Kirya [.net]

1 | Julien Danjou

November 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm

If you do not move it, what the point of having a laptop?

Having a real workstation seems far better to me. For 1K€ you can get a better hardware with something like 2 flat screens, which is to me far more comfortable than a poor laptop with a keyboard stuck in front of a 18″ screen.

2 | Julien

November 2nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Actually, I am fed up with wires everywhere behind my desktop. The aim is also to win room (I do not have any office at home, the room will soon be for the 3rd member of our family - first baby)

But maybe you are right, I am just curious what others think - does somebody work exclusively with such a laptop?

3 | Aigars Mahinovs

November 2nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm

You will not find a laptop with a large screen that cheap. The closes you are going to get is, for example, Dell Studio 17. Throw in a 1920×1200 screen, 250 Gb HDD and you could get most of what (17″<18.4″, no CF reader) you want for around 1000 USD (likely possible to get similar price in EUR). If you do go that route, I would recommend getting an extended warranty for the max time available - or at least for as long as you intend to use the laptop. If it breaks, it will be nearly impossible to replace the faulty part on your own.

4 | Sylvain Le Gall

November 2nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm

Well, maybe not answering perfectly to your question. I was looking for something similar but with some additional “wires”. Here is what I was looking for:
- at least Core 2 Duo
- light
- good graphic card
- VGA and DVI output

The size of the screen, to have something light, is limited. The point is to be able to connect the laptop to 2 screens in order to get a big screen at home. When traveling, I just get a standard laptop.

My result is: Asus M50VM-AS010C
(see http://www.materiel.net/ctl/PC_Portables/39683-M50VM_AS010C.html)

It seems a reasonable good choice for 1k€ + my own 2xLCD.

I didn’t buy one and need to further check if it is 100% Debian compatible.

5 | Giuseppe Sacco

November 2nd, 2008 at 8:46 pm

I would suggest to keep using a desktop computer, but a small one. I had the same problem you are facing since my child is now three months old
Laptops are generally less noisy then desktops but they are always slower. Moreover laptop usually come with 5400rpm disks.
If you really buy a laptop, I strongly suggest to get a small one and plug-in a good LCD monitor and, an USB keyboard.
I did not have e strong requirement about cpu power, so I got a lemote fuloong: it’s quite nice, but somewhat slow. It only uses 20W of power and it can be connected to a normal keyboard and LCD screen. It have 4 USB ports but no firewire.

Bye,
Giuseppe

6 | cstamas

November 3rd, 2008 at 1:08 am

I recommed one of the Thinkpad R series.

7 | Tim

November 3rd, 2008 at 2:29 am

If you want it to be 100% Debian free, then you will need to be careful about the video. Lower-powered laptops can be 100% Intel, which means 100% free drivers (I have a little u400 Toshiba which is fast and powerful, with a 330 GB drive (decimal GB); it’s great, but it has only a small screen (pros of small screens are Intel graphics and easy use on public transport). Debian (lenny) works great. I don’t think there is a better OS for this hardware.
Larger screens will move you into non-Intel graphics. You will probably need to use proprietary drivers. The NVidia drivers are reliable. I have a desktop with NVidia and the free drivers don’t work with suspend/resume. You might have more luck, but expect to use the closed drivers, and be assured that at the user experience will be good.

Summary: get as much Intel hardware as you can, and if you have to go proprietary graphics, stay with NVidia.

8 | Tim

November 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 am

Oh, and posted above by someone else, you can solve the small screen by using dual head, which is trivial these days (except that the Intel drivers in Linux currently don’t let you use Compiz on such a large combined screen size, which is a driver limitation not a hardware limitation, slated to be fixed after the next release of X). I also have a real mechanical switch keyboard so when at my desk I don’t rely on the laptop’s keyboard, and it’s small screen is just a secondary screen. In other words, think again about the portability of your laptop, because you can solve the small screen problem with dual head.

9 | Anonymous

November 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 am

“laptop”. You keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

But yeah, various vendors make huge “laptops” in the 17″-19″ range.

10 | Julien

November 5th, 2008 at 7:53 pm

Thanks for all your answers. After a few days thinking again at it, I am now pretty sure I will keep my desktop computer. The main advantage is that I can upgrade it on a regular basis, according to my needs and my financial means. Buying a laptop, even if suitable for today, would mean changing it in a few years.

Again thank you for all your advice!