Before Christmas I bought myself a new Lenovo laptop thinking I'd get Ubuntu running on it fine, but no; graphics issues, touchpad issues, etc and it's been running Windows 10 ever since.
So as not to make the same mistake again, on a budget of about £450 what is a good laptop for Linux? Happy to look at 2nd-hand or refurbs,
Must haves: It's for my wife so it needs a numeric keypad (she's a bookkeeper). A side effect of that means 15"+. Needs to run virtual machines (Sage only runs on Windows...). Weight is a factor, I think certainly <2kg. It'll end up with SSD either because it came with one or I installed it (happy either way, probably prefer to install it myself). Decent RAM - I'd have thought 16GB (or at least the scope to increase it later).
Can claim the VAT back so budget is higher with a VAT invoice than without.
Mark
On Thu, Sep 05, 2019 at 03:41:47PM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:
Before Christmas I bought myself a new Lenovo laptop thinking I'd get Ubuntu running on it fine, but no; graphics issues, touchpad issues, etc and it's been running Windows 10 ever since.
So as not to make the same mistake again, on a budget of about £450 what is a good laptop for Linux? Happy to look at 2nd-hand or refurbs,
Must haves: It's for my wife so it needs a numeric keypad (she's a bookkeeper). A side effect of that means 15"+. Needs to run virtual machines (Sage only runs on Windows...). Weight is a factor, I think certainly <2kg. It'll end up with SSD either because it came with one or I installed it (happy either way, probably prefer to install it myself). Decent RAM - I'd have thought 16GB (or at least the scope to increase it later).
Can claim the VAT back so budget is higher with a VAT invoice than without.
I was going to say Lenovo X2xx or T4xx but the numeric keypad rules them out. I'm surprised you had issues with a Lenovo though, what was it? Maybe a T5xx series would be good as having the same sort of ancestry as the ones I've always found to be good.
On Thu, 5 Sep 2019 at 18:40, Chris Green cl@isbd.net wrote:
I was going to say Lenovo X2xx or T4xx but the numeric keypad rules them out. I'm surprised you had issues with a Lenovo though, what was it?
Ideapad 330S
I knew that the T-series was probably a better bet but there was a good deal on the Ideapad and I fell for it...
Haven't tried Linux on it in the last year, maybe worth a re-run.
Maybe a T5xx series would be good as having the same sort of ancestry as the ones I've always found to be good.
I'll take a look, thanks.
Does "good" mean all the essentials work, or does it extend to non-essentials (eg webcam, fingerprint reader, etc)?
On Mon, Sep 09, 2019 at 12:40:06PM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:
On Thu, 5 Sep 2019 at 18:40, Chris Green cl@isbd.net wrote:
I was going to say Lenovo X2xx or T4xx but the numeric keypad rules them out. I'm surprised you had issues with a Lenovo though, what was it?
Ideapad 330S
I knew that the T-series was probably a better bet but there was a good deal on the Ideapad and I fell for it...
Haven't tried Linux on it in the last year, maybe worth a re-run.
Yes, it may well be that config/drivers have caught up.
Maybe a T5xx series would be good as having the same sort of ancestry as the ones I've always found to be good.
I'll take a look, thanks.
Does "good" mean all the essentials work, or does it extend to non-essentials (eg webcam, fingerprint reader, etc)?
I have to admit I've not even tried the webcam or fingerprint reader on my T470, I've really no need for them. The SD card reader works fine and everything I've plugged into the USB so far has worked.
On Mon, 9 Sep 2019 at 14:28, Chris Green cl@isbd.net wrote:
Yes, it may well be that config/drivers have caught up.
I should throw a live CD in and see what happens.
I have to admit I've not even tried the webcam or fingerprint reader on my T470, I've really no need for them. The SD card reader works fine and everything I've plugged into the USB so far has worked.
Webcam I might occasionally miss. Fingerprint reader is something I'd not miss if it's not there, but having one I can't use would be a shame.
But really it was a mechanism by which to judge how well supported the laptop is. If Lenovo have sought compatibility then everything should work, and if they haven't then it's just going to be pot luck.
I just got a Thinkpad P52s brand new for £800, it has the number pad, full hd screen, ssd, 16GB ram, some low voltage variant of the i7, USB-C charging, webcam, 3 year next business day on site warranty. It was cheap as the P53s has just come out, however looking online the previous P series all seem to be outside your budget (and mostly more than I just paid for a new one!).
Everything worked out the box on the p52s using Ubuntu 18.04 with no issues at all, even firmware updates "just work" using fwupdmgr. The only problem with this was that I bought it to replace her old T500 as that was getting very long in the tooth, having got it and had a play I was considering getting one for me to replace my W530 but the price went up to £850, so I considered it a bit more and now the last few are £1000 :(
Adam
On Tue, 10 Sep 2019 at 19:54, Adam Bower adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
I just got a Thinkpad P52s brand new for £800, it has the number pad, full hd screen, ssd, 16GB ram, some low voltage variant of the i7, USB-C charging, webcam, 3 year next business day on site warranty. It was cheap as the P53s has just come out, however looking online the previous P series all seem to be outside your budget (and mostly more than I just paid for a new one!).
Yeah, I could stretch the budget if necessary but I can't see a P52s for that sort of price and a P53s starts a touch over a grand, which I think is more than I can justify.
My problem is that I don't know the Lenovo range well enough to know what to search for. A laptop from 2-3 years ago would be fine for what she needs.
Everything worked out the box on the p52s using Ubuntu 18.04 with no issues at all, even firmware updates "just work" using fwupdmgr.
That's all good to know thanks.
On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 11:07:55AM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:
My problem is that I don't know the Lenovo range well enough to know what to search for. A laptop from 2-3 years ago would be fine for what she needs.
I see that I forgot to mention that you might want to look at the P50 and P51, they are previous generations of the P series.
Adam
On Thu, 12 Sep 2019 at 18:30, Adam Bower adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
I see that I forgot to mention that you might want to look at the P50 and P51, they are previous generations of the P series.
A quick look on eBay and the P51's are in the same ballpark price-wise as the current model.
P50's are about half that but most of them seem to be in Germany. That would mean a keyboard change (but I can't imagine that's too hard, I've replaced keyboards before). So is a P50 worth ~£500 by comparison to what can be bought new for £500 today?
On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 06:57:13PM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:
P50's are about half that but most of them seem to be in Germany. That would mean a keyboard change (but I can't imagine that's too hard, I've replaced keyboards before). So is a P50 worth ~£500 by comparison to what can be bought new for £500 today?
I can't really vouch for it being worth it, I'm unlikely to have any other laptop than a Thinkpad simply because I use the Trackpoint exclusively which really limits my choice, to me a laptop with just a trackpad is worthless.
I would still say that Thinkpads are fairly straight forward to upgrade and repair though, they provide hardware maintenance manuals and they work well with Linux. My W530 is now 5 years old and given no problems (apart from it now does a random reboot once every 2 weeks or so) and is still very capable, a P50 would be 3 generations newer than a W530 so certainly a good choice.
Also, I've never found a Thinkpad with a keyboard that wasn't trivial to upgrade.
Adam
On Thu, 12 Sep 2019 at 19:26, Adam Bower adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
I can't really vouch for it being worth it, I'm unlikely to have any other laptop than a Thinkpad simply because I use the Trackpoint exclusively which really limits my choice, to me a laptop with just a trackpad is worthless.
Fair enough! I never managed to get used to them myself (probably because I'm mostly a desktop user - if they'd caught on there it might be a different story).
I would still say that Thinkpads are fairly straight forward to upgrade and repair though, they provide hardware maintenance manuals and they work well with Linux. My W530 is now 5 years old and given no problems (apart from it now does a random reboot once every 2 weeks or so) and is still very capable, a P50 would be 3 generations newer than a W530 so certainly a good choice.
Also, I've never found a Thinkpad with a keyboard that wasn't trivial to upgrade.
That's all good to know. It sounds like I would have no problems upgrading to SSD if I bought one that came without, which is the other thing that bugs me about modern laptops. Including modern Lenovos if you pick the wrong range (and good luck finding that as a bullet point in a feature list at Currys!)
Hi good people, I have to say that for the past couple of years I'm using a Dell Latitude E5450 (if I remember correctly). I've also advised my dad to get one of them. Never had any problems, all hardware gets recognised and battery last forever. Tested with few previous versions of Mint (various flavours), and things like Zorin, Kali etc. With Intel i5, 8gb ram and SSD drive it's all one needs for every day tasks. I'm sure there are much newer models but if I was to advise something I would look at Latitude which recently dropped from Dell official store. They will be cheap and have plenty of life in them.
W dniu piątek, 13 września 2019 Mark Rogers mark@more-solutions.co.uk napisał(a):
On Thu, 12 Sep 2019 at 19:26, Adam Bower adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
I can't really vouch for it being worth it, I'm unlikely to have any
other
laptop than a Thinkpad simply because I use the Trackpoint exclusively which really limits my choice, to me a laptop with just a trackpad is worthless.
Fair enough! I never managed to get used to them myself (probably because I'm mostly a desktop user - if they'd caught on there it might be a different story).
I would still say that Thinkpads are fairly straight forward to upgrade and repair though, they provide hardware maintenance manuals and they
work
well with Linux. My W530 is now 5 years old and given no problems (apart from it now does a random reboot once every 2 weeks or so) and is still very capable, a P50 would be 3 generations newer than a W530 so certainly a good choice.
Also, I've never found a Thinkpad with a keyboard that wasn't trivial to upgrade.
That's all good to know. It sounds like I would have no problems upgrading to SSD if I bought one that came without, which is the other thing that bugs me about modern laptops. Including modern Lenovos if you pick the wrong range (and good luck finding that as a bullet point in a feature list at Currys!)
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On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 04:04:27PM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:
On Thu, 12 Sep 2019 at 19:26, Adam Bower adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
I can't really vouch for it being worth it, I'm unlikely to have any other laptop than a Thinkpad simply because I use the Trackpoint exclusively which really limits my choice, to me a laptop with just a trackpad is worthless.
Fair enough! I never managed to get used to them myself (probably because I'm mostly a desktop user - if they'd caught on there it might be a different story).
Well, funnily enough. I have one of the mini Thinkpad bluetooth keyboards which I use at my desk at work precisely because it has a built in Trackpoint. One of these which I paid £55 for about 4 years ago:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Bluetooth-Keyboard-TrackPoint-ThinkPad/dp/B0...
I have also considered buying a Unicomp Endurapro too but they have very mixed reviews about the Trackpoint and at £120 it feels a bit expensive if it's a let down, although I did use a model M for a good while at work a few years back until someone threatened to beat me with it.
https://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard/endurapro-buckling-spring-keyboard-with-...
At home it doesn't matter as I don't have a desktop (not got the space) so just work with the laptop.
Adam
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