I've played around with the machines I've seen at Costco and many of them seem cheap. Particularly the keyboards. Soft, bouncy, squishy keyboards. Also, I keep my eye on screen resolution, particularly on the least expensive machines. They might have what appears to be a nice 14" or 15" display but then the resolution maxes out at 1380x768 or so. They can do so much better. 1400x900 and up is good. I personally can not stand the glossy reflective displays which so many of the machines have these days (including, alas, Apple). My last three Linux machine purchases have all been used Lenovo Thinkpad machines and I've been absolutely delighted with them. It's clear Lenovo (formerly IBM) is very much focused on durability, particularly on their business class machines. And the keyboards are excellent. They all run Linux just fine for me and appear to be a popular choice for Linux users in general. Lenovo has an outlet store with some good deals: http://outlet.lenovo.com/ I've gotten all three of mine from Craigslist and they've all been fine performers. I bought a new battery for one and I've been upgrading RAM and installing SSD drives periodically to give them a little extra bump. e.g., This machine here looks very nice. Good screen resolution at 1680x1050. Add more RAM perhaps and maybe an SSD or a larger HDD to replace the 160GB that's in there and you're set. (Although this machine might be a bit heavy for a student's backpack.) http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/sys/4000943841.html I'm fond of the T series and X series machines. I own an X200 and a T420s. Both these machines are light and portable while offering ample performance and features for my needs. The T43 I own is a bit heavier and very old and past it's prime. It still runs perfectly however and I use it regularly for light duty stuff. whj On 08/22/2013 11:14 AM, Mike Miller wrote: > Now is the Back To School season, so maybe it is a bad time to buy. Is > it better after maybe September 15? Do we often see sales? > > I've noticed that when Costco has a good deal, it's a really good deal. > So are any of these good machines? I'm really interested in the cheaper > ones. I didn't really like the HP Pavilion I bought last year -- very > weak WiFi, I thought. > > http://tinyurl.com/l7ywqhx [costco.com] > > Are some brands especially good for Linux and some not so good? > > Mike > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list