Those of you who use Linux on a laptop, which laptop do you use? I’ve been thinking of buying a new laptop to replace my current ageing macbook and would love to run Linux on it.
A lot of people here are recommending linux first laptops like tuxedo and system76 but if they are too expensive there’s also dell and lenovo which are linux-second vendors. Every dell laptop I’ve used has worked great with linux and are reasonably repairable. The only things to watch out for are gimicky features like fingerprint readers or anything that would need custom firmware, and super slim laptops (for repairability and the potential for weirder parts on the inside) but even for weird hardware like fingerprint sensors, both dell and lenovo have been working towards supporting them on linux as well.
I think that Lenovo ThinkPad generally work well with Linux. You can get refurbed ones quiet cheaply on eBay.
There is also system76 which come with Linux pre installed and have (I think mostly) open source hardware.
You can also get a framework laptop (you might have to wait until October/November). This is a fully repairable laptop that aims to also be easily upgradable (10/10 from ifixit). Linux support is generally pretty good and will get better over time (currently very new hardware).
You could also consider upgrading the ram or hardrive of your current laptop if possible. This will cut down on e wate although you might not be able to run Linux.
I got the cheapest possible configuration of the framework and it’s pretty great so far. I’m running Pop!OS on it right now, but I think I’m going to switch to OpenSUSE.
Nice! You must have ordered it a while ago?
It’s not available in my region yet sadly.
Any laptop will be able to install linux on it as long as its not super super new. the lenovo thinkpad is quite a popular choice.
If you’re just looking for basically a MacBook, I would recommend buying from one of the Linux-first vendors, like System76 (USA), Entroware (UK), Tuxedo (Germany) etc… They’ll work out of the box and you get tech support.
Disadvantage of these, is that they’re basically just Clevo laptops with some drivers added. That means, those drivers are not generally available and if you want to play around with different distros, there’s probably going to be one thing or another not properly working.
If you do want to play around with different distros, I’d also recommend a second-hand ThinkPad or another model that’s known to have good support from Linux.
If you’re looking for a powerful development laptop, with possibly the same issues as the Linux-first vendors, Dell has one or two models with Linux support.
I have been running a Tuxedo laptop since 2016. Overall I am happy with it even though the build quality is probably not quite comparable to a Mac etc.
I also have a Pinebook Pro (comes with Manjaro by default) and given the very low price there is really nothing to complain about. But I hope the Rockchip VPU will be supported by the Linux kernel soon as it gets quite hot on watching videos or doing video-chat in the browser.
I almost bought a Starbook in January, but I opted for the M1 macbook air instead because my school mandates I must use MacOS or Windows. I went with a mac because I’ve been using Linux for 10 years and I am much more comfortable in a unix based bash/zsh environment than I am using a windows / powershell environment.
Honestly, I use a raspberry pi 400 as my main computer most of the time, if you don’t need much performance it’s a lot better for your wallet and the environment to install a SSD into any old laptop and breathe new life into it.
my school mandates I must use MacOS or Windows
:( Why is that?
My tests are proctored virtually, the proctoring software for some classes does not run on Linux and they do not want to train their proctors on Linux.
I’ve heard some students have had success using Linux anyway, but especially during the pandemic I didn’t want to risk wasting a proctor’s time and taking a time slot away from another student all because I would’ve been trying to bend the rules.
System76 is probably going to be the best since that is what they do.
Dell Precision or Dell Latitude are both lines with good Linux support. The Precision line can be ordered with some distros, and the XPS Developer line comes with Linux preinstalled.
Thinkpads in general are good, and there are some Thinkpads which come with Linux from the factory.
Latitudes, Precisions, and Thinkpads can be readily found as refurbished models.
TUXEDO Pulse 15. They are not a big faceless corporation and seem to care about users.
what would be interesting BTW, is having choices of non x86 well performing pcs (laptops, desktops, mini-pcs, etc), like with 16g or 32g RAM, 512G or more NVMe/PCIe SSDs, 8, 16 or more true cores. To say risc-v 64bits is perhaps too early, but having such options in arm-64 is not quite there, unless thinking Mc, :(
There’s also slimbook
Asus vivobook s m13 I think with amd 4700u runs countless distros with no problem. Cost me $350
I use a Starlabs Star Lite Mk III and I put Linux Mint Debian Edition on it.
Using a DELL XPS 13
I bought a new Thinkpad T480s. I threw a few distros at it. Settled on Manjaro. Manjaro works 100% All buttons, suspend on close (unlike my old Slackware installs), audio, webcam, the works.
The only thing that isn’t supported (yet) is the fingerprint reader for logging in. There is fix available for CPU throttling I had to install. But that is very simple to do.
I didn’t even know that the thinkpad was such a popular choice for Linux, but I bought a used x121e thinkpad laptop a while back because I needed something small for school. Windows was horrendous on it, so that’s how I got into Linux! Even on this old and not very powerful hardware, Linux Lite and Lubuntu ran quite nicely, but recently I switched to a very barebones arch install which is very streamlined and lasts an hour longer than my Linux lite install. So even a shitty laptop will work very well (especially with an SSD), which is great for your wallet!
