Quote:
Originally Posted by maillavell
Well I may as well be honest upfront here. I'm totally green to Linux . Hopefully I have viewed my last blue screen of death. I'm fed up with MS Windows, Virus Software updates,and the constant nightmare of losing data after a crash or virus. I've made up my mind to move on too linux. I've done some reading and I like the sound of haveing a near virus free environment to operate in. I've narrowed my choice of distributions to two SUSE 10 and Xandross. I'm leaning towardS SUSE but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. I have been looking for laptops and I and I'm also concerned about hardware conflicts. I went to Alienware.com and took a look at what they have but the notebooks I like are a little pricey. I went to getyourgadgets.net and found two brands that I like Acers and HP's, they are listed as linux friendly . The sales guy said that both of these brands work well for linux and he even suggested that I talk with some more experience linux users. Would I be safe in purchasing either brands in general and have everthing work.
I'm not a heavy gamer or anything but I would like things like the dvd to play without stalling. Most of my uses will be for Sales and presentation for clients. I'll be using the wireless lan heavily though. I know I haven't given you much to work with but right now I just trying to find a starter home in the linux world.
maillavell
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Hi,
You should look here;
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
I've got linux on several laptops! And yes proprietary subsystems can be a problem that cannot always be solved. I've got a Gateway Solo 2500 without sound support. I really don't need sound for this old girl. I use the Solo for my communication and research work on the internet.
I've got several IBM TP that are used as controllers without problems.
Now for the question about 'starter home in the linux world'.
I would look at getting a system that is a desktop for now to really learn your linux. You could use a older cheap system to experiment with, be a laptop or desktop. You could always multi-boot for the distributions that you want to try or experiment with. Make sure your HD has enough space to allow this option.
I really prefer Slackware as you can see by my sig. Sure the dive into such deep water can be intimidating but the payoff is worth the time spent. Turn-key distros' hide so much from the user and you really can't tweak the system if you are shielded from the operation. CLI is the Best!
If you lurk around LQ, you will see most of the problems that are presented can be solved if the OP knew basic commands or system configuration.
Research will get you a lot of answers! Read some good reference material to get background information on whatever distribution you choose.
What are you using now? I know you mentioned windows but you can multi-boot to allow fall back when you have issues. You don't want a situation when working with a sales client. Yes, virus, adware and other problems are a reason to get away from MS. But the majority of the business world is MS based. Sure with open source the apps' are there to allow meshing of the two worlds. Yet, you will need to have compatibility with MS and at time revert back to MS to allow your work with some clients because of propriety software.