Don’t feel like screwing around to get your laptop working with Linux? Get a 100.
Want more than what Dell and System76 have to offer, but don’t feel like screwing around to get your system working with Linux? You’ll be wanting a 100.
I use Linux because it lets me use the computer how I want to. Because I like the apps installed out of the box on Linux – Evolution, Firefox, GAIM, Banshee, evince, F-Spot, and Bittornado. Because I like the speed of Gnome. Because I like choosing a wireless LAN from Network Manager with a single click. And because I’d rather not run 4 separate apps hovering around waiting to find out if my media player, PDF viewer, JRE, and firewall need updating.
I don’t use Linux because I like messing around to get my computer working. At work I can happily script an app to document a server, or add a few hundred users and mail them their randomly set passwords. But that’s at work, with someone paying me.
So at home, do I want a laptop that can work with Linux?
No. You probably don’t either.
I want one that does. Flawlessly. I.e.:
- Sound (including multiple apps simultaneously)
- Widescreen video
- 3D acceleration
- Wireless and wired networking
- Suspend / resume
- Multimedia keys
- Media readers (for SD cards and so on)
- Inbuilt camera
- Bluetooth
- Modem (apparently some people use these)
- All other advertised hardware functionality…
work without…
- any configuration editing
- any terminal usage
- any software not provided by the install CD and default repositories
- any non-prompted configuration
At all.
Introducing the 100
To shorten the above description, and to distinguish such machines from those that require any sort of messing to work, I’d like to propose such laptops be called a 100. I.e.,a laptop where 100% of the above conditions are true on a given variant of Linux. No config editing, no terminal usage, no software not provided by the install media, no non-prompted configuration.
Laptop work fine if you ‘Open a terminal and….’? Not a 100. Work fine if you ‘just add this repository’? Nope. Not a 100 either.
This doesn’t exclude laptops which require proprietary firmware or drivers. Since Ubuntu 7.04, an NVIDIA card can be installed by simply following the prompts after logging in.
You could get a 100 from a Linux OEM. System76 has shipped Ubuntu 100’s for a while. Dell recently announced laptops that shipped with Ubuntu too.
But maybe you want more than just a CPU and video card. In 2007, after a solid decade of interest in Linux on the desktop, decent companies paying people to write open source drivers, there quite a few systems you can buy off the shelf that aren’t designed to work Linux, but which, when you pop a Linux distro on, reveal themselves as 100s.
I just bought one.
HP DV2000 and Ubuntu Studio
I recently decided to ditch my old Dell Inspiron 8500. It’s a Pentium 4, Intel’s blazingly slow CPU with typoon quiet fans. It’s also a works-with-Linux laptop, since that was what you could expect in 2003.
The replacement had to be a dual core, lightweight laptop, with a wide screen for Evolution’s vertical mail view and the odd movie, and good looks for my narcissism (hey, I don’t have to justify myself to you, OK).
It also had to be a 100.
The laptop was an HP DV2000, specifically a DV2305. The distro was the recently released Ubuntu Studio - Ubuntu with a few extra tweaks for creative folk (including some video stuff). After reading a fascinating piece of paper supplied by HP that post-install setup of Windows Vista (which it ships with) may take up to 25 minutes, and involve an unresponsive machine, I decided it may be best to cancel, and not allow, Vista. I then installed the Ubuntu Studio DVD. Let’s run through the 100 check:
- Widescreen video – yup, resolution included in the Ubuntu Studio installer
- 3D acceleration – fire up Google Earth or Doom 3 and see.
- Sound – Banshee wails out Eagles of Death Metal while I marvel at the surprisingly non-annoying sound theme installed with Ubuntu Studio. Should I need to replace these noises with my own amateurish efforts, the inbuilt microphone works fine in Sound Recorder on its default settings.
- Wireless and wired networking – pick a wireless network from Network Manager’s list and click it.
- Suspend – yup. Resume too – that’s important.
- Webcam – installed Ekiga. The inbuilt camera detected automatically as a V4L2 device during the startup wizard, and suddenly people all over the world who listed themselves in the Ekiga phone book were being harassed by random Australians. A little blue light and a panel app let you know that now isn’t the right time to get changed in front of your computer.
- Media reader (for SD cards and so on). Just pop ‘em in and they appear on the desktop.
- Bluetooth - Yup. Installed gnome-bluetooth. A tray icon pops up. My Nokia N95 phone can pair with the laptop, cunningly called ‘pavillion-0′ by HP. I can send Eagles of Death Metal songs to my phone by right clicking them and hitting ‘Send To’, or receive camera pictures to add to F-Spot when sent from my phone.
- Touch Sensitive Multimedia pad. Touch a function, it works.
- Modem - Yep, even that. Maybe I can call an ISP who cares?
Oh yeah, there’s a remote control that comes with the laptop too. It’s infrared. I only know this because it doesn’t work if I point it in the wrong direction. I have no idea what driver it’s using, because I don’t care, because it works. I can start the laptop, and scroll around web pages, and everything works just fine thank you very much.
Is a 100 something great? No. It’s what you should expect in 2007. But there’s a few reasons why I like the DV2000: it has the same casing as the DV6000, which HP is about to collect an prize for at the 2007 Red Dot Design Awards: a black exterior and metallic keyboard, with a swirl of subtle pinstripes in the surface. It’s very smart and businesslike, even though HP sell the DV series as Entertainment PCs.
And on the outside:
It looks very smart, except at night where the blue LEDs on the keyboard make it look a little 2-Fast -2-Furious. Oh well.
It’s also incredibly reasonably priced: about 1400 bucks Australian, which in US dollars amounts to a chocolate coin.
Have I had any hassles at all with the DV2000? Yeah, wireless didn’t work this morning when I turned on the machine. Googling for answers revealed the pertinent question: ‘do you have a button that turns off wireless?‘
Yes I do. And it seems to have caught in my bag. Switched Wireless button to ‘on’, and wireless networks magically appear, and the bluetooth item in my panel is there.
After years in the hardware wilderness, these are the kind of problems we deserve in 2007.
Mike MacCana
Addenda: since writing the original article, people have pointed out the following 100s:
- Apple: Current MacBooks & Mac Mini with UbuntuStudio 7.04
Simple moderation policy:
- Contribute something
- Justify your opinion
- Be courteous to others
June 3rd, 2007 23:25
Thanks for reading - if anyone’s got any questions, or laptops they know are One Hundreds, comment below and I’ll add them to the article.
June 4th, 2007 03:11
I’m curious–did you know that the DV2000 was going to meet all these criteria when you bought it, or was it more of a happy surprise when everything worked out of the box?
June 4th, 2007 06:40
Nice reading, indeed.
Anyway, my question is: what kind of media reader is built in? Which company is that?
Something like “lspci|grep -i cardbus” should give you the answer (yes, command line, but this is about deep system stuff!).
The reason behind my question is that I was never able to figure out how to get my card reader working - the only thing which never worked with my laptop.
As y totally unrelated information: feel happy that you live in Australia. At least there you can get most of the MP3 players with UMS support instead of MTP, while in the US or Europe you only get MTP devices and MTP firmware (or you buy iAudio, which provides a simple software switch).
June 4th, 2007 07:43
Interesting article I must say (-:
It’s a bit sad that most distros needs some manual hacking to perfect the set-up instead of some simplified tools, but as new and demanding linux-users like you join the debate, something is bound to happen, like better defaults when it comes to any kind of support. I believe the lack of 100-distros, to use that term, is simply because most of the ‘classic’ linux users were the hackers, but it is not so anymore!
June 4th, 2007 08:53
The HP DV2000 sounds like a nice laptop. I would just like to comment that the title of the article, Why I Don’t Want a Laptop That Can Run Linux, is misleading as you obvioulsy want a laptop that will run linux. If you want people to read your article then you should name it appropriately.
June 4th, 2007 10:38
Very much enjoyed the read! I too have an Inspiron 8500 that I am looking to ditch for a new laptop and was always only considering the MacBook Pro (seems to run Linux quite well overall, albeit some configuration), but your article has sparked an interest in the DV2000. Question for you….were you able to sell your 8500? I realize it’s probably worthless but I have so many old computers filling up closets and I really want to help fund my new laptop somehow!
I look forward to reading future posts on your website!
Cole
June 4th, 2007 18:49
May I ask how did you find a One Hundred laptop and how could I pull such a feat myself?
June 4th, 2007 23:06
I bought a HP Pavilion DV6305US, and it most certainly is _NOT_ a “100″. The network card is a Broadcom that is not supported well, and requires ndiswrapper, but worst of all it cannot be swapped out. The ROM detects that the card has been changed (to a well-supported Intel 1345 for instance) and locks the card out. HP tech support says it is deliberate. No more HP laptops.
June 5th, 2007 01:04
My Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop is a great laptop in most ways. But it’s only a 99, because suspend/resume isn’t reliable. I have to live without that function
June 7th, 2007 04:51
Great review, dude ! Thanks.
June 18th, 2007 10:59
[…] « Don’t feel like screwing around to get your laptop working with Linux? Get a 100. […]
June 19th, 2007 02:46
Any way you could give us the link to the system you purchased? I can’t seem to find the system you purchased and I’d like to check it out.
June 19th, 2007 10:19
My HP Pavillion DV9330US does Fantastic for Unbuntu
June 20th, 2007 01:51
My HP nc6400 is a huge 20. I can get Fedora6 only to run on it. And it is all because of that ATI x1300 video card. Pathetic. But, company bought it so I am stuck.
June 20th, 2007 14:15
simply amazing post!
anyways, I am rocking on a Compaq C304NR (super cheapy from Best Buy)…and as it stands, I would put it at a 99 depending on which kernel is being installed. Feisty would still be a 99, but however with Gutsy it is pushing 100 as the wifi (broadcom) is damn close to working ootb.
June 21st, 2007 16:29
Scott:
My company-bought nc6400 works well. Not a 100 but fairly close.
ATI card is working well, albeit with restricted drivers.
Suspend/Resume is so-so. Hibernate works 95% of the time, I’d like to fix that
June 21st, 2007 18:17
My Gateway NX570X is a 100. I made a full report.
June 29th, 2007 14:59
Hi,
A friend who was in the market for a new laptop decided to take me along as I am “In the know” with technology. On our shopping trip, I pointed out the HP Pavilion DV2113 which you speak of. Much for the same reasons that you mentioned from its aethetics to it’s compatible hardware(though he would be running Windows), I encouraged him to purchase that model. For the price, it was fantastic.
I agonised for FOUR WEEKS and then purchased the exact same unit for myself with the purpose of running Fedora. After all the manual installation of everything Fedora rightly doesn’t provide, I had a great Linux desktop.
Then, Feisty came along and I thought it was time for another try. So Ubuntu 7.04 was installed in-place of Fedora and everything(!) on my laptop worked “Out of the box”!
Now I have seamless, fast, robust and hardware compatible marriage of Ubuntu7.04(Feisty Fawn) and a HP Pavilion DV2000 series laptop.
Life is sweet!
Cheers,
Gavin
July 3rd, 2007 03:41
My wife bought a dv2000 almost a year ago now and I did not install Linux on it so I am not commenting on it’s Linux “friendliness” or not, BUT that laptop has been in the shop 3 times already - the motherboard was replaced twice, the wireless network card twice (you do the math). I hope for all that bought this laptop that we actually have a dud but from 3 previous HP laptop purchases prior to this one I am not so sure anymore. I used to really like HP but now I own a Sony!!
Cheers!
Paul
http://www.cp-soft.com/blogs/
July 4th, 2007 16:53
Nice read, I’m enjoying your articles - especially the one’s about Linux.
July 6th, 2007 17:40
I think that you can help the community with your knowledge.
make a small business:
enable people to order any kind of laptop/desktop to your address,
then, fit the new computer to run Ubuntu correctly,
and send the new computer with Ubuntu to the costumer.
I think that a lot of users will love to pay 50-100$ for this service,
and for a mail support for a new user.
since (as you said), one would like HP DV2000 with Ubuntu,
you have the knowledge to run Ubuntu on It with all the support,
so - give It a try.
(I can be your first costumer)
john.
July 10th, 2007 11:57
I have a 1 year old HP dv2000 and love it! It’s set up to dual boot Kubuntu 7.04 and Windows XP. As soon as I upgraded to version 7.04 everything worked except for a little fiddling with the wireless. I haven’t booted into Windows in 2 months.
July 23rd, 2007 21:00
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Don’t feel like screwing around to get your laptop working with Linux? Get a 100.. Thanks for informative article
August 2nd, 2007 20:53
My Lenovo 3000 n100 is a 90-95′er. Built-in webcam doesn’t work, and widescreen required the 915resolution package installed (is that bundled with Ubuntustudio?) Also, Suspend and Hibernate is not 100%reliable, and the fingerprint reader doesn’t work either (but I never needed that).
Card reader, wireless, bluetooth etc. worked flawlessly OTB. Havren’t tested the built-in modem.
August 3rd, 2007 06:55
So far, I’ve had the following almost-one-hundred’s with Kubuntu 7.04:
1. Dell gen1 XPS (circa 2004)
2. Dell Inspiron 1000 (circa 2004)
3. HP Omnibook 4500 (circa 2004)
I never tested the hibernate/resume/standby functions as I never use those features. And these laptops didn’t have webcams or media readers either. For the most part though, all the hardware came up right away without having to do anything special.
I know these aren’t full one-hundred’s…but if thing is completely usable right after the install that’s pretty good.
August 29th, 2007 23:00
Question about “100″: I installed Ubuntu on a laptop without recourse to the command line or anything to get the laptop working.
However, the display modes were less than ideal. It was a widescreen laptop but the display resolution didn’t match the native resolution of the lcd.
I was able to reconfigure fairly easily, but it still required some work, and I think it might have meant editing a text file but I can’t remember.
Now, the laptop was fully functional without having to do any of this, the display just looked better and more crisp when I configured it.
Would this be a 100?