[ale] Good Linux laptops

Doug Hall doughalldev at gmail.com
Mon Apr 8 12:11:06 EDT 2013


I told you all that I'd let you know what he ordered and how the install
went. He decided on the HP Envy DV6 laptop. It has a 3rd gen i7 chip, which
seems pretty quick. I haven't run any performance tests, but if someone
knows of a good performance test suite, and is interested, I'll give it a
run.

Here's what he bought:
<
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AFHP55S/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
>

Predictably, Windows 8 seems slow in comparison to Ubuntu 12.10. I think an
SSD drive would have made a big difference. Quite honestly though, he's
giving this one to a friend who's a computer novice, and will probably
order another one for himself.

The Ubuntu install didn't go as smoothly as I thought it should. I'd heard
about the Windows "safe boot" mode, and predicted that there would be some
problems. The thing is, the problems didn't manifest themselves as they
might should have. If you try to install, or simply choose the option to
verify the install CD, it fails to read a particular sector of the CD. It
makes it look like the CD (DVD) failed to write correctly. I think I made
three or four DVDs, from two different DVD burners before I realized that
this just wasn't the case. The MD5sum for the ISO was correct, and the DVD
burning software verified the contents of the DVD after each burn. The
problem was, the BIOS was expecting a "Secure Boot" image. Yea! Microsoft!
Thank you for protecting us, digital overlords!

There were two different settings in the BIOS which I had to change to get
everything working. Under the "System Configuration" of the BIOS, there are
settings called "Legacy Support" and "Secure Boot". The notes for the
Legacy Support setting says: "When Legacy Support is enabled, BIOS will
load Compatibility Support Module (CSM) to support Legacy OS such as
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and DOS. When Legacy Support is
disabled, it will boot in UEFI Mode without CSM to support newer OS such as
Windows 8."

I've forgotten, but I think I had to enable Legacy Support in order to
install Ubuntu, but then I could turn it off. It's now disabled, and with
Grub2 controlling the Master Boot record, it works just fine. By the way, I
had to manually install Grub2 over the Master Boot record. The Ubuntu
installer wasn't smart enough to figure out where to install Grub, even
though I specifically said to "Install alongside Windows 8" when I was
configuring the install. I created a "Linux Secure Remix" install CD, which
included a "Boot Repair" application to fix the Master Boot Record. <
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LinuxSecureRemix>

The "Secure Boot" setting is also disabled in the BIOS setting. However,
Grub2 provides a "Windows UEFI bkbootmgfw.efi" and also a "Windows 8 Boot
UEFI loader" option (which I assume are equivalent, because both of them
work), to boot Windows 8.

As to my overall impressions of the laptop, I think I'd rate it an 8 out of
10. It's alright, and perfectly acceptable for most people. But I
personally don't like the keyboard layout. The Enter key is massive. The
arrow keys are stacked in such a way that the up and down arrows are
squashed, to make the two of them the same size as a the left and right
arrows. (I use these keys, so it sucks for me.) He didn't want me to tear
away the plastic covering the webcam, but from the picture it generated
through the plastic, it looked acceptable. The monitor was nice, if maybe
just a little dimmer on the top left corner, than the rest of the screen,
but it's not very noticeable. I think he likes his choice very much.

Thanks again for the help!
Doug Hall


On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 9:40 PM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com> wrote:

> A coworker, whom I switched to Ubuntu a little over a year ago, is looking
> for a nice new linux laptop. I know the Lenovos are usually a pretty good
> choice. Does anyone else have a laptop they're thrilled with, which will
> run Mint or Ubuntu? He's not a techie, so compatibility is important. I
> think he uses it for basic things - pictures, email, web, etc.
>
> Thanks ahead of time!
>
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