From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Thu Jun 9 01:12:12 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B47B6B70F51 for ; Thu, 9 Jun 2016 01:12:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7DFD31B35 for ; Thu, 9 Jun 2016 01:12:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-156-20.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.156.20]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 524443CE50; Thu, 9 Jun 2016 03:12:02 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id u591C2qu002471; Thu, 9 Jun 2016 03:12:02 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2016 03:12:02 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Christian Baer Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: advice for buying a laptop Message-Id: <20160609031202.79225671.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.22 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2016 01:12:12 -0000 On Wed, 8 Jun 2016 19:30:05 +0200, Christian Baer wrote: > It may be that I am strange, but I actually like the older T-Series by > IBM or Lenovo much more than most newer machines. They have great > keyboards and the machines themselves are hard to break. They are just > built well. [...] I use a IBM T60p and Lenovo R61i myself - "still" great machines to work with. Especially when you use an SSD and think about what software you install, you get up-to-date (!) average performance out of those things, even when they are already 5+ years old. :-) Last year I made a Dell Latitude D630 with FreeBSD 10, and it works better than my home Aldi PC! :-) > I don't care about gaming performance. That's not what I need it for. > Most of my work will include writing (probably 80% TeX, lots of emails, > some letters). There will be some work done specifically for my sports > club (which requires special Windows software) - and yes, I will try to > get it to run with wine. :-) There will be some Firefoxing and some > video watching while I am on the train. This is the basic usage profile. Nothing the mentioned machines cannot handle. > I will be running a dual-boot system with Windows (hopefully 7) and I > also want to run FreeBSD. This is where you guys come in. Laptops often > contain evil hardware which will not work too well with Linux, BSD and > the like because of missing or broken drivers. Will this be a concern > with the T520? Even if the work I do would be possible in theory, I do > not plan on working through a frame buffer! If you can, use a live system to check (start from USB or CD/DVD). But as far as I know, all the parts of the machines I own are fully supported, even the wireless. The only thing I really didn't care about is the fingerprint reader as I have no use for it. > Here is some info about the laptop: > https://support.lenovo.com/de/en/documents/pd015761 > > Do you think that this machine will work well with FreeBSD on it? Is > there some other machine I should take a look at? While looking around, > I noticed the T520 and liked it (because I have used it before), but I > don't know every model out there and thus I am open to suggestions. Looks good from that list. But it's probably a good idea to give it a try with a test system prior to paying. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...