So I’ve been trying to look for a laptop that is completely supported by Ubuntu. I’ve been using linux on a laptop since probably 1994, when I ran Slackware on my Gateway Colorbook, and for a while, Linux ran fine. I’ve run linux on a Gateway Solo, an Inspiron 5150, and a Powerbook. None of these laptops ran flawlessly under Linux. I know the hardware vendors aren’t making things easy for the Linux guys, but I would really like a laptop that supports both sleep states 3 and 4. I mean, suspend to RAM and suspend to disk just shouldn’t be that hard.

I’ve pretty much given up on my Inspiron, the BIOS is just too broken to support the right sleep states, but I’m hoping that there are other laptops out there that will run smoother. Its not that I’m getting ready to buy another laptop right now, but I’m interested to see who is playing ball (or at least functional on Linux). I’ve pretty much given up on using AMD64 for the time being. It runs fine on my server, but it can be a lot more trouble than its worth in terms of some binary only packages. I’ve heard that IBM’s run pretty well, but wireless is always going to be an issue. I’m either going to have to go with an Atheros (which I have laying around), or something under NDISWRAPPER. Obviously I’d like to see something without a binary blob, but you’ve got to cut your losses somewhere.

Speaking of WiFi, I’ve been wondering how easy it is to use now. I’ve never had good luck with Linux wireless, especially when I’ve protected my access point with WEP (lets not even get into WPA). The other problem has always been “roaming.