   Linux and Laptops
  Any concerns when purchasing a laptop that will duel boot WinXp and Linux?WinXP is not the concern, I'm sure 100% of new laptops on the market support MS stuff.Linux is the concern, is there a chance that distro's like Mandriva do not work on a laptop framework?Should I be looking to build a laptop with drivers I can verify as compatible with Linux?This is just a thought since Im getting one for university/programming jobs right after x-mas.  I do not want to buy one and end up without Linux since its all I can program in now-a-days.Thanks,Halsafar   
  One year ago I bought a (custom made) laptop, and guessed I could make it work with linux. (I didn't check for compatibility) After one year, I can say my Laptop is almost fully supported by Linux. WLAN was a pain to get working, but with Suse 9.3 it worked out of the box. And most laptops I know use Ati videocards. These drivers are a bit flakey. The rest is all working ok for me. So, to summarize, I could say all the basic features do work. Special features, like advanced power support are more difficult to get working.   ;  Use Google with the laptop you intend to buy. There are many websites where people have posted what components on each laptop could not be made to work under Linux or required some poor work around to get partial functionality, including explainations of exactly how they got each component to work (what driver, what configuration).In general Linux should be able to boot and get into X on almost any new laptop, but things like wireless cards, trackpads or the use the LCDs native resolution can be iffy, often requiring some guru level fiddling. Hybernation and other power saving functions are more often then not unusable by Linux on any laptop.   ;www.linux-on-laptops.com might help.   ;  For IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads:ThinkWiki;  Okay so I got me a laptop, a decent Acer Aspire 3000.  Only downfall so far is the short short battery life but I got what I paid for.I got Mandriva 2006 installed, so far it has had very few problems.I had to use ndiswrapper to install the windows drivers for the 802.11 wireless and evem then it is not getting the greatest signal at all...  The signal is very bad, when in windows, laptop in same place, the connection is full.Sound, Graphics so far are fine.It installed Laptop battery managing tools.Now, what it didn't install or at least didn't do a good job of is the hotkeys of the laptop.  Like the button to turn on wireless, it only flashes when the internet is doing stuff, otherwise you cannot tell if it is on.  Like for awhile when I wasn't getting internet, I decided to press the button, no light shows up but it does turn it on...The hotkey problem is not to big.  I can still turn off the moniter, volume/brightness control, etc.  Just none of the changes appear on the screen in text like when I'm in Windows.Everything else is 100% a-ok.Edit:One huge and nasty downfall I just discovered...  I cannot seem to create a DirectX9 interface with my video card.  I do believe it supports only up to DX8.  Thanks god I've recently switched to OpenGL...  But... (sigh)[Edited by - Halsafar on December 26, 2005 4:27:57 PM];  I have a ThinkPad T41, and everything works perfectly, except for TV-out.   ;  Well altho none of my homemade Dx9 games work.  Games like BF, WoW both work just fine...  Weird.   ;  I have a dell d510 and everything except VPA worked out of the box with (K)Ubuntu.   