Looking for an ultra portable laptop for Ubuntu
- by prule
Hi, I'm in the market for a new laptop, and portability is important since I really only use it when I'm travelling to and from work - primarily for programming.
I've been searching high and low for something like this:
less than 2kg
hopefully Intel i5 (but negotiable)
NO dvd drive - just don't need it
4G ram
either 7200rpm disk or SSD (ssd preferable)
13 inch screen
not too pricey (MacBook Air is about $1700 AUD)
available in Australia
The Dell Inspiron 13z and Lenovo Edge 13 look close, but I've not found anything that says I'm not going to have a fight with compatibility.
The MacBook Air 13 looks like the PERFECT hardware, but I'm afraid it will just be easier to run MacOS than Ubuntu.
I want to stay with Ubuntu, but the MacBook Air is only $1700 so I'm in danger of becoming another apple fanboi if I can't find anything competitive.
Going through all the sites looking for stuff has been a huge waste of time
System 76 doesn't deliver to Australia
http://www.linux-laptop.net/ and http://www.linlap.com/ are hard work and not confidence inspiring
http://www.vgcomputing.com.au/nsintro.html is hard work again, searching for every laptop they say has excellent compatibility on the web to find out what spec it is
http://zareason.com/shop/Strata-Pro-13.html (at $1345 USD) looks interesting, but I've got no idea how much I'll get stung by customs importing
Dell Inspiron 13z with i5, 4G, 320 7200rpm disk, ATI Mobility Radeon HD5430 - 1GB, Dell Wireless 1501 802.11b/g/n @ $1200 AUD seems like the only competitor but is it compatible? (Dell support offer no opinion - as far as they are concerned they only have 2 models that are certified for ubuntu)
Am I worrying too much about the compatibility?
Should I just go with Dell?
Or switch to MacOS?
(It would be good to have a searchable database that had the full machine specs, and compatibility - I'm thinking about building something... but I don't have much time right now...)
Thanks.
UPDATE I went with a MacBook Air. The price/weight/power was just right. Everything else was either too pricy (i5) or too heavy, or underpowered (SU7300 1.3GHz). Its a pity, because I didn't really want to leave Ubuntu. I'll still run it on my media center and spare (heavy) laptop.
