My current laptop is on it's death bed, and the magic blue smoke is getting ready to escape. I want to get a 17" screen, and want to do some gaming too. I am having some trouble deciding on a specific laptop. I thought you guys my have some good recommendations. Basically I am an IT student who wants to have 2-3 windows open and run a VM or 2, and some games between classes. Thanks for the help.
Price? Sorta helps out to get an idea for what your budget is.
I would stay clear of any laptops with Nvidia GPUs because optimus sucks on Linux
My budget is approximately $1500. I am planning on using my disbursement check on the laptop. I do have wiggle room though.
I believe there is a company/manufacturer that specifically makes Ubuntu laptops if that is of any help. I believe it is system76 or something in that regards, I have no personal experience with them, but from what I've read people are generally pleased with their product.
+1 to that, I like putting linux on older laptops, in this case D630's, but some came with nvidia gpus, and others use the intel based gpu. The nvidia D630's won't wake up after suspending, its a real pain in the ass, plus the kernel panics when the gpu is stressed. End of the day, don't use nvidia based gpu's for linux, at least with laptops in my experience.
I had a friend recommend them. They do look interesting.
There is primus and bumblebee but ther are really just hacks. NVIDIA needs to get their shit together.
I'm not happy with the Nvidia GPU but:
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Battalion-101-P670SE-Gaming-Laptop
Watch out for system76 they have really really really bad reviews.
My suggestion is any laptop with a nice amd gpu. Watch out for compatible wifi cards aswell.
Dells, don't kill me, has good Linux compatibility.
It's sorta a tough route, personally if I got a laptop knowing that I'd put Linux on it, I'd just get a laptop with intel integrated graphics. As said earlier, nvidia is a pain in the ass to work with. And I still question laptops with amd apu's in terms of reliability. But with your price point I'm sure you will find a nice laptop.
If you were to find one, I'd personally try and Intel based cpu and amd gpu. But that's gonna be a tough one to find.
Just waiting for Intel to really make a large leap in the graphics department.
FYI
Display Drivers for screen brightness may be a problem. I know it is an issue on HP and it is a pain if not impossible to solve.
Maybe a bit late to this. You usually cant go wrong with a Lenovo thinkpad or similar for Linux. My older T400 works out of the box with Linux. I use mine for work only though, no games. Your probably still looking for an nvidia gpu if your wanting to play games as amd drivers are still catching up and Intel might limit you on what games you can play (you don't say).
If you don't need amazing graphics performance Intel graphics are the easiest to work with on Linux. Be sure to watch for wlan and lan support, more are supporting Linux but it's 1/2 and 1/2 if a distro will support it if it's not free as in freedom.
Hmm.. looks like I am just a really lucky guy. Maybe it's because I use mostly Ubuntu (Debian based distros get nice support), but I never had any problem with drivers, that I couldn't not solve in few hours. One exception being those crappy fingerprint sensors - I never got them to work for me. Your mileage may vary, but since Steam came to Linux, GPU drivers got a lot better performance-wise. In terms of compatibility, I have good experience with MSI, HP and Asus...If you don't need big GPU performance, go for Intel.
The last couple of years driver support has gotten very good with the exception of a few bits of hardware that require some wrappers. fingerprint readers i notice have worked recently too (mine "just worked" under fedora where it wasn't supported at all before a year ago). theres a specific wifi chip to avoid (i forget the name) maybe its better now but it used to always cause problems, i dont think its used as much any more so you dont normally see a problem. He needs a nvidia gpu as he wants unspecified gaming, but I agree intel is the way to go if you dont need anything graphics intensive.
The open source AMD drivers are better than the OSS drivers for Nvidia. Don't expect much from Nvidia as a Linux advocate as shown by Torvalds in 2012 with Optimus, they don't give a damn. AMD is pushing their Catalyst driver to be Linux first; Nvidia, WinDOS first. Do something with OpenCL on the Nvidia GTX 980, then on the 8gb 290x (as they have similar pricing); AMD wins. Better yet, try maintaining a stable rolling release Tumbleweed or Factory install on Nvidia; it's near impossible. Yeah, gaming Nvidia, but your missing out on A LOT.
P.S. SLI isn't something to be done under Linux just yet.
By chance, is it the Broadcomm BCM4313 :)? Man, Debian hates that chip.
I agree... though, if he only wants to play indie games, Intel got him covered... I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the current generation Intel graphics...