Best Laptop to buy for Freebsd Without OS?

[Henrik Hudson]

On Thu, 17 Feb 2011, Jorge Biquez wrote:

> Hello all.
> 
> I am evaluating to buy a new laptop for using it only with Freebsd.
> I know in the website mention some options. Thing is that here the
> most powerful ones (I3, I5 I7) are sold ONLY with Windows installed
> and that increase the value of the equipment. I want the best option
> at a nice price (could be Intel or AMD) the ide is to have it as my
> main machine and when I need Linux or Windows have them there
> running under VirtualBox. The use will be mainly for web
> development.

Any of the i3 / i5 systems will be using Optimus, even if they
don't state as much, and this is not supported under FreeBSD or
Linux, neither proprietary or FOSS drivers. Some of the higher-end laptops (Lenovo) you can switch off
optimus either in BIOS or a hardware switch, but a lot of those
details are hidden behind marketing. It doesn't matter if it's ATI
or Nvidia, they still route through the Intel HD stack. Some of the
i7 machines don't do this, but they're also space heaters for the
most part.

Basically, the current state of laptop support for non-Windows is
fubarred for probably 6 month to a year or more on the Intel side
and finding AMD laptops that have working graphics drivers under
FreeBSD is hard as well.

Henrik
-- 
Henrik Hudson
lists at rhavenn.net
-----------------------------------------
"God, root, what is difference?" Pitr; UF