New Work Laptop: Advice, please (Also Linux)

AuburnTiger

Hi guys. Let me first off all explain my predicament. I'm a teacher that is forced to work with some frustrating technology. I have a desktop running XP with 512 MB of RAM, and a laptop running XP with 1gb of RAM. Running multiple programs is always a pain; I cannot install anything myself on these machines, I have to request a tech order.

What I'm thinking about getting is a solid (hardware) laptop that I can put a nice, stable version of Linux on with Open Office and an email client that is compatible (or comparable) with Outlook.

So I really need advice on a number of things. What is my best bet for the hardware? My only experience is with buying from Apple. I want something very sturdy and stable but at a nice cost. Keep in mind there will be little to no video/photo editing, etc. Just the basic productivity software.

Also, what would be the most stable version of Linux to put on here?

RuddurBall

A couple of questions. Is this going to be your primary computer? Are you going to travel with it, use it T your desk, or move it around the office? What is your comfort level with fiddling with programs/hardware to make them work?

Tanooki Mario

What is your price target? Educational discounts get the polycarb MacBook to $899 before and it's not a pile of shit like it used to be.

No, I'm not here to just shill Apple but that did pop into my head.

AuburnTiger

It will not be my primary computer; I have a gaming PC at home that serves that function. This will only be used in my classroom and while working on lessons at home.

I do very much love Macs, but I'm looking for something significantly cheaper than that. Something solid and dependable but not flashy. Is it possible to get a solid laptop for $500 or less, sans Windows?

Improvolone

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=asus+eee+1005ha&x=0&y=0
Well built, runs Linux like a champ, 10+ hour battery life, very portable and light, but not so small it's a joke to use.

Tanooki Mario

Improvolone wrote: »

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=asus+eee+1005ha&x=0&y=0
Well built, runs Linux like a champ, 10+ hour battery life, very portable and light, but not so small it's a joke to use.

Yeah, really any Atom-based laptop will do you good. I have an Acer AspireOne right now, and the build quality is nice. There are tons upon tons of these little things out there, ranging in size from 8" to 15" (yes, someone built a 15" netbook) and will do what you want swimingly. A sizeable chunk will come with a Linux variant already installed, but I highly recommend Ubuntu Netbook Remix which gives you a dead-simple layout and doesn't rip out any key functionality.

EDIT: NewEgg search for all 1.6Ghz Atom netbooks they sell. You can drill down screen size from there. 2GB of RAM is nice, but you can add that later yourself for $cheap.99 with little issue if you so desire.

EDIT EDIT: Last time, I swear. Sounds like you won't be storing music/movies/TV shows etc. on it so you may want to go with SSD drive. The lower capacity won't be an issue and you'll get performance boosts here and there, especially in start up time.

Improvolone

I'd go with a HDD because while SDDs are amazing, the really expensive ones are the only ones you'll really see a performance boost in. I would also go with anything with a huge battery life (which is why I linked that one in particular). I would also use Eeebuntu over any other Ubuntu build for the Eee as I've tried many and this is my favorite.

Tanooki Mario

Improvolone wrote: »

I'd go with a HDD because while SDDs are amazing, the really expensive ones are the only ones you'll really see a performance boost in. I would also go with anything with a huge battery life (which is why I linked that one in particular). I would also use Eeebuntu over any other Ubuntu build for the Eee as I've tried many and this is my favorite.

Conflicting statements. Any SSD is going to give you a performance boost over a platted-based drive and it's going to increase battery life just based on the sheer aspect of not having to fire up a mechanical part constantly.

Visti

I would pick a laptop from the Acer Extensa series. Excellent value. My girlfriend has a 5620, which can be upgraded to a maximum of 4 gb RAM, has an actual Core 2 Duo (albeit at something like 1,7ghz) and a real nice comfortable keyboard.

I, myself, is currently using a 5220, which is a bit cheaper, has a max of 2 gb RAM and a slower CPU. I have run a lot of Linux distros on it since I've got it, to say the least, and everything has been supported out of the box in those distros that do that sort of thing.

Openoffice runs quite well even under a notorious KDE4 veneer and I know people that has gotten compiz up and running on the onboard Intel GMA 950.

I paid less than 650$ and that was over a year ago. In retrospect, I would probably have went with the one my girlfriend has, but only because of the ability to upgrade it a bit more. I still haven't put 2 gb RAM in it, still running the standard 1. No complaints about usability, though.


For linux stability, I would go Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or OpenSuse. And keep upgrading to a minimum.

Improvolone

Tanooki Mario wrote: »

Improvolone wrote: »

I'd go with a HDD because while SDDs are amazing, the really expensive ones are the only ones you'll really see a performance boost in. I would also go with anything with a huge battery life (which is why I linked that one in particular). I would also use Eeebuntu over any other Ubuntu build for the Eee as I've tried many and this is my favorite.

Conflicting statements. Any SSD is going to give you a performance boost over a platted-based drive and it's going to increase battery life just based on the sheer aspect of not having to fire up a mechanical part constantly.

I've heard conflicting reports given how shitty some of the SSDs being used are. This may be out dated information on early version netbooks though.

ArcSyn

Improvolone wrote: »

Tanooki Mario wrote: »

Improvolone wrote: »

I'd go with a HDD because while SDDs are amazing, the really expensive ones are the only ones you'll really see a performance boost in. I would also go with anything with a huge battery life (which is why I linked that one in particular). I would also use Eeebuntu over any other Ubuntu build for the Eee as I've tried many and this is my favorite.

Conflicting statements. Any SSD is going to give you a performance boost over a platted-based drive and it's going to increase battery life just based on the sheer aspect of not having to fire up a mechanical part constantly.

I've heard conflicting reports given how shitty some of the SSDs being used are. This may be out dated information on early version netbooks though.

Yes, early SSDs had such terrible controllers that they were actually worse than platter drives. Newer ones (from the past 9mo or so) from Intel and such are much better, and will give better performance. Still expensive though. If you're just using it for office software, just go with the regular drives so you have some storage if you want it. OpenOffice will probably never show the benefit of an SSD.

Tanooki Mario

It's extremely rare that I see a "holy $hit why is that so expen$ive?!" on a netbook drive. We're talking 8GB SSD vs. 160GB HDD here; not like we're comparing equal capacities.