Today, I was getting interested in laptops preconfigured with Linux. Which flavor of Linux doesn’t really matter - as they are all based on the same kernels after all.
So I started browsing the online catalog of Germany’s biggest shop, and also one of the cheapest.
I found two laptops from two different vendors, one of them without any details on the built-in hardware.
So I tried and searched the websites of big manufacturers. Dell for instance has been in the news because their CEO is using Ubuntu, but at least the German pages don’t offer to deselect all that proprietary stuff. You have to pay the tax to Redmond if you want a Dell machine.
Maybe these things don’t sell? I don’t care. Why should I pay for something which I’m going to throw away later? (Oh yes, I’ve heard of that money-back thing, but first it’s a matter of extreme luck if that works out for you, second you’re still in the statistics of one more OS sold - so no thanks. Keep your crap.)
So it seems that the Acer Extensa 5210-300508 Linux is - at this moment - the only laptop with Linux from a big manufacturer, which you can actually buy in Germany. No infos at all on the manufacturers site. And price comparison here.
My two cents about this: the state of Linux on laptops is a sad one. Big talks turn out to be hot air only.
I should go and build my own one, and offer it with Debian and (x)Ubuntu preinstalled, and become stinky rich. What do you think?
i did remember seeing IBM Thinkpads being sold with SuSE Linux, so you can give them a try. I would still keep the small partition with XP/visa on, just in case if i need something at the darkside once a while. else i am ok with a dualboot option…
linux on a laptop == cool