Up-to-date hardware (laptop) recommendations?

[Michael Shiloh]

After much consideration, I purchased a Thinkpad W541. The specific model
was important because I make heavy use of the Trackpoint(tm)  style pointer
and other newer models don't have this.

My version has a massive 2880 x 1620 pixel display, as I often have
multiple things open.

Linux install hung near the beginning the first few times, then continued
flawlessly. I was using an Ubuntu live CD I can't recall what I did to get
past the hanging.

I routinely use an external projector (college professor) and there is only
one projector at my university that sometimes gives me trouble. Lately I've
had no trouble using HDMI via the mini DP with this projector. Other
projectors seem to work fine with either VGA or mini DP.

My Thinkpad has 4 USB ports. I believe 2 of them are 3.0.

No external eSATA. I removed my DVD drive and bought an adapter to install
a second disk drive, which is solid state, on which I installed Linux. I
retained the original Windows disk as I sometimes have to work in Windows.

Happy to answer other questions about this if interested

Michael

I've never tried three monitors but I would like to. If I do I will report
back.

On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 12:35 PM, Roman Ovseitsev <romovs at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 9:02 PM, Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il> wrote:
>
>>
>> How are today's ThinkPads (which are probably different from ThinkPads
>> from years ago)?
>>
>
> There seem to be a notion for slimming down things. Less ports and no DVD
> (aka secondary HDD bay) bay anymore. Keyboard on newer models is a bit
> weird too. F keys row has been combined with media keys and
> end/insert/delete/etc keys have very unusual arrangement. But Linux seems
> to be still well supported.
> I am using T420 which probably won't fit your needs since it's a bit aged
> and can't do more than 2 monitors. But I had a chance to use their latest
> T450 model for a few days with Linux and it seemed ok with no apparent
> issues. It has x3 USB 3.0 ports, VGA + mini DP, 16GB RAM max, matte
> display, M.2 SSD slot (don't know if it can be used as boot device), and
> the rest of the usual - RJ-45, WiFi, Bluetooth, multicard reader, WWAN
> depending on the configuration. No idea about maximum supported monitors
> though.
>
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