[clug] Avoiding NVIDIA Optimus ?

[Warren Gardner]

I put an Acer Aspire AS5750G-2414G75Bnkk on hold at Dick Smith at the
sale price of $769.

My main concern was the 'floating key' keyboard until I got home and
googled NVIDIA Optimus.

>From what I gather:
NVIDIA do not provide (much) support for linux. If I have a laptop
with Optimus not only will I not be able to utilise the graphics card,
I will be lucky to boot the computer.  To boot it would depend on the
options in BIOS, and even then the unusable graphics card will chew
battery and cook the computer. Though Micheal Manning has not had this
problem http://lists.samba.org/archive/linux/2011-May/029981.htm.

Is this correct?  My research on graphics cards and compatible drivers
has not cleared things up for me.  I'm gathering most new computers
have switchable graphics but linux cannot access the required drivers.

Will dual booting help? Would that make the required drivers available to Linux?

Anyway if anyone can help I would like to know if I should still get
this laptop?   I told Dick Smith I will come back on Friday.



Thank you for reading,  here are some specs:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540 with up to 4096 MB of TurboCache
Switchable graphics
(NVIDIA Optimus sticker is on computer)
Intel Core i5-2410M   2.3G/3MB/1333FSB/64-bit
RAM 1 x 4GB
750GB HD
BlueRay/DVD Super Multi
802.11b/g/Draft-N
2 x USB2.0   1x USB3.0
HDMI
Battery 6-Cell 2.2