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Which is a better laptop for 11.10: Dell Precision M6600 or MacBook Pro 17-inch?

rated 0 times [ 5] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 4394 / 1 Year ago, sun, march 19, 2023, 11:58:12

The company I work for is going to buy me a new laptop before the end of the year. Right now I use Ubuntu 11.04 on a ~3.5 year old Dell Vostro 1700. It's a dual boot install and it runs good enough, but it's not perfect. I attribute most problems I experience to the age/wear of the laptop, not Ubuntu.

I'm going to do a full install on whatever laptop I buy next, so no Windows or OS X at all, only Ubuntu.

I'm looking at a Dell Precision M6600 and also at a MacBook Pro 17-inch. Work is paying for the machine, so thankfully price is not a concern. I just want Ubuntu to run flawlessly. I use Ubuntu because it makes me so much more efficient at my job (web development, etc.). I don't customize the OS much and I'm not messing around too much behind the scenes. I just want Ubuntu to run as smoothly and reliably as possible.

Is one of these two machines - Dell M6600 or MacBook Pro 17" - better suited for Ubuntu than the other? If I'm not using Windows or OS X that comes w/ the machine am I losing a lot of the performance gains from the hardware, or can Ubuntu take full advantage of all the specs?

Note: I have only been using Linux regularly for under a year. My knowledge of video cards, chips and other hardware and specs (and how they relate to Ubuntu) is somewhat limited.

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sharall

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answered 1 Year ago atereress · Accepted Answer

Both laptops ships with high end specs. The Dell M6600 is an Ubuntu certified laptop, So chances of glitches are very low while running Ubuntu.

Macbook Pro

Things like special function keys won't work out-of-the-box.

Battery life will be significantly lower [citation needed].

A generally less integrated experience (Thunderbolt and WLAN aren't working yet with Natty or later and the
latest offering of MacBook Pros). Hibernate and suspend tend to be a
bit iffy.

The clickpad is atrocious under ubuntu. It's completely impossible to do things like right-click-drag, and there's no middle click at all like there is with the dell.

Final Thoughts

Installing and working of ubuntu in Macbook will require little bit more effort than installing it in a Dell machine (Check this). The Dell runs ubuntu 11.10 very well.