the ultimate fedora laptop?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  (ok, not the ultimate, just really, really good since i don't want
to break the bank.)

  i'm pondering a new laptop to replace my current gateway, and i'm
wondering what a shopping list would look like if i went out hunting
for a system that would be wildly compatible with the imminent fedora
12.

  the first part of that shopping list would be fairly no-brainer:

  * buckets of RAM (4G seems standard these days)
  * large, 7200 RPM hard drive
  * for me, as much screen res as is reasonably affordable
  * HDMI port
  * bluetooth
  * SD card slot (pretty much standard these days)

beyond that, though, what would match up nicely with fedora?

* i'm adamant on getting a 64-bit CPU with HW-assisted virtualization,
of course, but are there any compelling differences between intel and
AMD CPUs?  beyond the standard virt support, is it worth looking at
IOMMU support?  (intel calls it VT-d, while AMD calls it AMD-Vi.  are
laptops shipping with that feature these days?  is it immediately
useful?)

* wireless?  given the new b43-openfwwf open firmware for wireless, it
would seem that at least *some* broadcom wireless chips are now safe.

* video chipset?  that's the choice that always scares me.  starting
with f12, what would represent a safe bet?  and it would be nice to
have a laptop that would comfortably drive an HD TV.

  anyway, you get the idea.  thoughts?

rday
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========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
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[tim-9-3]

On Sun, 2009-11-01 at 09:04 -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> * video chipset?  that's the choice that always scares me.

Intel's got a reputation for supporting open source video, and just
having to deal with bugs from time to time.  NVidia for working closed
source drivers, but abandoning older chipsets to legacy packages.  ATI
for working/non-working closed source drivers.  If you're able to buy a
laptop where you can actually remove the graphics card, that's your
safest bet.  Otherwise, do what I did, when I bought a laptop:  I found
out what chipsets were currently supported, and known to work, and what
I could purchase, and went with that.

--
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
read messages from the public lists.



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[George Yanos]

On Sun, 1 Nov 2009, Robert P. J. Day wrote:

>  (ok, not the ultimate, just really, really good since i don't want
> to break the bank.)
...
>  * for me, as much screen res as is reasonably affordable
...

For me it was also as much resolution as possible.  But when I switched
from a thinkpad t41p to a t61p, I got more resolution and a good bit less
brightness.  I miss the brightness enough that I might go back to the
lower resolution.

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[Jud Craft]

> beyond the standard virt support, is it worth looking at
> IOMMU support?  (intel calls it VT-d, while AMD calls it AMD-Vi.  are
> laptops shipping with that feature these days?  is it immediately
> useful?)

As for VT-d and AMD-Vi, I believe these -are- the standard hardware
virtualization support.  They're definitely available in a lot of
Intel processors (even some Atom processors), and isn't there some
intel page that lists features of all their processor lines?  You can
check for VT-d in whichever one for the laptop.

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[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sun, 1 Nov 2009, Jud Craft wrote:

> > beyond the standard virt support, is it worth looking at
> > IOMMU support?  (intel calls it VT-d, while AMD calls it AMD-Vi.  are
> > laptops shipping with that feature these days?  is it immediately
> > useful?)
>
> As for VT-d and AMD-Vi, I believe these -are- the standard hardware
> virtualization support.  They're definitely available in a lot of
> Intel processors (even some Atom processors), and isn't there some
> intel page that lists features of all their processor lines?  You
> can check for VT-d in whichever one for the laptop.

  not as i understand it.  AIUI, standard HW virt support is AMD-V for
AMD, and VT-x for intel.  above and beyond that, you have what *used*
to be called "IOMMU", which allows guest machines to directly use
peripheral devices.  am i misunderstanding this?

rday
--



========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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[Kevin J. Cummings]

On 11/01/2009 09:04 AM, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> * video chipset?  that's the choice that always scares me.  starting
> with f12, what would represent a safe bet?  and it would be nice to
> have a laptop that would comfortably drive an HD TV.

Big can of worms!  If you trade off CPU power for video GPU power and
want to run HD, I hear that nVidia with VDPAU support is the way to go.
 People are watching HD on Atom processors with nVidia video.
If you get enough CPU horsepower (4-5GHz), almost any GPU will do.
Intel and AMD are playing catch-up to nVidia in the HD marketplace.

>   anyway, you get the idea.  thoughts?
>
> rday
> --
>
> ========================================================================
> Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
>
>             Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.
>
> Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
> Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
> ========================================================================
>

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[Bruno Wolff III]

On Mon, Nov 02, 2009 at 01:58:04 +1030,
  Tim <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Intel's got a reputation for supporting open source video, and just
> having to deal with bugs from time to time.  NVidia for working closed

Except for the recent GMA 500 based cards which were outsourced.

> source drivers, but abandoning older chipsets to legacy packages.  ATI
> for working/non-working closed source drivers.  If you're able to buy a

The 3d support for ATI chips has gotten much better in F12 in the last
couple of weeks.

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[Jud Craft]

>> > beyond the standard virt support, is it worth looking at
>> > IOMMU support?  (intel calls it VT-d, while AMD calls it AMD-Vi.

Yes, that looks right.  IOMMU -is- VT-d.

> AIUI, standard HW virt support is AMD-V for AMD, and VT-x
> for intel.  above and beyond that, you have what *used*
> to be called "IOMMU".

Um...now I'm not sure what you mean.

I believe VT-d -is- IOMMU.  It allows redirection of memory access for
faster virtualization.  My lay grasp is bound to be inaccurate.

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[Gordon Messmer]

I've been pretty happy with my Dell Latitude E6400.  I bought mine from
their outlet store.  If you go that way, look for one with Intel
wireless rather than Dell wireless (Intel vs Broadcom chipset) and Intel
or AMD video.  The E6400 has a Core 2 Duo which is 64bit and supports hw
virtualization.  It supports up to 8GB of RAM.  No HDMI, but it has
DisplayPort, which is probably a better long-term bet (and VGA).

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