[tlug] New notebook & distro

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

I'm currently running Ubuntu 10.04 on a notebook that is now over 3
years old. I've been following the Ubuntu/Kubuntu Japanese discussions,
but if there was a conclusion, I missed it.

I remember a year ago there was lots of talk that new notebooks with new
bios and windows installed would not allow installing linux. Did that
turn out to be a non-issue. Can I buy any old (er, new) HP or Dell
notebook, repartition disks and install linux distro of my choice on it
with no real pain? Or do I have to shop carefully? Windows pre-installed
is zero value to me: not a negative, but given the choice I would not
pay extra for it.

Second, I'm looking for distro recommendations.

Working Japanese (and Chinese, Arabic and other) input method support is
essential. And I want it to play mp3, mp4, flv, DVD, etc. audio and
video formats out of the box (or by just adding a 3rd party repository).

I don't think I'm tied to Ubuntu, or even Gnome. I do like that when
searching for help, or ready-made packages, Ubuntu is so well supported.
And I tend to use Ubuntu 12.x and 13.x on servers.

Darren


-- 
Darren Cook, Software Researcher/Developer

http://dcook.org/work/ (About me and my work)
http://dcook.org/blogs.html (My blogs and articles)