Eee PC and Linux pre-installed Laptops

[TheWizardofOdds]

The January sales are close.

Yeah, the thought crossed my mind. It might be better to lurk in the background for good deals.

[TheWizardofOdds]

Is there any benefit to buying a laptop with Linux pre-installed? I like the idea and I suppose you're not paying for Windows and it saves the hassle of mucking up for people like me who aren't exactly experts.

I've had a look at the likes of Linux Emporium, the £400ish price range, would it be cheaper to buy, say, a Lenovo elsewhere and do the installation oneself?

There's not a lot of options to buy these laptops other than on EBay maybe but that wouldn't be my preferred option. Are there any other decent sites to buy Linux pre-installed?

[heiowge]

I find that the ones with the preinstalled linux often save you time and money if you're a complete newbie with no clue what to do or how to get help.

Once you're past that point (I find within about a month), then the effort they save you drops drastically. Within a couple of months, you're installing the distro you'd rather have than the one they ship with (Mint instead of Fedora or SuSE istead of Ubuntu etc).

Once you're at that point, you find that they're vastly overpriced. The only reason to buy from them seems to be to thumb your nose at Microsoft or at the commercial companies.

[wyliecoyoteuk]

The only real plus is that you know that all of the hardware should be supported, but Linux hardware support is not the minefield that it once was.

[guy]

Amazon UK is currently selling Ubuntu offerings from Asus and Meenee, and at lest one (By Zoostorm) with no OS.

Dell's web site is also offering several with both Ubuntu and Windows installed, available "in selected regions". The XPS 13 is Ubuntu-only but appears not to be available in Europe.

ZaReason also offer a good few, but I don't know if they are available in the UK.

[TheWizardofOdds]

Amazon UK is currently selling Ubuntu offerings from Asus and Meenee, and at lest one (By Zoostorm) with no OS.

Dell's web site is also offering several with both Ubuntu and Windows installed, available "in selected regions". The XPS 13 is Ubuntu-only but appears not to be available in Europe.

ZaReason also offer a good few, but I don't know if they are available in the UK.

Thanks.

I've read all about the ASus and meenee. Probably too much! It can put you off.

I'll check out the Dell site.

The ZaReason is American one? There's a few good sites but unfortunately are American. Not many UK ones.

Is Chrome OS, Linux? An earlier post mentioned the chromebook and it seems a good price too.

[TheWizardofOdds]

[quote="guy")...
Or, consider the Samsung Chromebook. This uses Google's other OS, ChromeOS, and with its bigger screen is perhaps closer to a lightweight laptop. It keeps all your apps and stuff in the cloud so is physically simple and cheap. When connected via fast broadband it's said to be fantastic, the future arrived today, but when it loses its connection it gets badly crippled.
HTH.[/quote]

Seems pretty good. Put Ubuntu on and I'd buy it for sure.

[guy]

Is Chrome OS, Linux?

Yes it is, though it is no more the familiar GNU/Linux than Android is. It is a pre-installed OEM version of the Chromium OS downloadable distro. Compared to most distros it has for example more restricted hardware compatibility (such as no floppy discs) allowing different firmware giving a faster boot time, among other things.

Google sometimes get teased about having two competing Linux based OS-es. They are not too bothered and point out that Android and Chromium/Chrome are aimed at different markets. However they have suggested that the two might grow together over time.

[TheWizardofOdds]

On a slightly different note...

I'm looking at buying a laptop that's on eBay from a seller in the US. Its a Lenovo G570 which seems a decent laptop that just isn't available in UK. The seller seems Bona fide and the product is new and in original packaging. A couple of things though, I take it an American charger would be sent, would I just need to get an adapter from US to UK voltage? Also, how much would I expect to pay for customs duty?

I've had a look at Linux emporium and would prefer to buy from there but they do cost quite a bit more.

Has anyone bought a laptop from US here?

I like the look of the system76 machines too.

[Ram]

As you don't specify its spec here's 3 used ones at Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-G570-15- ... B007IZU8UC

or new

http://shop.lenovo.com/gbweb/gb/en/lear ... ries/g570/

Urm, clicking the ready to buy links actually takes you to the g580 / 85, maybe the 570 has been superseded.

[TheWizardofOdds]

As you don't specify its spec here's 3 used ones at Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-G570-15- ... B007IZU8UC

or new

http://shop.lenovo.com/gbweb/gb/en/lear ... ries/g570/

Thanks, I tried Lenovo site but it only said Gseries and nothing else?

The US spec: new, core i3, 2.4ghz, 4g ram, 500 gb hdd. Seems pretty good?

[Ram]

Full listings of the G580 here

[TheWizardofOdds]

Yeah, looks like the G570 is no more. I don't know if the G580 is as good but it's definitely cheaper.

Went to PC world and Argos again and they had Eee PC which looked pretty cool, different from usual tablet crap. In Argos they have a mis wind u180 is that the same as Eee but under another name? Again, looked good and I quite like the idea of running one of those with mint or Ubuntu. As far as the Eee goes what's the best model? Anyone know the u180? Theyre going for £180. Not bad.

[TheWizardofOdds]

Speaking of tablets. Anyone know how to disable predictive texting from a kindle fire? It's driving me mental. Takes about half an hour to type a message.

[TheWizardofOdds]

I finally decided on a Zoostorm laptop with 2.4 ghz pentium core, 500 hd, 8gb ram and DVD drive for £260 delivered. Not bad.

I'd definitely still like an Eee or msi wind u180 for work, I really like the look of them.

I went for the Z as it seems a good all-rounder, good value and no OS installed. I think I'm going to try Mint for the laptop.

Thanks to all for the replies. When I get the Z set up I'll put a pic up...In about three months time, knowing me!