[TriLUG] Macbook Curious

[Matt Flyer]

I would like to thank everyone for their input and suggestions. 

I get the impression that the Macbooks are great machines, something
that I would consider for myself, but I don't think my mother would be
interested in hacking away with it.  She definitely falls into the
category of "I link Linux because it just works."

The Thinkpad is one that we will definitely look at, but until this
thread probably wouldn't have even come up on the radar screen.  I
hadn't heard of the switchable graphics, either, so I appreciate the
heads up to stay away from it.  I will keep the video in mind.  I had
heard that ATI, at least used to be a problem with Linux, with nVidia
being the big player.  I was recently reading some reviews on some
sandybridge  motherboards and it mentioning that the Intel graphics
worked.  It seems like Linux hardware support from the vendor is
becoming less of an issue, thankfully.

On 05/17/2011 06:09 PM, John Brier wrote:
> On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Joseph S. Tate <dragonstrider at gmail.com> wrote:
>> My problem with Selectable graphics is that the Display Port (DVI port on
>> the docking station) is not wired to the Intel video on the motherboard, so
>> to get a digital video feed to an external monitor, I have to be booted with
>> the BIOS set to the ATI video.  But when on the go, the ATI chipset runs the
>> battery down at about double the rate when booted with the BIOS set to the
>> Intel video.  So I do a lot of rebooting.  Add insult to injury by the ATI
>> chipset exercising a kernel bug that makes it unable to go to sleep
>> reliably, and I'm tearing my hair out if I forget to reboot before I undock.
>>
>> Since I never need the video "performance", I'll just skip Switchable
>> Graphics next time.
> yup I have the same kinda problem but my system is too old for display
> port but it does have HDMI
> and just like you for that I have to reboot and switch to nvidia :-(
> but the VGA definitely works with Intel.
> I can't remember if the S-Video works with the Intel or not.