It's time for me to buy a new laptop. Although I'm normally a Mac guy, I can't spend $1k--I'm really looking at $400-500. I have two questions:

1) Does anyone have opinions about the best low-end laptops? My only notable specifications are that I want a full-sized keyboard and at least a 12" screen (no netbooks).

2) How is Linux support for recent laptops? Do I need to do research on particular laptop models or can I just trust that it should be ok? I'd probably be using Ubuntu, but if there are notable differences between the major distros, I'd like to know about that.

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There are netbooks in the 12" range like this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I know a lot of Linux guys who still like the eee, but it's been a while since I've put Linux on my laptop. Major reason is actually Go apps.

As far as best deal... I usually check out newegg.com or tigerdirect.com and see what the specials are. I haven't seen any particularly bad brand in a while, but reviews on other sites can hopefully help you find a good deal.

Tigerdirect looks like they're now promoting this one which meets the needs and is a solid manufacturer...
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... _H24-15201

Last summer I bought my wife a compaq CQ60 (I think that was the designation, maybe CQ62? Something like that). Got it at Best Buy. It was around $375-$425, not sure the exact price but it was really really cheap. 14" screen. Runs ubuntu linux great.

My only complaint is that the touchpad isn't recessed or even clearly designated in any way, it's just an area below the keyboard that does things when you touch it, so when I try to type I'm constantly accidentally making mouse movements and clicks happen. My wife is used to it though and says it's OK for her.

I guess I don't have a good grip on the definition of netbook. My idea was based on the super-small eees and MSI models.

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Compaq is owned by HP. The computers with the HP logo on them are usually made better then the ones with the Compaq logos.

At the price range you are looking at HP might be the best choice... I am not fond of acer or dell....

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I have a Compaq CQ62, and Linux support is fine for it. From what I remember, you have to install its wireless driver from the restricted repositories, as there's no open source version, but if you have any prior experience in Linux its not hard.

I bought a CQ62 for two reasons: it was cheap, and it was one of only two computers in the store with keyboards that didn't have the shift button on the left side of the keyboard be incredibly small. What especially ticked me off about them is that all the manufacturers decided to squeeze in a redundant semicolon key. Because of all the keys to have two of, a semicolon is apparently the most important. Anyway, while what wms said about the touchpad is true, if you type "synclient TouchpadOff=1" (minus the quotes) at the command line, you can disable it. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a button on the keyboard to do the same thing. You also have to press a [fn] key to access the latter half of the F# keys on the keyboard.

Anyway, that's my experience with it so far. I'm fine with it, especially since its cheap, but if you're willing to pay a bit more money (and especially if the keyboards aren't as demented in your area), you can do better.

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I've been happy running Ubuntu on a Dell 1420. It is factory installed, so you don't have to worry about driver compatibility. If you are willing to go used, they go from $250-$400 on ebay. If you want new, I think that the modern descendant is the Dell 1014, at about $350 low end, maybe $500 adequately equipped.

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Well, it'd really help to know what kind of things you want to do.

There are a couple things I suggest you look into, though.

The first being used laptops on Amazon. I just recently picked up a convertible laptop/tablet that was top of the line just two years ago, for only $550, and aside from some wear-and-tear on the case, it is in fantastic shape. It runs a million times better than the old desktop PC I had been using.

The other thing you might want to look into, are slate style tablets. They're a little spendy if you want the latest and greatest (I'm personally waiting on the wifi-only version of the Motorola Xoom, which will possibly be $550-600). There are some neat little cases for these tablets that contain bluetooth keyboards, so you can use them like a laptop, if you want to. The screen might be a little small (10 inches being a "large" tablet). Older tablet models are being downpriced now that the new versions are coming out; the original iPad is now as low as $399 (new).

For your second question... I tried Linux on this laptop I bought. I threw in an (admittedly old, being 9.10, I think) Kubuntu livecd. Most things seemed to work fine, but there was zero tablet support, so I took the disc out and haven't tried again. :/

If you get just a regular old laptop, I'm sure Linux would run great on it. But, I still highly recommend googling it to see if anyone has tried your favorite distro on the particular laptop you're looking at buying, before actually purchasing it.

I made good experience with Dell laptops - I think they are of good quality. So when I need a new laptop, I just check what they have to offer and choose the best fit.

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Locoron: I don't need to do anything too heavy with it, but I probably should have specified. Right now, I'm spending most of my time either dicking around on the internet or coding, with small portions of writing thrown in. I doubt I'll do any (non-go) gaming. I don't do any photo or image editing.

P.S. I'm not 100% committed to using Linux, or any particular distro within Linux. I used Windows XP in college and was pretty comfortable with it. But I'm leaning towards using Linux, and Ubuntu is the place I'll start, since it's the distro I've used.

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