arielxgbarton: > Any suggestions for buying a laptop. I want something that works fine > with Trisquel and similar OS. On H-Node there are only about 10 ones > suggested, all of which are deemed not suitable for my needs (by my > brother).
I recently bought a laptop/netbook (not sure what your needs are), which I will add to h-node sometime. The make/model number is "ASUS X200CA". Features: - freedom-compatible Atheros WiFi chipset, - 3D acceleration support, - it's very light (1.2kg), - 4GB RAM, - 500GB hard drive, - recent Intel Celeron CPU, - 3 USB ports (1x 3.0, 2x 2.0), - HDMI port, - combined microphone/headphone port and - an SD card reader. The battery life is longer than advertised (runs for > 3 hours) and the charger is very light, like a mobile phone charger. It suits all of my needs, very convenient to carry around and use, no performance issues for me at all. Downsides: - comes with Windows 8 by default, - requires some UEFI/BIOS config to run Trisquel, - hard drive speed is 5400rpm, - BIOS is proprietary software, - glossy screen (which is normal in most laptops, but I prefer matte), - right-click button behaviour is different to what I am used to. The button does a left click for some reason, but touching two fingers on the touchpad or using the right-click key on the keyboard works; and - requires a kernel update (I upgraded to 3.10) for the touch screen and ethernet adapter to work. I haven't tested 3D-intensive games on it, but I don't think it would work that well as a gaming laptop, besides running less graphics-intensive games. Some reviews I found before I bought the laptop said the laptop can get a little bit warm, although I haven't had any such issues so far! Andrew.
