broadcom" at the bottom).

My previous laptop had an nvidia graphics card, which worked perfectly
but ran much hotter and has some minor things that annoy me (no KMS,
driver doesn't get built with the kernel). Nvidia is a good choice if
you plan to run games, but an Intel card can run compiz fine and might
be easier to work with.

The advantage of the Intel processor (Core2 Duo) is that it uses less
power, runs cooler and works better with laptop-mode-tools (look it up
in extra).

I have a broadcom wireless card (Broadcom BCM4322), which is annoying
during the initial install, but has worked perfectly since then
(including 802.n support).

Sound works perfectly with no work (intel's hda driver has worked fine
in ALSA for a couple years -- be careful of this if you use a slower
updating distro like Fedora/Debian).

Bluetooth worked out of the box (on Arch, out of the box means after
installing bluez), no idea what kind it is (not listed by lscpi or
lsusb). Might be part of the broadcom stuff.

Mine also came with a webcam, and it seems to work fine. I don't
remember doing anything special to set it up, but don't quote me on that.

The one I bought isn't available anymore, but here's the specs if you
want it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147934

-Brendan Long

PS: I haven't tried the card reader or lightscribe support.