Here we would like to give some clarifications as to what kind of support the "SIE de Investigación y Enseñanza" gives to project laptops (bought by the research group with IAC money) and personal laptops (bought by users with their own money).
These laptops receive full support from the SIE and from the SIC. This means that the SIC will install the Operating System(s), in particular, for Linux, Fedora. The SIE provides the users with detailed instructions on how to Install all the SIE's software astronomical packages they need. The SIE and the SIC will take care of any malfunctioning or problems with hardware and software, and will answer all questions about the use of the laptop.
Neither the SIC nor the SIE will take any responsibility for personal laptops. However, if your own laptop has a recent version of Fedora installed, we might provide some general assistance. Also, you will probably be able to install and run most of the astronomical packages following our instructions on how to Install all the SIE's software astronomical packages.
In this case you are really on your own. Though some distributions, such as Debian or Ubuntu, are becoming more and more popular, we don't have any experience with them, so we are unable to provide any help. Also, the scripts we developed to install software packages might or might not work, or the packages themselves might not run in such Linux distros. You might need to compile the code from scratch, or look for special "tailored" distributions made by some volunteer, but perhaps not supported by the software developers.
So, if you are planning to buy a new laptop, please think carefully about what Linux distro you plan to install and what kind of support you wish to have.