[clug] Modern laptops, nVidia, Optimus and Linux

[Sam Couter]

Has anyone bought a new laptop recently to run Linux on with half-decent
3D performance?

I'm looking for a new laptop. I almost ordered one until I accidentally
discovered the nVidia hardware on it has something called Optimus. It's
a fancy way of dynamically switching between low-power integrated
graphics and high-power nVidia discrete graphics based on load, to
extend battery life. Under Linux it just means you're stuck with
crap integrated graphics and can't use the expensive nVidia graphics.
nVidia haven't announced any plans to support the technology under
Linux.

I haven't been able to find many alternatives in my price range (around
$2k or less). It seems nVidia have decided to shit on Linux users when it
comes to mobile computing. Oh look, they're losing market share at a
large rate, so sad:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/nvidia-suffers-massive-gpu-market-share-slide/12631

Laptop Linux users, help me out. Point me in the direction of hardware I
can use.
-- 
Sam Couter         |  mailto:sam at couter.id.au
OpenPGP fingerprint:  A46B 9BB5 3148 7BEA 1F05  5BD5 8530 03AE DE89 C75C
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