Dell Laptops with Linux support?

Hi everyone

I'm thinking of buying a laptop which is quite powerful and can run Linux (most of my work is in Linux). I'm an engineering student and frequently need to use computationally intensive applications, which are also graphically intensive. Following a post on another subforum (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4548016#post4548016), I was asked to confirm with Dell users here as to what their Linux experiences are.

I would appreciate inputs and suggestions about purchasing laptops from users of Dell laptops, especially the Latitide and Precision. I understand that the appropriate subforum for this is different, but since this is now only a matter of deciding which Dell model to purchase, I thought I'd post here.

Thanks.
Vivek.

 

Fedora 10 (KDE) is working great on my E6400. WiFi, webcam, touchpad all work fine with current updates. Annoyances are that the screen backlight isn't going off when the lid is closed and that it won't wake up from sleep/standby mode. I believe these are known issues that will get fixed eventually.

I will be putting F10 on my new M4400 once I get the 500GB disk for it.

For graphical applications you will want the proprietary 3D nvidia drivers. The Latitude/Precision Quadro cards are better for OpenGL than games.

Hope this helps.

 

Sounds good. Is it possible to get the Latitude and Precision without Windows preinstalled?

 

Dell's open source laptops just list some old Latitude D series and the Ubuntu systems are Inspiron and XPS models. But if you look at the Precision line from the Large Business area you will see that they list Red Hat as an option -- you can wipe that and put on your preferred distro and avoid the M$ tax. I don't think I'm allowed to post links yet but you should be able to find it. If you are really running a lot of heavy graphics then you'll probably want a Precision anyway.

 

I'm a linux user, but haven't put it on my precision yet...when I do, it will be MEPIS (which is Debian based)...the liveCD didn't have problems, wireless or otherwise...but most of the major distro's shouldn't have any problems with the precisions. The problems you used to run into were mainly wireless, but that's pretty much gone away with the new kernels now.

 

Thanks for replying everyone. Apparently there's some odd company policy of Dell here; they're hesitant (or unwilling) to sell a Precision to an individual -- apparently its meant only for businesses. The Latitude options are relatively limited, since they seem to only ship with Intel cards out here.

I guess I'll just wait.

 

Ok, I just found out that the M4400 is way out of my budget..its Rs. 1.5 lakh, which is a big deal.

Also, what is your take on Latitude E6500 versus Latitude D830?

thanks..

 

I am running a Latitude E5400 with Linux and it runs reasonably decently. It of course shipped with Windows, but I put Linux on it after I got it. The machine works pretty well out of the box, except 3D performance with the GM45 integrated graphics is poor and the Dell 1397 (Broadcom BCM4312) wireless card does not play well with WPA/WPA2 Enterprise networks- although WEP and WPA/WPA2 *home* will work fine. I'd recommend getting an Intel wireless card like the 5100 or 5300 as those work just fine with Linux.