I'll give you a little run down of what i'm looking for and what i use my current laptop for.
-I want an enormous screen, basically a desktop replacement. I don't just want the screen to be big, i want it to have excellent video quality. I don't care about the weight because i don't really take my laptop anywhere when i'm at school.
-I use my laptop to listen to a lot of music (itunes and streaming), watch streaming video (movies and baseball games on mlbTV), and surf the net a lot.
-I don't want Vista for obvious reasons, but i also don't want a mac, because i don't like their general layouts and OS.
-I'd like to have linux on it, but my parents computer guy said that linux is complicated if you don't know exactly what you're doing, so i'm up in the air on that one.

To give you a point of reference, i was looking at the Dell XPS M2010.

Any help by some of you who are knowledgeable in this area would be appreciated.

After GTS' constant urging one day I was fed up Windows being so damned slow and I installed Ubuntu linux on my computer, it really wasnt all that complicated, though I dont use it often because I cant get it to work with my wireless network...

As far as laptops go I dont really know much, I had a Dell laptop in college, I had one problem with it where the screen wasnt working properly and they actually sent someone out to my dorm room and fixed it for me, I was pretty impressed to get that level of service on it, this was several years ago though, they may not be that good anymore.

Terpy Wrote:As far as laptops go I dont really know much, I had a Dell laptop in college, I had one problem with it where the screen wasnt working properly and they actually sent someone out to my dorm room and fixed it for me, I was pretty impressed to get that level of service on it, this was several years ago though, they may not be that good anymore.

well my dad just bought a dell laptop and he's been very impressed with the service so far, which is saying something seeing as how that's his area of expertise. so i'm guessing your experience is pretty much representative of what Dell usually does.

As the IT manager in my company I buy all Dell hardware. They have been very good in my opinion.

mlb Wrote:As the IT manager in my company I buy all Dell hardware. They have been very good in my opinion.

that's good to know

As far as laptops go, choose one:
- Dell
- Lenovo Thinkpad series
- Toshiba Satellite series

Your parents' IT guy is an idiot. The only gotcha with Linux on a laptop is wireless ... if your laptop has certain versions of a Broadcomm wifi chip, it won't "just work" -- it'll require some elbow grease.

Terpy -- try the latest Ubuntu / Kubuntu release that just came out. It improves support for those evil Broadcomm cards. It may all just work for you now.

is there any way i can get a custom laptop made so i don't have to start out with vista on it?

I believe you can buy from Dell's small business unit and get XP on it.

georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:As far as laptops go, choose one:
- Dell
- Lenovo Thinkpad series
- Toshiba Satellite series

Your parents' IT guy is an idiot. The only gotcha with Linux on a laptop is wireless ... if your laptop has certain versions of a Broadcomm wifi chip, it won't "just work" -- it'll require some elbow grease.

Terpy -- try the latest Ubuntu / Kubuntu release that just came out. It improves support for those evil Broadcomm cards. It may all just work for you now.

I may give it a try but will I have to go through all of that partinioning and getting rid of the current Ubuntu partition bull**** again?

mlb Wrote:I believe you can buy from Dell's small business unit and get XP on it.

This is correct.

Terpy Wrote:

georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:As far as laptops go, choose one:
- Dell
- Lenovo Thinkpad series
- Toshiba Satellite series

Your parents' IT guy is an idiot. The only gotcha with Linux on a laptop is wireless ... if your laptop has certain versions of a Broadcomm wifi chip, it won't "just work" -- it'll require some elbow grease.

Terpy -- try the latest Ubuntu / Kubuntu release that just came out. It improves support for those evil Broadcomm cards. It may all just work for you now.

I may give it a try but will I have to go through all of that partinioning and getting rid of the current Ubuntu partition bull**** again?

Nope. Just tell it to use your existing partitions and it will obliterate everything and give you a fresh install.

flyingswoosh Wrote:is there any way i can get a custom laptop made so i don't have to start out with vista on it?

http://www.dell.com/ubuntu

Not tryin to hijack swooshes thread but what exactly is the difference between ubuntu and kubuntu?

Terpy Wrote:Not tryin to hijack swooshes thread but what exactly is the difference between ubuntu and kubuntu?

no problem, i got what i needed.

Terpy Wrote:Not tryin to hijack swooshes thread but what exactly is the difference between ubuntu and kubuntu?

Ubuntu = Gnome graphical interface ... behaves more like OS X. Also runs somewhat slower. However, it assumes at all times you're a total moron, and thus is good for say grandma.

Kubuntu = KDE graphical interface ... behaves more like Windows. Runs pretty fast. While it tries to be as simple as possible to use, it still has a ton of more advanced options that are easy to find if you want to go customizing something. Has a feature rich control panel where you can do almost anything you need to with your system. However, the mere thought of a few areas labeled "advanced" with more intricate settings can scare n00bs.

FWIW: I usually recommend Kubuntu.

Don't get a Dell Inspiron. Battery = crap. I've had this for a year and half. Hinges are broken and I have to stay plugged up. I'd recommend a Toshiba, although you better plan on buying a new battery after a year.

Swag...What version do I want to put on a CD and do a clean install over windows? Got an not new laptop that I want to test it on.

http://www.kubuntu.org/download.php

1125 Wrote:Swag...What version do I want to put on a CD and do a clean install over windows? Got an not new laptop that I want to test it on.

http://www.kubuntu.org/download.php

All of them can do a clean install whiping out Windows... you just choose the appropriate checkbox during installation.

And how do I need to do to make sure my wireless works?