Question for the Experts: Which 64bit laptop to by to run SUSE SLES 11 SP1/2

[Sysman]

Got to ask why SUSE?? Wouldn't touch SUSE with a bargepole nowadays, Novell really cocked it up

That was true a few years ago, but it's quite good now. Pretty rock solid for what I am using it for.

The one I haven't touched with a bargepole for a couple of years is Ubuntu, because it really had problems if you shoved a lot of I/O at it.

Well, er yes, I don't like the hype Canonical and its owner shove out... But they seem to headed in a different direction, so good luck to 'em, but bye bye from me.

[Sysman]

This is going to catch a lot of peeps out. I would do as others have suggested and stick to a VM...

UEFI is a miniature, lightweight operating system that a computer loads at boot time

Screams of laughter here. UEFI is a complete nightmare to use. And yes, I did go through the tomes of documentation involved when it was first announced.

P.S. the general consensus of opinion is that Apple have done a Good Job of hiding UEFI from users.

[Addanc]

Got to ask why SUSE?? Wouldn't touch SUSE with a bargepole nowadays, Novell really cocked it up

Don't think Novell own it any more? openSUSE 12.2 works fine with the default KDE desktop; been using SUSE/openSUSE for 10 years plus, the only time it has been broken was with the initial 4.x KDE desktop.

Intel chipset; nvidia or ati graphics and pretty much any Linux distro should work out of the box; the only thing hardware/software compatibility wise that needs to be checked out with laptops is some of the functions with no standardised implementation (e.g. back-light control).

[nomadd]

Screams of laughter here. UEFI is a complete nightmare to use. And yes, I did go through the tomes of documentation involved when it was first announced.

Couldn't disagree more. I have one of these: http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Inte...155/P8Z77V_PRO

Stunning mobo with a stunning BIOS. Web reviews of the board and it's BIOS from all the leading tech. sites have been outstanding.

I absolutely love it. Best BIOS on any mobo I've ever owned. Even supports recovering the BIOS direct from USB if you've completely trashed the existing one and neither the CPU or RAM can be detected (has an onboard microcontroller for this feature.) BIOS is very feature rich and easy to work with.

EDIT: For those interested in just how good the BIOS and the software suite that complements it is: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5793/i...byte-and-msi/5

[Sysman]

Chaps you need to take into account the fact that windows 8 has moved all compatible hardware to this new trusted bios thingy-ma-mob...

Windows 8: How to Use Linux on a Windows 8 PC

This is going to catch a lot of peeps out. I would do as others have suggested and stick to a VM...

From what I have read you can disable the secure boot thingy if you have physical access to the machine, and MS put that into the specs.

But that's for Intel hardware only. You can't do that with the Windows RT on ARM combination.

[Sysman]

Couldn't disagree more. I have one of these: ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS P8Z77-V PRO

Stunning mobo with a stunning BIOS. Web reviews of the board and it's BIOS from all the leading tech. sites have been outstanding.

I absolutely love it. Best BIOS on any mobo I've ever owned. Even supports recovering the BIOS direct from USB if you've completely trashed the existing one and neither the CPU or RAM can be detected (has an onboard microcontroller for this feature.) BIOS is very feature rich and easy to work with.

EDIT: For those interested in just how good the BIOS and the software suite that complements it is: AnandTech - Intel Z77 Motherboard Review with Ivy Bridge - ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI

Thanks for the links. They have clearly put a lot of effort into that; it's a lot easier than the cryptic interface I had to battle with some years ago.

[Sysman]

I run Ubuntu inside VirtualBox - works brill really. And there are openSUSE 64bit images for virtual box at openSUSE | VirtualBoxImages.com.

openSUSE also provide a build service: openSUSE:Build Service

I haven't used it on a laptop, but have successfully run it as a VM under VirtualBox on Windows. I am currently using it to host various VirtualBox VMs (Windows 7 and Windows Server included) on a desktop.

[bobspud]

Screams of laughter here. UEFI is a complete nightmare to use. And yes, I did go through the tomes of documentation involved when it was first announced.

P.S. the general consensus of opinion is that Apple have done a Good Job of hiding UEFI from users.

Yes apple keep the bios well and truly out of sight.

Millanbenes :- setting up software will be no different between a laptop and a vm. If you want the proper experience then you should buy a sencondhand server and small San on eBay.