Not to shoot the messenger, but this is what I found:we (HP) do this with Workstations, Business PCs and Laptops. You just should consult the vendors website (in our case www.hp.com/linux) to see if the system is supported (means working with Linux). Of course this isn't valid for every vendor :(. I would also like that to be seen at all these third-party vendors for cd-burners, tv-cards and the like. But it's a long road to get there.
http://h10018.www1.hp.com/wwsolutions/linux/products/clients/clientscert.html
Red Hat SuSE laptops 7.3 7.2 7.1 8.0 7.3 7.2 Armada E500 X X Armada M700 X X
I originally saw this several months ago when I was looking into buying a new machine. I called and talked to people in Home sales and Business sales, and I was told that the E500 and M700 were discontinued a couple of *years* ago (as evidenced by the OS certs). They also said that none of the current laptops were even certified to run Linux. Nevermind the almost laughs that I got when I asked about getting a machine without an OS.
No offense, but while I find that companies like HP, Dell, IBM, and other major vendors are more than happy to sell servers and workstations with Linux, the laptop support absolutely sucks.
I was more than ready to plunk down $2000-$3000 for laptop, if only I could get it without an OS or with Linux (any distro, since I can format and reinstall Debian once I know all the configurations). I ended u pcustom building a desktop instead.
Since it appears you work at HP, you may want to bring up to management that there are people _looking_ to spend money on laptops that won't until MS isn't rammed down their throats. (I think the hardware thing, like winmodems and such, is at the next level).
I'm sorry if I've ranted or flamed, that was not my intent.This leaves you right now (if you really wanna be sure about that) to pre-installed systems or certified ones.
-Robertobye mike
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