laptop help !!!
Hello everyone, I wanted to know if you can recommend me a laptop or multiple laptops with comptibile tisquel 5.5. thanks!
ThinkPenguin sells laptops with Trisquel pre-installed. All of their hardware works with Trisquel, as well. There's a link to the ThinkPenguin store on the right-hand side of the forums.
Indeed, ThinkPenguin is, today, the only company where you can blindly buy
any hardware and be sure it will work at its full potential with Linux-libre
(and, as a consequence, with any 100% free GNU/Linux system such as
Trisquel).
Moreover, by buying from this link ("libre", in the URL, is important), the
Trisquel is donated 25% of the benefits made on your purchase.
if I wanted to buy a dell or hp or a laptop known brands can easily install
Trisquel or risk that is not 100% compatible? I bring this up because I saw
that laptops are a bit expensive ThinkPenguin about the same
price-performance compared to other laptops of the most famous mask ...
The risk of incompatibility is very real. The problematic areas are mostly 3D graphics and WiFi networking because hardware vendors don't provide drivers or even specifications.
What models where you thinking about? You could also consider second hand machines. Or making a LiveCD or LiveUSB and visiting your local brick and mortar for test driving.
Indeed, those are the issues you may face. For the video card, it is pretty simple to have it fully working: go Intel integrated chipset (except Poulsbo). Notice that this choice is, moreover, in line with the investment you want to make because nVidia and AMD video cards usually are much more expensive.
For the Wifi connection, it is much harder to find a compatible card. Even having reports of a working model may not be enough because the manufacturers often change the chipset without telling it. You can however buy this (either internal or external) component on ThinkPenguin: http://libre.thinkpenguin.com
I am a member!
You have to be careful not to buy an HP, Dell, Toshiba, or IBM/Lenovo though. These manufacturers use digital restrictions to lock out non-"approved" (not there own) wifi cards. They do this to make money on replacement parts (when cards die).
I am a member!
You have to be careful not to buy an HP, Dell, Toshiba, or IBM/Lenovo though.
These manufacturers use digital restrictions to lock out non-"approved"
(there own) wifi cards. They do this to make money on replacement parts (when
cards die).
I honestly don't think that Intel is the best choice for fully free graphics on GNU/Linux anymore, as it seems like the drivers are horribly lacking in performance. My laptop, which has a hybrid Intel/nVidia chipset, can barely handle Compiz effects on the Intel GPU (4500MHD), compared to the nVidia chipset (GT335m, supported by nouveau) which can handle it with no problem, along with pretty much any game available to a fully free distribution.
For wi-fi, Atheros is the way to go, as all of the chipsets I've used don't need any non-free drivers/binary blobs to operate.
It probably used to be true that no Atheros Wifi card requires "non-free drivers/binary blobs to operate" but I am pretty sure that, sadly, it is not true anymore.
I am a member!
The new USB cards with Atheros chipsets do depend on non-free firmware. It's why we still use the AR9170 chipset. Atheros legal is reviewing a proposal to fix this. Still waiting for an answer although it *IS* under review so we should have an answer soon.
I don't believe any of the N Atheros PCI chipsets require the loading of firmware. The exception to this is the Atheros Bluetooth/Atheros Wireless N combo cards. The N wireless chipset on these cards is free software compatible. The Bluetooth portion is not. Hopefully we can fix this as well. We certainly have it in the plans to eventually try and solve this issue. That will occur if/when Atheros legal approves the release of the source code on the firmware for newer USB chipsets.
I am a member!
The new USB cards with Atheros chipsets do depend on non-free firmware. It's
why we still use the AR9170 chipset. Atheros legal is reviewing a proposal to
fix this. Still waiting for an answer although it *IS* under review so we
should have an answer soon.
I don't believe any of the N Atheros PCI chipsets require the loading of
firmware. The exception to this is the Atheros Bluetooth/Atheros Wireless N
combo cards. The N wireless chipset on these cards is free software
compatible. The Bluetooth portion is not. Hopefully we can fix this as well.
We certainly have it in the plans to eventually try and solve this issue.
That will occur if/when Atheros legal approves the release of the source code
on the firmware for newer USB chipsets.
-double post-
Indeed, those are the issues you may face. For the video card, it is pretty
simple to have it fully working: go Intel integrated chipset (except
Poulsbo). Notice that this choice is, moreover, in line with the investment
you want to make because nVidia and AMD video cards usually are much more
expensive.
For the Wifi connection, it is much harder to find a compatible card. Even
having reports of a working model may not be enough because the manufacturers
often change the chipset without telling it. You can however buy this (either
internal or external) component on ThinkPenguin:
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com
Trisquel I use on my macbook with VirtualBox and it works very well, it works
also wi-fi. If I buy a laptop with a HD 3000 video card compatibility issues
I should not find it? However, I wanted to take a mid-range laptop, I'll have
to make music and I do not need a powerful video card to run the latest video
games
Virtualization won't give you any compatibility results as the hardware is virtualized and the (proprietary in case of MacOS) drivers of the host system are likely used.
If you mean the ATI/AMD HD 3000 you will not get 3D acceleration and will likely see some graphical glitches.
http://www.garlach44.eu/it/ I found this site, you can find laptop compatible
with Trisquel... you think it's worth buying from here!
I would not do that. I have just clicked on the 13.3'' notebook. It appears to be proposed by default with Trisquel 4.5, which is not supported anymore (what means uncorrected bugs and security risks). This does not matter much if you are able to install the latest Trisquel. What matters much more is that the hardware is *not* fully supported by Linux-libre (the kernel of all 100% GNU/Linux systems such as Trisquel): the video card is from AMD what means no 3D acceleration. The Wifi card may be compatible since the same chipset (AR9285) is found on ThinkPenguin. I would not bet on the final result though. I mean why would I trust a company selling an expensive video card that no free software can efficiently drive? Taking a look at the 14.1'' notebook (with Trisquel 4.5 too), the cheapest option for a Wifi card (with an Intel chipset) clearly is not supported by Linux-libre.
I am a member!
A lot of companies selling "Linux laptops" also advertise "free software" support and then ship hardware dependent on non-free software (and many distributions do it too).
I'm weary of this company for a number of reasons. It would be one thing had they advertised the older Trisquel LTS release as this still has support. However as Magic Banana mentions they seem not to be in a good position (knowledge/ability/time/etc) to even ensure basic support or keep up with changing a single word on the site.
I don't think most of the companies selling "Linux laptops" (or users) understand the numerous issues which can crop up in the present or future. The more I look into how our competitors operate the more disgusted I become.
We are essentially competing with companies who are taking "Microsoft Windows" laptops and putting little to no effort into making them work with GNU/Linux. The biggest advertiser of "Linux laptops" (they sell Ubuntu exclusively) doesn't even make/research/swap parts/or do anything themselves. They make absolutely zero contributions to the community. All they have done is taken a standard open source shopping cart, thrown up a few pretty graphics, and paid for advertising in major search engine (sorry if I got off on a rant).
A number of others advertise brand name laptops (Lenovo, Sony, etc) and load "Linux" onto them. One company offers "support" although my experience with them is they don't do an adequate job (and really can't).
I was actually more pleased with one of the "Linux" laptops I received (years back) from a company which offers little to no support. Although this was pure coincidence. They happened to ship with the right combination of chipsets. I'm not sure how well it worked with a free distribution though as 3d acceleration has never been of concern to me (on my personal machines) and at the time I doubt there was even a free distribution which could have supported a new laptop. I think the first version of GNewSense was released about a year later.
This may be an old thread, but I'm just going to throw in that I have a
ThinkPenguin laptop, and I love it. Every free software program runs very
well on it, as well as 3D acceleration. Even if you chose to run another
distro, like Ubuntu, your Penguin will support it very well, and it runs
better with GNU/Linux across the board.
I think Chris even donates a portion of the money from every device with
Trisquel to the Trisquel Project.
Also, Chris is a cool guy and help you by phone or email if you mess up your
computer.
Indeed, ThinkPenguin is, today, the only company where you can blindly buy any hardware and be sure it will work at its full potential with Linux-libre (and, as a consequence, with any 100% free GNU/Linux system such as Trisquel).
Moreover, by buying from this link ("libre", in the URL, is important), the Trisquel is donated 25% of the benefits made on your purchase.
if I wanted to buy a dell or hp or a laptop known brands can easily install Trisquel or risk that is not 100% compatible? I bring this up because I saw that laptops are a bit expensive ThinkPenguin about the same price-performance compared to other laptops of the most famous mask ...
The risk of incompatibility is very real. The problematic areas are mostly 3D
graphics and wifi networking because hardware vendors don't provide drivers
or even specifications.
What models where you thinking about? You could also consider second hand
machines. Or making a LiveCD or LiveUSB and visiting your local brick and
mortar for test driving.
Trisquel I use on my macbook with VirtualBox and it works very well, it works also wi-fi. If I buy a laptop with a HD 3000 video card compatibility issues I should not find it? However, I wanted to take a mid-range laptop, I'll have to make music and I do not need a powerful video card to run the latest video games
Virtualization won't give you any compatibility results as the hardware is
virtualized and the (proprietary in case of MacOS) drivers of the host system
are likely used.
If you mean the ATI/AMD HD 3000 you will not get 3D acceleration and will
likely see some graphical glitches.
http://www.garlach44.eu/it/ I found this site, you can find laptop compatible with Trisquel... you think it's worth buying from here!
I would not do that. I have just clicked on the 13.3'' notebook. It appears
to be proposed by default with Trisquel 4.5, which is not supported anymore
(what means uncorrected bugs and security risks). This does not matter much
if you are able to install the latest Trisquel. What matters much more is
that the hardware is *not* fully supported by Linux-libre (the kernel of all
100% GNU/Linux systems such as Trisquel): the video card is from AMD what
means no 3D acceleration. The Wifi card may be compatible since the same
chipset (AR9285) is found on ThinkPenguin. I would not bet on the final
result though. I mean why would I trust a company selling an expensive video
card that no free software can efficiently drive? Taking a look at the 14.1''
notebook (with Trisquel 4.5 too), the cheapest option for a Wifi card (with
an Intel chipset) clearly is not supported by Linux-libre.
I am a member!
A lot of companies selling "Linux laptops" also advertise "free software"
support and then ship hardware dependent on non-free software (and many
distributions do it too).
I'm weary of this company for a number of reasons. It would be one thing had
they advertised the older Trisquel LTS release as this still has support.
However as Magic Banana mentions they seem not to be in a good position
(knowledge/ability/time/etc) to even ensure basic support or keep up with
changing a single word on the site.
I don't think most of the companies selling "Linux laptops" (or users)
understand the numerous issues which can crop up in the present or future.
The more I look into how our competitors operate the more disgusted I become.
We are essentially competing with companies who are taking "Microsoft
Windows" laptops and putting little to no effort into making them work with
GNU/Linux. The biggest advertiser of "Linux laptops" (they sell Ubuntu
exclusively) doesn't even make/research/swap parts/or do anything themselves.
They make absolutely zero contributions to the community. All they have done
is taken a standard open source shopping cart, thrown up a few pretty
graphics, and paid for advertising in major search engine (sorry if I got off
on a rant).
A number of others advertise brand name laptops (Lenovo, Sony, etc) and load
"Linux" onto them. One company offers "support" although my experience with
them is they don't do an adequate job (and really can't).
I was actually more pleased with one of the "Linux" laptops I received (years
back) from a company which offers little to no support. Although this was
pure coincidence. They happened to ship with the right combination of
chipsets. I'm not sure how well it worked with a free distribution though as
3d acceleration has never been of concern to me (on my personal machines) and
at the time I doubt there was even a free distribution which could have
supported a new laptop. I think the first version of GNewSense was released
about a year later.
This may be an old thread, but I'm just going to throw in that I have a ThinkPenguin laptop, and I love it. Every free software program runs very well on it, as well as 3D acceleration. Even if you chose to run another distro, like Ubuntu, your Penguin will support it very well, and it runs better with GNU/Linux across the board.
I think Chris even donates a portion of the money from every device with Trisquel to the Trisquel Project.
Also, Chris is a cool guy and help you by phone or email if you mess up your computer.