Hello. I have never used Linux before in my life, but this post isn’t really about the software. I know there are many guides and threads out there explaining how to set up Linux for beginners.
My question is more about what computers you guys suggest for Linux. I don’t have any old computers lying around at home, I only have a computer assigned by my school that I’ll turn in next year. To my understanding, Linux should be able to work on almost all computers, so I haven’t thought about a specific brand.
My top priorities are (in order):
- good/great battery life
- quiet
- compact and lightweight
Preferably a 13" or 15" screen, though I prefer the former. Just a small machine with a great battery life that also doesn’t make much noise when several apps are open at once. I have looked at Asus before, but I’m not sure what the general consensus is of this brand, so I was hoping to get some suggestions. I’ve also looked at Framework computers, but honestly it’s a bit expensive for me. My budget is ~1000$ (10 000 SEK).
Might be unnecessary information, but: I will be using this computer mainly to write documents, make the occasional presentations, browse the web, and watch videos and movies. So no photo- or video editing nor gaming at all. Like everybody, I hope to buy a computer that will last many years and survive many student theses. Cheers and thanks!
If money wasn’t an object I think I’d get a Framework but I’ve always had a good experience with Lenovo for a more budget-friendly option. My last two laptops have been Lenovos and have both worked super well with Linux.
I love my dell 5300 latitude with fedora. Touchscreen, 13 inches, super compact. And a dime a dozen as you can find used enterprise laptops on eBay/Facebook market.
Slap a large nvme in there and you’re good to go for like, under 300. With the leftover cash, you can even get a docking station and monitor if you wanted a dank setup at home.
I’m a thinkpad guy but how are these dells for everyday use with Linux?
Ya, like jolly rouge said, they’re pretty good. I have had an occasional issue where the track pad didn’t want to work after waking the PC up. But otherwise it’s been bullet proof. All the hot keys work no problem. I haven’t had any of the weird “can’t wake from suspended state” issues I’ve had with older PCs. I basically leave my laptop plugged in next to my desk and it’s ready at a moments notice. I use Windows for gaming and work btw. But I’ve even installed Valheim on my laptop just to see if it would work and it totally does. No complaints on fedora. I used endeavor on it as well and I want to say even pop is. Just a bit of distro going there, no reason I ditched the other two other than just preferring fedora in the end.
Dell Latitudes and Precisions support Linux pretty well.
I personally love my Framework 13. Not sure if the battery life is up to your standard, but the new models are plenty enough for me.
I’ve got a similar use case and went with an X13 Thinkpad (AMD). It’s good for hardware support, but if you want a good experience for watching videos, I’d look somewhere else. The display and audio are not that good.
System 76
Their laptops ain’t as good as their Desktop which are premium from what I gathered from comments
That depends on where you live.
In europe I recommend Novacustom or 3mdeb if you want coreboot, Starlabs too.
In the US System76.
No Tuxedo?
Tuxedo has coreboot in some of their laptops afaik.
Their chassis’ are waay better than the clevo garbage I currently have, but
coreboot >> design
Get a Librebooted Thinkpad T440p or similar and then upgrade it (SSD, 16gb ram, etc).
Or a normal booted ThinkPad if you don’t really care about that (I personally don’t) it will be able to run Linux regardless.
Yeah but if a laptop is old enough to support Libreboot that means it was released before Lenovo messed it up
How did they mess up?
Also isn’t a laptop from 2014 (?) kinda pushing it when it comes to laptops?
I can’t be much more expensive to get a laptop that’s much better in pretty much every way.
Unrelated but I really wish modern ThinkPads had a think light.
I’m pretty sure the T440p is the newest one and it’s 2013. They messed up in the sense that modern Thinkpads are starting to solder components and overall the build quality is worse.
Maybe the build quality is a bit worse but it’s not bad. My x280 is doing great and I would absolutely not replace it with an older machine (even if that machine had a think light)
And I much rather have soldered components from 2018 (or something) than non soldered from a decade ago
But sure, there is nothing wrong with running old machines yourself. I just wouldn’t recommend it to people that ask for a laptop unless they specifically request it.
Repairability and upgradability are incredibly important factors, when my computer breaks why should I need to buy a new one? Heck why should it break at all, old computers were built to last.
I agree. I have even replaced the screen on my x280 to a IPS screen (because the old one was a crap TN screen) and the storage.
I wish newer machines were more repairable and I would buy a framework if I could afford it and if they had more ports. Fortunately most machines don’t break that often and very rarely is it in a part that couldn’t be replaced by a skilled technician (excluding some shitty products like Apple computers). Most business tier laptops like Lenovo ThinkPads and Dell Latitudes (5xxx and 7xxxx series at least) are fairly repairable and durable.
Upgradability is also great but doesn’t make a lot of sense to worry about when the machine is a decade old and still crap performance wise even if you gave it a few more GBs of RAM. You can’t really upgrade anything beyond storage and ram in any laptops unfortunately.
I wouldn’t consider a decade old computer no matter how repairable, durable, or how upgradable it is unless I worked exclusively in a TTY or some shit and I believe most feel the same way.
You do you, but I still don’t think it’s a good suggestion for someone that just needs a computer. Especially when they want good battery life and compactness. Neither of which computers that old are good at.
Refurbished ThinkPad. The answer is always a refurbished ThinkPad
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, what’s a good place to buy them, ebay? I’d be using it mainly for web browsing and playing sames through moonlight
If I had to replace my Linux laptop right now, I’d probably go for a ThinkPad T14 AMD. They also sell them with Snapdragon ARM chips now, which is a very interesting option, though I’m not sure how viable as a daily driver.
You could run Linux on it with no issue ofc, but I wonder how good the support for ARM arch from common Linux software is nowadays…
Used/off-lease ThinkPad T-series.
Check out https://laptopwithlinux.com/ - new or used.
https://www.asus.com/us/laptops/for-home/zenbook/zenbook-14-oled-um3402/
22 hours battery life.
AMD.
Slim, gorgeous. Runs Linux like a champ.
I have bought only Asus for my last 4 laptops (previously I was Thinkpad), and I have never regretted any of them. Since switching from Windows to Linux earlier this year (Aurora-DX) I have had no issues.
If you want to go even smaller and lighter, this one is awesome but is Intel and doesn’t have as long battery life.
Unrelated question: I like Bazzite, but I would really like to also have the Dev tooling of Aurora DX. Does Aurora use the same fsync kernel as Bazzite? Have/do you do any gaming on Aurora? If so, how has it been?
I believe you can run one of the
ujustscripts to add all the same dev tooling to Bazzite.I have a Steam Deck for my gaming, which is funnily enough the thing that got me into Linux in the first place.
Get an Apple, thinkpad or dell.
The main thing that determines if a computer can be repaired is parts availability. Those three have great parts availability almost universally.
If you wanna run macOS you need a Mac. The t480 is a good recommendation for thinkpads, but don’t worry about ssds or ram yet, just get the one with the processor and display you want (it’s the midrange 8th gen ones). I don’t know the dell world enough to make a recommendation but someone will do so.
Use the gentoo and arch wikis to check what problems people have out of the box with whatever model you’re looking at.
People will say you need amd. This is either paranoid or based on recent events. Neither apply to you.
People will say to get a framework or some equivalent. They’re expensive and a moral/ethical statement. This doesn’t apply to you.
Depending on your budget, I would suggest tuxedo‘s aura 15 gen 3. starts at around 800 bucks and is linux first and made in germany.
If you have a lower budget I would go used as someone suggested since a new laptop is nice but unnecessary if you have budget constraints.
Wish you tons of fun.
If there’s a decent (even online) used market where you live buying a refurbished computer that’s just a few years old can be amazing bang for your buck. 9th-11th gen Intel or Ryzen 2-4th gen. Any of the more business focused lines tend to be fairly well-built and are designed to be relatively long lasting while being relatively well-maintained during their service life. HP Elitebooks, Dell Latitudes, Lenovo Thinkpads, etc.
