On 18/01/15 10:29 AM, john@AgeingGracefully.ca wrote:
I have never installed used nor installed linux on a laptop ($500 - $600), however I have decided to buy one but before doing so I need some advice. These are the questions that come to mind. 1. Graphics radeon or nvidia? I have nvidia on my desktop but have no experience with radeon. 2. WiFi what to avoid? 3. Dual boot? What problems should I expect? I will install Jessie from a thumb drive and upgrade to testing when Jessie becomes stable.
I generally prefer Radeon. Their drivers are often a bit better - especially the open source ones. NVidea has has some people swearing at them instead pf by them. :)
Most wifi just works. If it doesn't, you can get a really cheap USB wifi adapter.
Dual-booting shouldn't create problems by itself. However Windows doesn't like having its partitions shrunk. I recommend doing a full backup before shrinking the Windows partition then booting into Windows immediately afterward.