New Laptop for Linux. Suggestions, PLease???SOLVED

[Grumpus]

Over the weekend the old Inspirion Notebook went elsewhere while trying to install a new operating.
Last thing tried was a replacement of the drive, managed to break too many things getting it apart so it's scattered in several locations.
Is there something which will work with a Linux distro that is not EFI required, seems to be part of the install process with some distros.
That asked is it possible to build my own laptop or is it more hassle than a desktop and not really worth it.
Should have at least an i7, 16GB ram, easy battery change (both2032 and main), disc and ssd(s) several usb ports.
Any recommendations or thoughts taken seriously.
Thanks

[kerft]

I hear that Thinkpad T models are about the best of laptops. If you buy one refurbished you can bring the price down. T5xx is 15", T4xx is 14". See where your budget and their model years intersect. They have not bad Linux support, although many come with Nvidia cards and there is a trainwreck currently with Linux and the proprietary Nvidia drivers. I don't know if they can disable EFI / UEFI, but I'm pretty sure you can turn off secure boot. With secure boot off, EFI isn't too terrible IMO if all of your distros are 64-bit. One nice thing about UEFI/GPT is that the boot loaders can be much more redundant. You can have many that you pick from in the bios. With MBR, if you break your main bootloader you can be unable to get into any of your operating systems.

[Grumpus]

@kerft - Thanks but new will be the way to go with whatever. The last was used and refurbished and was a pain in the neck.
Idea is to take the new machine, turn it on, open the drive, insert a Linux OS and turn off the machine as the drive is closing if dopey MS EULA permits.
On turning the machine back on the Live CD should take over the system and the install would wipe whatever other system and partitions are on it.
Nvidia is the first thing I removed on an old system and it made a lot of difference in the way it worked, not doing any on-line gaming.
Have to try and find a UEFI bios in case drive is large enough for two systems, at minimum 5 hour battery life or better.

[LIMPET235]

Hi Grumps,
I've heard from a few "experts in the field" that the top range of "Lenovo - Yoga" laptops is the best way to go for performance
& reliability.
Check the choices available...
ref; > https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage ... l=nosplash
> https://www.amazon.com/lenovo-laptop-8g ... owse-bin_1
Dell, also make good laptops...
> https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop?scat=ro ... redir=true

Cannot say what specs they all have though.
My 2 old Latitude laptops both have replaceable main batteries but a bit of dismantling is req'd to replace the 2032 battery.
Not sure about the new laptops & the use of external, replaceable batteries.

HTH.

[ElTxolo]

.... Should have at least an i7, 16GB ram, easy battery change (both2032 and main), disc and ssd(s) several usb ports.
Any recommendations or thoughts taken seriously.

• 
• SLIMBOOK Ultrabook, Laptops & Computers for GNU/Linux

.... Thanks

• You're welcome!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Cheers!!

[Grumpus]

Thank You very much, Limpet and ExTolo - looked at both sites and the Lenovo and Kymera.
Neither site had specs as to Motherboard, Bios ets, will go torment the salespeople.

[ElTxolo]

Thank You very much ...

• You're welcome!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Cheers!!

[Frank Lion]

Thank You very much

You're welcome.

[Grumpus]

OK, so no getting to torment salespeople since the local stores don't appear to carry anything close to what was spec'd, they just hang Microsoft signs all over the place.
All the laptops seen were all made for or to run Microsoft and some of Microsoft's most failed features, go figure.
None had a disc drive, none had more than 8GB ram, I know I probably don't need it but I figured 16 was a good number.
Processors, i5, i3 or Celeron???. Not one i7, I probably bought the last one 6 years ago.
Biggest mistake is stores selling everything on line, I guess they do it to keep the miscreants like myself from accessing the new world order and scaring the children.
$1500 was the ceiling I allowed myself but last years failures in laptops or Microsoft ruined hardware isn't my choice.
OH, well, now where did the wife hide her computer.

You're welcome, Frank

[mightyglydd]

Whats wrong with this? https://slimbook.es/en/store/slimbook-e ... hq-comprar# Thanks ElTxolo !

Not familiar with the brand, anyone using one ?

Edit : Forget it: 120 quid shipping across the pond.

[kerft]

If you are a member of Costco, I hear that in store they often have high spec computers such as i7. They also give a 2 year warranty after whatever the manufacturer warranty is. They used to have a lifetime warranty. The SSD and memory it would usually be best to buy separately and install yourself. Most stores may not have computers with those high specs, online ordering for the laptop, SSD and memory would be the normal process. If you don't want to order online for security reasons, I think places like Dell and Lenovo will still take phone orders. You would probably rather flush your money down the toilet, but the physical stores that I think are most likely to have a high end machine in stock are the Apple Store and the Microsoft Store. Another possibility is if you go to Staples, I think they can special order a computer for you with some flexibility in options, and have it mailed to either their store or maybe direct to you. If you find an old independent computer repair shop you can often custom order from there, although I would expect to have to pay around double of what it is worth.

[malliz]

99% Chance you are not going to get a new laptop with any sort of internal disk drive Grump as the push for a slim form factor is all the rage at the moment. More important to find one with as many usb ports as possible. Do not be tempted to try to upgrade hardware yourself that's a fools errand as you have found out laptops are very fragile inside once you pop the screws out.
So spec one out that exceeds your requirements not just meets them. As to the EFI stuff good luck with that

Addendum: I have a liking for HP but that's a family preference found them to be pretty reliable out of the box and as rugged as most now days, that is don't bend fold or mutilate

[tanstaafl]

https://www.amazon.com/Gaming-8th-Gen-i ... cs&sr=1-23

ASUS ROG Strix Scar Edition Gaming Laptop, 17.3” 120Hz 3ms Full HD, Intel Core i7-8750H Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB PCIe SSD + 1TB FireCuda for $1229. Ignore the fact its a first person shooter gaming laptop, there aren't many laptop configurations of a i7, 16GB memory, 256GB SSD and a hard disk under $1500 and it doesn't seem to have the garish case design that many gaming laptops do.

It has UEFI. https://askubuntu.com/questions/336506/ ... rog-laptop talks about installing Linux on a ASUS ROG laptop. http://www.linlap.com/asus_rog_strix_gl702vm might be useful.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.p ... t-on-Linux states the keyboard backlighting works under Linux. You can change it from multi-color to red, or disable it. I also found https://github.com/MidhunSureshR/openauranb . The ASUS ROG laptop line is popular enough that I suspect you can find plenty of information about running Linux on it. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ASUS_G55VW for example.

It has 4x USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen1) and 1x USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen2) ports and a 76WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion battery according to the spec. link. According to the Q&A section it has one 16GB memory stick with a open slot that will accept another one. That is rare (for under $1500). The SSD uses a M.2 slot, so it might be possible to replace it with a larger SSD.

https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-m ... -is-which/

[Grumpus]

First, I want to thank all you folks for the response, it was helpful and was able to look at some of the higher end computers.
I did find one with an internal CD/DVD drive but opted for one without but did find an external CD/RW which the new OS recognized.
i5 8th Gen with 8GB ram 256 GB SSD, bunch of odd ports and some USB 3.0 ports. Natty little carrying case.
Spent less than half of the ceiling amount even with all the extras plus an extended warranty from the store which relates to hardware failure regardless of OS.
It'll be a while before it goes on-line due to updates.
Only issue was trying to get into the bios, old one was F12 with an F2 boot option, this one F10.
Wiped the default OS which killed the wireless connection but was able to bypass that with no idea how it happened.
Other than that it's a nice little system.
As a note, there's no buying on-line for me due to no credit cards plus an old farts need for touchy feely. Stores were limited in what's available locally, some more helpful than others.
Thanks again and consider this solved and maybe help for someone in a similar situation.

[mightyglydd]

I did find one with an internal CD/DVD drive but opted for one without but did find an external CD/RW which the new OS recognized.
i5 8th Gen with 8GB ram 256 GB SSD, bunch of odd ports and some USB 3.0 ports. Natty little carrying case.

And they would be ?