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Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

185 points by vise890 10y ago

I get to choose a new laptop for work. I'd like to switch back to Linux as I think it does 95% of what a Mac does, and it's better at some things. What are people using?

JamesMcMinn 10y ago
Most are going to suggest a Dell XPS Developer Edition or a ThankPad.
gargravarr 10y ago
ThinkPads generally run Linux very well. I use an old X220 with Mint 17 and it fits my needs. ThinkPads are also well suited to business use and will last many years. X series for ultraportables with small screens, T series for high performance machines. This site collects info on people running Linux on their ThinkPads: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki
- mataug 10y ago
  Came here to say this. My thinkpad works great with Linux mint. Planning to switch to Ubuntu 16.04 when it comes out.
  - jordigh 10y ago
    I'm having trouble with the graphics acceleration with an intel graphics card on Debian. This is on an x250. I'm kind of surprised, because it's the first time that the intel chipsets fail me. Usually they work the best because the drivers are free.
    - reitoei 10y ago
      That's may be too 'new' of a computer in Debian userland, although I'm probably wrong.
      - jordigh 10y ago
        I'm using the driver versioned at 2:2.99.917 from backports, although I see that unstable has added stuff from a recent git branch. Still, if apparently I'm using the latest released driver, shouldn't that be enough?
        snassar 10y ago
        Have you tried removing the Intel graphics drivers? Based on "It is probably time to ditch xf86-video-intel[1]" I removed the intel drivers from a debian machine and an Arch machine and things have become more stable for me. 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/4cojj9/it_is_probably_time_to_ditch_xf86videointel/ https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/4cojj9/it_is_pro...
- wprapido 10y ago
  i've used all kinds of thinkpads under various distributions and they were all flawless
- sevensor 10y ago
  An X120 with Fedora (later Arch) saw me through five years of grad school. Based on that experience alone, I'd recommend the ThinkPad. However, SuperFish lost Lenovo a lot of goodwill with me. I'm not sure that today I'd buy a laptop where I suspected that the firmware might be out to get me. Edit: SuperFish wasn't in the firmware. Why do I associate Lenovo with evil firmware? Edit2: Right, it was this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10039870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10039870
- reitoei 10y ago
  Yeah, pretty much any modern X series Thinkpad runs any flavor of Ubuntu well in my experience. I run Ubuntu 14 LTS on a 6 year old X201. Goes like a champ. You really can't go wrong with Thinkpads, unless you're concerned about that preinstalled malware thing on their newer machines, which... you probably should be.
- gorbachev 10y ago
  I've been looking at the Lenovo P50 for myself. Looks like the ThinkWiki site is a little out of date with the P-series models. Anyone have any experiences running Linux with this or the P70 model?
lmm 10y ago
I haven't installed Linux on it yet, but I've been really impressed by the Microsoft Surface Book - even leaving aside the tablet functionality it's just a really nice laptop, with the best features vs size/weight I've seen going.
- izolate 10y ago
  The poster explicitly said Linux, and that's the sentence you start with?
  - lmm 10y ago
    Yes. In my experience good Linux hardware is mostly just good hardware, and there's an active surface linux community so there's likely to be good driver support. But I don't have direct personal experience of it yet.
jordigh 10y ago
I don't know if it's the best, but I've been hungering for a Think Penguin laptop for some time: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/korora-penguin-gnu-linux-notebook https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/korora-penguin-gnu-li... The fact that it works with Trisquel is a good indication that the hardware support is good.
drakonka 10y ago
I recently bought a gen4 ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Despite a couple of issues first getting started with Linux (I've been using OS X for years aside from running Ubuntu on my web servers) I'm now happily on Fedora 23. There was a kernel bug that I think is being patched atm, requiring booting with intel_pstate=no_hwp but no problems with Fedora other than that. When discussing this on the ThinkPad subreddit a Red Hat employee mentioned that their standard issue work laptops are ThinkPads with Red Hat Enterprise installed, but most engineers then switch to Fedora. As a result Fedora tends to run very well on ThinkPads (according to him and in my so far limited experience), as they have many Red Hat engineers working on that OS every day.
- Ao7bei3s 10y ago
  The X1 Carbon has a Skylake CPU, so the problem that Linux doesn't have support for the higher C-states resulting in reduced battery life and reduced total CPU lifetime should apply to you, right?? Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492070 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492070 (I have tested the predecessor (gen3) and liked it. I'm waiting for the 16GB gen4 X1 Carbon to become available here in Germany, drop enough in price to be affordable, and for Linux to support all the C-states.)
  - drakonka 10y ago
    I think an upcoming patch is meant to greatly improve this, at least judging by this, aside from solving the boot parameter requirement issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4c6q6w/fixing_intel_pstateno_hwp_issue_on_fedora_23_guide/ https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4c6q6w/fixing_int... > I have finally compiled a patched kernel myself and couldn't be happier with results. Not only battery life increased (~1 additional hour), but what's more important, performance on battery improved significantly. (Note: I have not tried this myself yet...maybe this weekend) Some other possibly useful links I just came across related to this patch: - https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4d6qj5/psa_linux_46rc2_contains_the_patch_needed_for/ https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4d6qj5/psa_linux_... - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RawhideKernelNodebug https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RawhideKernelNodebug
giancarlostoro 10y ago
I'm using an ASUS Republic of Gamers Laptop with Linux Mint. My only issues are the Nvidia GPU, thankfully it has an integrated GPU from Intel so I can switch off to that and avoid the odd issues, that and an odd config that has my hard drive reading nonstop, a simple terminal command fixes it, but I have to do it anytime I come back. I might try openSUSE which is my favorite distro to see how all of these "issues" play out. I'd say spec the hardware for faults related to GPU, look for a GPU that has great support, if you prefer a specific distro as on their IRC channel etc. Top two hardware issues that ruin Linux for me: * GPU drivers support is either broken or non-existent. * Wi-Fi drivers non-existent or not included in a particular distribution out of the box (seriously?)
notdonspaulding 10y ago
Not using it and haven't bought it, but the Lenovo T460 looks like a good option. The T460p is due out in the next few weeks and is geared toward performance with the use of discrete graphics and Intel core i5/i7 processors from the HQ line. The T460s is geared for mobility, and can be bought today. And also available today, the regular T460 model is a compromise between the two.
cfeduke 10y ago
I tried going with System76 after having a good experience with one of their earlier models. Unfortunately the keyboard experience was _terrible_ - so as a portable it failed hard. Everything else was stellar. By terrible I mean actually missing keystrokes noticeably often, even around 60wpm.
- drallison 10y ago
  My System 76 experience (Gazelle, 15-1/2 in screen) has been good. Keyboard is better than average, for what that's worth.
  - cfeduke 10y ago
    That's what I bought in 2014, a Gazelle. If they've improved they keyboard since then I'd give it another go.
- zck 10y ago
  I just got a System76 machine (a Lemur; their 14" machine: https://system76.com/laptops/lemur https://system76.com/laptops/lemur), and I haven't seen any dropped keystrokes. I wonder if the keyboard problems are specific to one model.
bobfromhuddle 10y ago
I'm running Arch on a Dell M3800, most of my colleagues are running various Ubuntu flavours on the same hardware. Works well, up to and including the touchscreen. Battery life is poor compared to a Mac, but it's really light given the compute power.
- Quai 10y ago
  I have had to replace the screen on my M3800 twice now in one year (it develops two shadowy lines on the screen), and there are some other issues that I don't like; The "sound card" had an bug that makes it give off a quite noticeable white noise. It also has a slight coil noise that I'm not a huge fan of.
brickmort 10y ago
I've had excellent experience with Dell Latitude laptops. I was using a Dell Latitude E6420 running Linux Mint for about two years until it stopped charging completely and I had to keep it plugged in for it to work. I ended up replacing it with a refurbished E6420 with almost identical specs for a little under $300. It's my primary computer and, with the 9-cell battery, can hold a charge for about 8 hours.
- orbitingpluto 10y ago
  If you don't disable quick-charge in the BIOS/UEFI many Dell Latitude batteries get eaten up in a matter of months, especially the 9-cells. I learned the hard way. When I bought the E6420 I disabled. Original 9-cell is still good after all this time. The 1600x900 is sufficient too, I don't know how people work off of 1366x768. Cheap $10 DVD replacement tray for a second drive. Great battery life. You can still get them refurbished from Dell, sometimes with 40-50% discounts for $250-300. Very worthwhile for a second portable. Absolutely no issues in Debian even with the dedicated nVidia. Even the keyboard backlight works with no issues.
JonFish85 10y ago
Personally I really like using a MacBook Pro running Linux via Parallels. For me, it's the best of both worlds. Obviously it wouldn't work for everyone, but I think it's worth consideration.
delineator 10y ago
Entroware UK have an Ubuntu laptop range. Anyone had experience with their 13.3inch Apollo laptop? https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops/apollo https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops/apollo I've thought about buying that as a replacement for an old Macbook pro.
- ukdm 10y ago
  Not the Apollo, but Linux Voice did a review of their Proteus. Worth a read (PDF) https://www.linuxvoice.com/issues/011/laptop.pdf https://www.linuxvoice.com/issues/011/laptop.pdf
- phatmanace 10y ago
  Does anyone have one of these? - I've been thinking about getting one as a slightly "occasional" larger laptop for longer trips - I have an 11' air that I take to work every day thus I don't really want to shell out for a macbook pro just to get the 15inch screen Speccing up the triton with the HD screen and a bit more Ram is GPB500, which seems quite reasonable for a decent machine for programming and the odd bit of web surfing. The review linked here looked quite positive, but I'd been keen to here from someone that actually has one.
alex_duf 10y ago
I have a Thinkpad X1 carbon gen 2 and have absolutely no problem with it. In fact it's an amazing little laptop that I highly recommend if it's in your price ranges. I believe the latest generation of that laptop have a few minor issues with linux that are easily fixable.
bradleypowers 10y ago
We use Dell's Precision 15 5000 laptops. We get them with a Xeon E3-1505M and Quadro M1000M, which performs great in what we're doing (simulation, extremely multithreaded sensor processing, etc.). They're not cheap, but if you want "the best", I'd say they're a good candidate.
- vox_mollis 10y ago
  I was extremely excited reading your comment, given the prospect of a Xeon laptop. According to dell.com, it seems there is no option for ECC ram on this device. The sadness continues...
  - bradleypowers 10y ago
    Agreed, lack of ECC support is the thing that makes this laptop almost perfect. Otherwise, it's fantastic.
nextos 10y ago
All Intel (but not Skylake) tends to be pretty good. My old MacBook Air 11 2012 (which Linus himself used to use) is almost perfect. It's only missing ACPI events for battery discharges (something I've only seen in x220, but I hated its fan noise). I'd like to point out that some very cheap Chromebooks that are getting Libreboot support (not ready yet for prime time though): https://libreboot.org/docs/hcl/index.html#supported_laptops_arm https://libreboot.org/docs/hcl/index.html#supported_laptops_...
- kccqzy 10y ago
  Interesting that Linus himself used to use a MacBook Air! I'm curious what he uses now.
  - nextos 10y ago
    I think he uses a Chromebook Pixel.
- capt_hotpants 10y ago
  Hint: the 2011 airbook is practically indistinguishable to the 2012 model. but the 2012 model has a cheaper SSD. factory firmware on that SSD has a bug that causes it to permanently lock up / disappear from the bus, with the result that all data on it is lost. Apple will replace the SSD when it happens, but data will be gone. If you're getting/using the 2012 model, I'd recommend getting a replacement SSD from OWC or Transcend before installing Linux. The wifi is Broadcom and works poorly under Linux. Not so many crashes anymore, but frequent disconnects, horrible performance and quick loss of of signal when the ether is crowded or the laptop is a few meters away from AP. The wifi card can be replaced, but AFAIK, the Apple-provided firmware will not allow the machine to boot if the PCI ID of the wifi card does not match the original broadcom one. I don't think coreboot runs on the airbook either.
bischofs 10y ago
I just got a Dell precision 15 with ubuntu 14.04, $2K after tax - I returned it because the wifi rarely works, The gpu switching makes the gpu basically unusable because of screen tearing ( X.org sucks), and the battery life still is terrible( without some heavy optimizations). In 2016 it is sad that there still isn't a good seamless hardware/software linux laptop out of the box, It could be a great OS for day to day laptop use. I would recommend just buying a cheap dell or hp with an intel wifi card and no dedicated gpu and install ubuntu on that - at least you wont feel cheated after spending $1.5K+ on some nice hardware, and your battery life will be tolerable. I have heard macs run linux fairly well too.
- Glyptodon 10y ago
  Ha ha, I was just posting because my Boss is having some similar fun with the same model.
- sre_ops 10y ago
  Use opebox + compton and tearing goes away.
cprayingmantis 10y ago
I use a Mac at home but at work I'm using a Lenovo E550. It's a lot more bulky than my mac and it feels cheap in the hand but that's where my complaints end. It's a great computer for work installing Ubuntu on it was a breeze and it even still works with the dock so I can have triple monitors at work. The only thing I wish I could change is installing a SSD but alas the company I work for will only pay for so much ;) I've got an i5, 16GB of RAM(that I can upgrade), and a 500GB hard drive.
- eterm 10y ago
  Putting a non-SSD into a new laptop makes about as much sense as putting a lawn mower engine into a ferrari.
  - frou_dh 10y ago
    Speed aside, it's nice to leave the world of moving parts.
BenElgar 10y ago
My general advice would be to check the Arch wiki (https://www.archlinux.org/ https://www.archlinux.org/), whether you intend to run Arch or not. It's a pretty good indicator to determine how much support you're going to get with the laptop and whether things generally work as they're supposed to. For example, here's the page for my laptop: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_%282015%29 https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_%282015%29
- szatkus 10y ago
  I have Dell XPS 9350 and it's not that good. Hardware is cool, though (and only XPS 13 that has 16GB option). I have Ubuntu 15.10 and needed to install custom kernel to get everything working.
  - nja4 10y ago
    How is the battery life? I have this exact model, but I heard skylake had strange sleep or power saving problems under Linux. You have the 3200x1800 display too, and I am curious about scaling too. The drivers are terrible for Windows too. Been on support since November about the failing DPTF drivers.
  - kbody 10y ago
    I assume you're not talking about the Developer Edition that comes with official Ubuntu, right?
- gshulegaard 10y ago
  I have written this elsewhere (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492941), but I caution everyone away from the 13 DE and go with the Precision instead (15"). I could dig up the litany of Dell Forum posts I wrote and responded to for my XPS 13DE (9343), but it would be time consuming. They eventually sorted it out, but the issue isn't the Sputnik team, its the hardware in the 13" XPS. The Precision M3800 has better hardware suited for Linux (Intel vs. Broadcom wireless for example). Also the Precision has thunderbolt...absolute must if you want a reasonable docking solution under Linux. Also consider: https://system76.com/ https://system76.com/ Their stuff has been rock solid for me.
glogla 10y ago
My advice: 1) If you're used to a retina macbook pro, you're doomed. There's nothing with as good display and touchpad. 2) If you can handle low resoltions (1920x1080 or even 1366x768) and generally lower quality screens, get a Thinkpad. New ones are very expensive but generally solid, while older ones are cheap and work well with Linux. 3) If you want a good screen, there's only Dell XPS 13. If you live in one of the few lucky countries, you can get it with preinstalled Dell Ubuntu fork.
- MichaelGG 10y ago
  Nit: Some ThinkPads have 2560 x 1440 displays now (or higher, I think, on the big ones). And their keyboard and touchpad buttons are vastly superior than Apple (though some people have wrong opinions on this). They also don't overheat like Apple, generally speaking.
  - gambiting 10y ago
    "And their keyboard and touchpad buttons are vastly superior than Apple (though some people have wrong opinions on this)" There's no wrong opinion. Just an opinion.
  - alfiedotwtf 10y ago
    Agreed. My Dell XPS 15 is running at 3840x2160. Unfortunately, there's a few quirks: - Wireless drivers broken in Jessio (unless you build your own kernel) - UI elements are EXTREMELY small (you have to set DPI before window manager starts) Apart from that, it's an awesome machine
    - izym 10y ago
      How well does the touchpad work under Linux? Also, how is the battery life and GPU switching? I'm currently deciding between the XPS15 and waiting for the rMBP refresh, and the XPS15 is seriously tempting.
      - alfiedotwtf 10y ago
CoolGuySteve 10y ago
My Asus UX305 (I have the previous Broadwell based model) was able to install Ubuntu with no extra configuration. The battery life, storage, and matte IPS screen are excellent and the device is extremely thin and light. The overall build quality is comparable to the MacBook Air but it costs half as much. The trackpad works very well. I bought it a few months ago for $600 from the Microsoft Store (irony acknowledged). Edit: My one and only complaint is that it only has mini-hdmi 1.4 instead of DisplayPort or HDMI 2, so no 4k@60hz external monitors.
- erelde 10y ago
  I have the same and concur no issues with debian, and about the HDMI, it's infuriating because on the same chassis last year, it was a full size HDMI... Someone just chose to change that particular port.
- widowlark 10y ago
  Came here to say that. I have Ubuntu running on a UX305CA and it works phenomenally well. You do have to update the kernel out of the box or the touchpad wont work.
- Raed667 10y ago
  How long does the battery last in moderate use ?
  - CoolGuySteve 10y ago
    About 10 hours browsing or using the terminal, 5 hours playing Pillars of Eternity.
fulafel 10y ago
Retina 13" MBP 2015 works quite well, except for simultaneous use of the retina display with a non-hidpi monitor. You can also dual boot or with a little twiddling run OS X in a VM.
Glyptodon 10y ago
My Boss picked up an Ubuntu Dell Precision 15 5000 and though it's a beautiful machine ("4k" or "retina" screen, metal, etc.), it turned out to be a bit buggy/odd with the version of Ubuntu that it came installed with. May be nVidia Optimus related and the fact that it came with 14.04.x rather than a newer version of Ubuntu, not sure. And among other things Dell installs a special custom package to prevent the super key from working at all, which was/is very odd and was a bit of a hassle to reverse because not only do you have to uninstall their super key disable package, but you have to install a tool to configure Compiz to re-enable it once the package is gone. I'm guessing (but don't know) you get a better experience with the XPS 13"? Not sure if it's an unusual case or not.
jordigh 10y ago
It's a good idea to keep an eye out for the list here. There's a Thinkpad there which runs completely on free software, a good indication that the hardware support will be good: https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-f...
- dandelion_lover 10y ago
  More from FSF: "Hardware Devices that Support GNU/Linux" https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/ https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/
ralphc 10y ago
I'm dual-booting Win 8.1 & Ubuntu 15.10 on a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and Ubuntu works great, including touch screen, video, sound & Spotify, the whole works. As a bonus, if you're a distro explorer is has a "Novo" button in addition to a power button. "Novo" takes you straight to the Setup/boot menu, and distros boot well from SD cards. I've played with Kali, Tails and Ubuntu Gnome this way.
- nokya 10y ago
  Ubuntu 15.10 on a Yoga 2 pro, too. Everything works great (to my surprise, honestly).
DanBC 10y ago
It might be useful to say what you do for work, and which features you're more interested in. Do you need huge amounts of ram? Do you need very powerful processor? Or are you more interested in long battery life?
2close4comfort 10y ago
puri.sm
hodwik 10y ago
These days most linux distros support all laptops well. Just buy by the specs.
- collyw 10y ago
  I would stay away from brand new models unless you see that they are specifically supported. They tend to have more issues that will get improved over time.
bpizzi 10y ago
My Thinkpad T440S from 2014 works almost great under Ubuntu 14.04. Everything's going properly (keyboard, battery, etc) but the Wifi is not. Seems like a RTL8192EE isn't a linux' first class citizen :/ Btw I tried different distros before sticking with Ubuntu 14.04: it really the most finished (at least on my t440s).
- sampo 10y ago
  Realtek RTL8192EE was the default wifi card in T440s. It would have been clever to choose a configuration with an Intel wifi card, which was also available. The current model, T460s, comes with a Intel card by default. The driver for the Realtek card may have improved by now: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1239578 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1239578 Another solution is to buy a suitable Intel wifi card from ebay for $10-$20, open the laptop, and switch it in.
  - bpizzi 10y ago
    Yes that was also my conclusions afterwards... But things have improved thanks to https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new (I stumbled upon that while doing a quick search after posting here yesterday...). Looks like my wlan is finally stable :)
imsofuture 10y ago
Very happy with my t440p and Ubuntu/NixOS.
99182912912 10y ago
Does OS X have decent virtualization? I want the Mac book displays but I only need OS X to run a Linux VM.
- glogla 10y ago
  Yes. Look up vagrant for nice and easy virtualization management.
  - 0x006A 10y ago
    compared to the options on linux its rather limited.
Rick-Butler 10y ago
If you want a 15in, MacBook Retina Pro w/ bootcamp. If you want a 13in, I honestly feel the Dell XPS 13 Developer edition is amazing, better than the 13in Retina Macbook Pro IMO.
- Rick-Butler 10y ago
  Brainfart said boot camp meant parallels/fusion/virtualbox. Or go to the trouble of getting Linux on it and do the reverse. It's legal to virtualized OSX on Apple hard ware.
simon_acca 10y ago
I use a ThinkPad x1 2nd generation and from the my experience this is a great linux machine. Everything works, including the fingerprint reader and suspension. It's a 14 inches laptop, which makes it bit enough for programming and small enough to be carried around everywhere. In this respect, the fact that it only weights 1.3kg also helps a lot! The HiDPI screen makes it quite pleasant to stare at the screen for hours at hand. Given the high resolution, I have no trouble opening up 3 80char vim panes side by side, even though at home I connect it to an external monitor. Xrandr lists eDP1 (internal monitor), DP1, DP2, HDMI1, HDMI2 as outputs, this makes me think that a DP split is supported, even though I haven't checked yet. The keyboard is nice like all the thinkpads but be aware that the layout is different from the standard. In particular, caps lock has been replaced by home and end keys. After some getting used to, I must say I rather enjoy this change and I use the the two keys often! The laptop also has an "adaptive keyboard": a row of keys that change its function according to the context (on win). I only got to working the F{1..12}, volume -+, mute, light -+, keyboard light toggle, and two extra programmable keys. The battery situation is also good: One charge lasts about 5.5h, and with the rapid charge feature, you can bring the battery to 80% in just 1h. The rapid charge turned out to be very useful as I can charge the laptop between lessons at the uni for about 20' and keep going for 2h afterwards. Connectionwise, the lack of ethernet (it does have a network card and port but you have to use a proprietary adapter) and SD is noticeable at times. The other ports, namely: HDMI, DP, 2xUSB3, mic/headphones work as expected. I have not tried a docking adapter yet. So, to summarize the Best Features: * 2K screen (Amazing!) * good keyboard with sensible improvements over the standard layout * fast recharge * good battery life Possible improvements: * RAM is soldered and max 8GB * no SD or microSD port * m2 SSDs are still expensive
jruz 10y ago
I would get a macbook. I use Arch 90% of the time but usually I'm dealing with poor battery life and not rock solid wifi, but I can stand both. If I need long battery life or really stable wifi I would just boot OSX and run Arch on VMware with my /home partition mounted and work from there. Also you get the chance to do some iOS development in case you are into that.
ShookOnes 10y ago
It took me 18 years to finally get the guts to move away from Thinkpads. I ordered the Chromebook Pixel LS and absolutely love it and sport it better than an Apple hipster in Bushwick! Only downside to me is that it lacks F11,F12 and the hdd is soldered in. Not sure if anyone commented yet but Torvalds used a Macbook but I think since moved to some Sony VAIO if I'm not mistaken.
Harkins 10y ago
It's not a Lenovo. I thought it would be a nice alternative to Linux on a Macbook Air, but mine failed without warning less than three weeks out of its 1-year warranty and has been under repair for more than a month. I'll spare the hair-lullingly frustrating details, but if anyone else is in this situation, join the hundreds of other people who've filed a complaint about bad repairs at the Better Business Bureau to get a call from someone who can at least pretend to care (if not fix anything).
tkinom 10y ago
Any Laptop with HDMI 2.0 output that can drive 4K external display yet? That's what I like to upgrade to next.
mindcrash 10y ago
Purism Librem 13/15 Has a sleek MacBook like look and feel, but comes with a battle hardened customized Linux distro (PureOS) and separate physical kill switches for Wifi/Bluetooth and Webcam/Mic Next batch will go out in a few weeks I believe. You can check them out (and order) here: https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/ https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/
tmaly 10y ago
I use a MacBook Pro. I run all my linux programs just using homebrew. I also have docker on there if I need to truly run something. The battery life and screen quality are just off the charts. If I am going to stare are a screen for hours, I want crystal clear text.
neverminder 10y ago
Google Chromebook Pixel 2015 LS. If Linus Torwalds himself choose Pixel at some point - it cannot get more linux laptop than that. I understand Pixel is getting some (minor?) upgrades this year as well.
INTPenis 10y ago
I get an unlimited supply of thinkpads from work as it's our defacto laptop given to employees. I still bought my own personal X230 though because I think the Thinkpad is a great format for work. However, it cost about 1354 USD here in Sweden and I'm not too happy with the resolution. It's enough for two vertically split python files, but it could be much better.
jimmies 10y ago
I have a Dell Chromebook 13. Basically it is a Macbook Pro that happens to run Linux really well. I have used Thinkpads X (200, 201, 220) in the past, then switched to Chromebook C720, then this. After you install John Lewis' ROM (basically a Coreboot build), it is an absolute dream, and everything worked out of the box, wifi, bt, 3d acceleration, suspend/resume, audio jack detection, you name it. Trackpad is really smooth, 1080p resolution IPS, the battery lasts 10 hours, never gets hot, fancy back-lit keyboard, has 8 philips screws in total to take it apart. Hell, it even has a TPM module so I can do those fancy ssh password-less logins (https://github.com/ThomasHabets/simple-tpm-pk11 https://github.com/ThomasHabets/simple-tpm-pk11). If you really like the clit mouse, then this machine wouldn't cut it though. The speaker is kinda iffy and doesnt sound very nice, but nowhere bad. It is also only 500USD, so that's another factor. Pic: http://imgur.com/FRynGSw http://imgur.com/FRynGSw
- yathern 10y ago
  Acer c720 owner here - people tend to mock chromebooks all the time as glorified web browsers. To some extend, that's true. Most things I do that aren't development related are done on a web browser. It's absolutely perfect for that. Starts up extremely quickly, very light, long battery, lovely. For very occasional dev purposes, I simply used crouton, which works insanely well. I can even use sshfs and go back to ChromeOS and have the drive still mounted. Highly recommend the c720, or whatever is the more recent equivalent.
  - jimmies 10y ago
    Oh I wiped Chrome and installed Linux directly on the SSD (upgraded it to 128gb). It works well too, Chromebooks are designed to work well with Linux :) Now mainline Linux kernel support is so good to the point that you don't need to hack on it to get it to work.
    - aksx 10y ago
      which distro do you use? i see KDE in the picture.
smacktoward 10y ago
I've been carrying a 2013 ThinkPad X1 Carbon for a few years now, running whatever version of Ubuntu is current at the time. Overall it's been a great machine; most everything Just Works™, and in the rare cases where something doesn't the large community of Linux-using ThinkPad owners has made it easy to find out how to fix it. There is one absolutely glaring exception to this, though: power management. For reasons I've never been able to figure out, and despite what feels like endless tinkering with power management settings, I've never been able to get more than 2 hours and change out of a full battery charge, which is (IMO) unacceptable. Now that it's getting on three years old I've been thinking about replacing it, and the natural thing to do would be to buy the newest X1. But I'm worried that I'm just going to end up with another machine that's constantly needing to be tethered to the wall again.
Kalium 10y ago
I've got a Dell Precision 5510 with supported Ubuntu that's been good to me so far. I had to argue with a keymapping or two, but it's been solid otherwise.
- shaneofalltrad 10y ago
  I dual boot (on its own ssd) with a Dell Precision m6600 and it is amazing. Only issue is it is a workstation with tons of power, quality built in that makes it a concrete slab on your lap. The power supply is a brick.
- shaneofalltrad 10y ago
  I also have installed Ubuntu on an old Vaio and that has more than enough power/space and it is comparable to a mac for usability.
davidw 10y ago
I have a Dell XPS 13, and it's great! High resolution screen, works well out of the box, light, compact, looks good.
- chimeracoder 10y ago
  I've had two generations of the Dell XPS 13 as well as a Thinkpad X1 Carbon. The Dell XPS 13 is the better of the two, hands-down.
awinter-py 10y ago
ubuntu on surface pro 3 is adequate (but barely). suspend 'works' but consumes same amount as power as when running. wifi tricky but gameable.
IThoughtYouGNU 10y ago
Dell Precision m4600 has been the best Linux laptop I have used so far. Good keyboard, powerful, fully supported with Ubuntu. I upgraded to this from an x220, the new Thinkpads suck :(
sandGorgon 10y ago
A Thinkpad. However a Dell XPS will works just as well...but it doesn't have the Linux community that a Thinkpad has. It's so cool that the Thinkpad Reddit has people asking "does anyone run Windows here" !
fhood 10y ago
I know a lot of people are suggesting MacBook pros and airs, which is great if you want both OS X and Linux, but.. apple = $$$. Part of what you pay for is OS X so if you want a Linux machine this is silly. If you don't specifically need Linux just Unix then I can't possibly recommend OS X highly enough. Also Linux distros and Mac hardware plays pretty well together but you WILL run into issues. My personal recurring problem is with graphics cards. For a pure Linux machine the thinkpad is probably the way to go. They are cheap and powerful and most Linux distros are designed to work on them. Unfortunately it will feel like a cheap clunky pos next to any Apple computer and Lenovo may have put spyware directly in the bios where you can't do anything annoying to it........like get rid of it. If you just wan't Unix go with a MacBook Pro. You do have to live with the price, and the fact that it is used primarily by hipsters and white girls for tasks one could accomplish on a raspberry pi (the new one at least). But the value of an OS written for the hardware is something that's hard to comprehend until you experience it. Oh and get you one of them fancy new raspberry pi's as well. They're super dope, and they run Linux great.
- Jarlakxen 10y ago
  There are a couple of issues with the lasts MacBook pros. https://teamsammut.com/blog/2015/09/apple-macbook-pro-linux-issue-tracking.html https://teamsammut.com/blog/2015/09/apple-macbook-pro-linux-...
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  When you buy the Thinkpad, you are paying for Windows.
- blacksnowden 10y ago
  LOL. You said " hipsters and white girls " still cracking me up. I use an Asus g60vx gaming laptop for linux. Been running Ubuntu with gnome desktop on it for years. Ive tested alot of linux live boots with that laptop and they all work. I would recommend getting any laptop with nvidia gpu. Linux has a apt-get install driver for most of nvidia gpus if not working after desktop environment installation.
- crispytx 10y ago
rootdiver 10y ago
I wonder if anyone here is running linux on a Microsoft surface book :) ( It seems like a good piece of hardware )
dec0dedab0de 10y ago
I am very happy with my System76 Lemur, but I definitely paid a premium for dealing with a linux focused company.
- p4wnc6 10y ago
  I have had remarkably awful customer service from System76 and after my current 2-year-old laptop dies, I will refrain from ever dealing with System76 again. A friend of mine has also had the same problem with customer service. In both cases, new computers were received that clearly had defective components. I bought a large desktop system to serve as my primary work-from-home computer, and the motherboard was defective out of the box. My friend has twice received defective power cables from them. In all cases, they have argued that the burden of arranging and paying for shipping should be the customer's problem. In one case, I lived in an urban area not close to any UPS drop off locations, and trying to carry the huge desktop machine and walk to UPS was not feasible -- and System76 would not cover the cost of the taxi. Most companies will provide you with at-home pickup for this sort of issue, for no fee if it really is a defective component. I expected that I should be able to print a shipping label from them, repackage the device, and leave it outside at a designated time and/or hand it to a UPS driver myself who had been arranged to pick it up at my apartment building. I used to own Dell laptops in 2007-2009 and they did this for me once, and also even offered to pay for a local service technician to come to my apartment and fix it on site, all for no fees. Additionally, the customer service was unpleasant to interact with. They did not seem to treat my request or my issue reasonably, and in the end after I was frustrated and wrote them an angry email and they finally caved and offered to cover one-way shipping, I just said screw it, I'd rather not deal with the headache, and I contracted a separate service technician to help me replace the motherboard. I strongly, strongly recommend against System76. It makes me sad too, because I love to see a Linux-focused company, I am a supporter of Ubuntu, and I am happy to pay a premium for these things. I'd love for there to be more seller options ... but I just won't ever go back to System76. Too much hassle and frustration.
teddyc 10y ago
Another consideration is to go virtual. I setup a virtual machine for my Linux development and run it in fullscreen. I don't have to worry about driver support and it is portable so I can clone/migrate it to another machine. Snapshots of the VM come in handy, too; for example, taking a snapshot before upgrading from Fedora 22 to Fedora 23 in case something breaks. I also backup snapshots to cloud storage providers so I can recover from a total disaster. I don't notice much of a performance hit, but I think it does drain the battery faster, which is certainly a drawback.
naragon 10y ago
I have an HP Folio9470m that is running Ubuntu 14.04 like a champ. These days I use it more frequently than my Macbook Pro, especially for Docker related stuff.
roblooman 10y ago
i am using an old Lenovo R61e, bullet proof like very sturdy, 4 gigs, and was a breeze to though up Ubuntu on! try it
sampo 10y ago
ThinkPad T460s. Sure, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (4rd gen) looks thinner, but at the thickest point, at 16.9 mm the T460s is only 3% thicker than the X1 at 16.35 mm. Also the 1.4 kg vs 1.2 kg weight difference is not big. T460s is easier to open, if you want to add memory or change the SSD drive, or change other components. T460s still had a traditional RJ45 port for ethernet cable. With X1 you need an usb-adapter, or always use wifi. For both you can choose a 1920x1080 or 2560x1440 screen resolution.
bfrog 10y ago
Thinkpad X250
vise890 10y ago
I should probably point out that my personal machine is a Dell XPS 15 (infinity display), on which I run Arch. Almost everything works, but I'm having trouble with a couple of things: Graphics. It has switchable intel/nvidia but I get a better performance out of the intel chip still. Battery life is about 2.5/3 hours. I haven't tested bluetooth. The fan sometimes comes up without any apparent reason. Palm detection and gestures don't work, but the trackpad is ok otherwise The display is gorgeous, the machine is a beast and I'm very happy with it otherwise.
the_common_man 10y ago
Lenovo x1 carbon
wprapido 10y ago
guys, don't you find a 13in or even worse 11in screen too small to code on? regardless of resolution and DPI. i've worked on pretty much any screen size between 10in and 32in and anything below 15in is way too small to code comfortably. for office, communication, everyday use, 13in is just fine though
em3rgent0rdr 10y ago
I'm curious, what are some of the 5% of things you consider Mac can do but Linux can't.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
coderKen 10y ago
Buy a mac.
lllllll 10y ago
I bought an Asus UX303UA with 8gb of RAM(I expanded to 12gb), and Sata HDD(I upgraded to SSD). After easily updating to kernel 4.5 I'm really happy, Linux Mint Mate edition(tho mainly using i3wm) works wonderfully battery is 8-9h-ish easily coding.
greydius 10y ago
I have a System76 Gazelle and a 2015 Macbook Pro. In my opinion, the System76 is superior as a development machine. It's faster than the mbp, cost literally half as much, and has a better OS (imho). However, I must admit that I wish the System76 had a better screen.
chris_wot 10y ago
One thing I find difficult about a lot of laptops is popping the case! I always worry I'm going to break it. It's been a while since I've needed to do so though, but I've really only seen ChromeBooks have regular screws. Is this still common?
dskrvk 10y ago
Lenovo W520 with Ubuntu Gnome. The performance is great, and I haven't had any major compatibility problems. The touchpad is excellent and works great out of the box. Build quality is superb. Some issues though: * battery only lasts around 90 minutes on full settings, and half of that if you're compiling something heavy. This is a used laptop though, so no idea how many battery cycles it had when I got it. * switching to an external monitor is annoying. Out of the box it doesn't remember the display layout settings (mirror/extend/etc). If I switch off the on-board GPU and use the discrete one, the VGA port is unavailable. Sending sound over HDMI doesn't always work. * wifi sometimes gets into a weird state where it can't find any networks. Resetting the driver helps though. * the only available AC adapter weighs a couple of pounds and is huge. Haven't had any luck finding a more reasonably-sized aftermarket one. * the speakers are too weak even on 100% volume.

185 points by vise890 10y ago

I get to choose a new laptop for work. I'd like to switch back to Linux as I think it does 95% of what a Mac does, and it's better at some things. What are people using?

JamesMcMinn 10y ago

Most are going to suggest a Dell XPS Developer Edition or a ThankPad.

gargravarr 10y ago

ThinkPads generally run Linux very well. I use an old X220 with Mint 17 and it fits my needs. ThinkPads are also well suited to business use and will last many years. X series for ultraportables with small screens, T series for high performance machines. This site collects info on people running Linux on their ThinkPads: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

mataug 10y ago
Came here to say this. My thinkpad works great with Linux mint. Planning to switch to Ubuntu 16.04 when it comes out.
- jordigh 10y ago
  I'm having trouble with the graphics acceleration with an intel graphics card on Debian. This is on an x250. I'm kind of surprised, because it's the first time that the intel chipsets fail me. Usually they work the best because the drivers are free.
  - reitoei 10y ago
    That's may be too 'new' of a computer in Debian userland, although I'm probably wrong.
    - jordigh 10y ago
      I'm using the driver versioned at 2:2.99.917 from backports, although I see that unstable has added stuff from a recent git branch. Still, if apparently I'm using the latest released driver, shouldn't that be enough?
      - snassar 10y ago
        Have you tried removing the Intel graphics drivers? Based on "It is probably time to ditch xf86-video-intel[1]" I removed the intel drivers from a debian machine and an Arch machine and things have become more stable for me. 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/4cojj9/it_is_probably_time_to_ditch_xf86videointel/ https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/4cojj9/it_is_pro...
wprapido 10y ago
i've used all kinds of thinkpads under various distributions and they were all flawless
sevensor 10y ago
An X120 with Fedora (later Arch) saw me through five years of grad school. Based on that experience alone, I'd recommend the ThinkPad. However, SuperFish lost Lenovo a lot of goodwill with me. I'm not sure that today I'd buy a laptop where I suspected that the firmware might be out to get me. Edit: SuperFish wasn't in the firmware. Why do I associate Lenovo with evil firmware? Edit2: Right, it was this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10039870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10039870
reitoei 10y ago
Yeah, pretty much any modern X series Thinkpad runs any flavor of Ubuntu well in my experience. I run Ubuntu 14 LTS on a 6 year old X201. Goes like a champ. You really can't go wrong with Thinkpads, unless you're concerned about that preinstalled malware thing on their newer machines, which... you probably should be.
gorbachev 10y ago
I've been looking at the Lenovo P50 for myself. Looks like the ThinkWiki site is a little out of date with the P-series models. Anyone have any experiences running Linux with this or the P70 model?

lmm 10y ago

I haven't installed Linux on it yet, but I've been really impressed by the Microsoft Surface Book - even leaving aside the tablet functionality it's just a really nice laptop, with the best features vs size/weight I've seen going.

izolate 10y ago
The poster explicitly said Linux, and that's the sentence you start with?
- lmm 10y ago
  Yes. In my experience good Linux hardware is mostly just good hardware, and there's an active surface linux community so there's likely to be good driver support. But I don't have direct personal experience of it yet.

jordigh 10y ago

I don't know if it's the best, but I've been hungering for a Think Penguin laptop for some time: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/korora-penguin-gnu-linux-notebook https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/korora-penguin-gnu-li... The fact that it works with Trisquel is a good indication that the hardware support is good.

drakonka 10y ago

I recently bought a gen4 ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Despite a couple of issues first getting started with Linux (I've been using OS X for years aside from running Ubuntu on my web servers) I'm now happily on Fedora 23. There was a kernel bug that I think is being patched atm, requiring booting with intel_pstate=no_hwp but no problems with Fedora other than that. When discussing this on the ThinkPad subreddit a Red Hat employee mentioned that their standard issue work laptops are ThinkPads with Red Hat Enterprise installed, but most engineers then switch to Fedora. As a result Fedora tends to run very well on ThinkPads (according to him and in my so far limited experience), as they have many Red Hat engineers working on that OS every day.

Ao7bei3s 10y ago
The X1 Carbon has a Skylake CPU, so the problem that Linux doesn't have support for the higher C-states resulting in reduced battery life and reduced total CPU lifetime should apply to you, right?? Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492070 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492070 (I have tested the predecessor (gen3) and liked it. I'm waiting for the 16GB gen4 X1 Carbon to become available here in Germany, drop enough in price to be affordable, and for Linux to support all the C-states.)
- drakonka 10y ago
  I think an upcoming patch is meant to greatly improve this, at least judging by this, aside from solving the boot parameter requirement issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4c6q6w/fixing_intel_pstateno_hwp_issue_on_fedora_23_guide/ https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4c6q6w/fixing_int... > I have finally compiled a patched kernel myself and couldn't be happier with results. Not only battery life increased (~1 additional hour), but what's more important, performance on battery improved significantly. (Note: I have not tried this myself yet...maybe this weekend) Some other possibly useful links I just came across related to this patch: - https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4d6qj5/psa_linux_46rc2_contains_the_patch_needed_for/ https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4d6qj5/psa_linux_... - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RawhideKernelNodebug https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RawhideKernelNodebug

giancarlostoro 10y ago

I'm using an ASUS Republic of Gamers Laptop with Linux Mint. My only issues are the Nvidia GPU, thankfully it has an integrated GPU from Intel so I can switch off to that and avoid the odd issues, that and an odd config that has my hard drive reading nonstop, a simple terminal command fixes it, but I have to do it anytime I come back. I might try openSUSE which is my favorite distro to see how all of these "issues" play out. I'd say spec the hardware for faults related to GPU, look for a GPU that has great support, if you prefer a specific distro as on their IRC channel etc. Top two hardware issues that ruin Linux for me: * GPU drivers support is either broken or non-existent. * Wi-Fi drivers non-existent or not included in a particular distribution out of the box (seriously?)

notdonspaulding 10y ago

Not using it and haven't bought it, but the Lenovo T460 looks like a good option. The T460p is due out in the next few weeks and is geared toward performance with the use of discrete graphics and Intel core i5/i7 processors from the HQ line. The T460s is geared for mobility, and can be bought today. And also available today, the regular T460 model is a compromise between the two.

cfeduke 10y ago

I tried going with System76 after having a good experience with one of their earlier models. Unfortunately the keyboard experience was _terrible_ - so as a portable it failed hard. Everything else was stellar. By terrible I mean actually missing keystrokes noticeably often, even around 60wpm.

drallison 10y ago
My System 76 experience (Gazelle, 15-1/2 in screen) has been good. Keyboard is better than average, for what that's worth.
- cfeduke 10y ago
  That's what I bought in 2014, a Gazelle. If they've improved they keyboard since then I'd give it another go.
zck 10y ago
I just got a System76 machine (a Lemur; their 14" machine: https://system76.com/laptops/lemur https://system76.com/laptops/lemur), and I haven't seen any dropped keystrokes. I wonder if the keyboard problems are specific to one model.

bobfromhuddle 10y ago

I'm running Arch on a Dell M3800, most of my colleagues are running various Ubuntu flavours on the same hardware. Works well, up to and including the touchscreen. Battery life is poor compared to a Mac, but it's really light given the compute power.

Quai 10y ago
I have had to replace the screen on my M3800 twice now in one year (it develops two shadowy lines on the screen), and there are some other issues that I don't like; The "sound card" had an bug that makes it give off a quite noticeable white noise. It also has a slight coil noise that I'm not a huge fan of.

brickmort 10y ago

I've had excellent experience with Dell Latitude laptops. I was using a Dell Latitude E6420 running Linux Mint for about two years until it stopped charging completely and I had to keep it plugged in for it to work. I ended up replacing it with a refurbished E6420 with almost identical specs for a little under $300. It's my primary computer and, with the 9-cell battery, can hold a charge for about 8 hours.

orbitingpluto 10y ago
If you don't disable quick-charge in the BIOS/UEFI many Dell Latitude batteries get eaten up in a matter of months, especially the 9-cells. I learned the hard way. When I bought the E6420 I disabled. Original 9-cell is still good after all this time. The 1600x900 is sufficient too, I don't know how people work off of 1366x768. Cheap $10 DVD replacement tray for a second drive. Great battery life. You can still get them refurbished from Dell, sometimes with 40-50% discounts for $250-300. Very worthwhile for a second portable. Absolutely no issues in Debian even with the dedicated nVidia. Even the keyboard backlight works with no issues.

JonFish85 10y ago

Personally I really like using a MacBook Pro running Linux via Parallels. For me, it's the best of both worlds. Obviously it wouldn't work for everyone, but I think it's worth consideration.

delineator 10y ago

Entroware UK have an Ubuntu laptop range. Anyone had experience with their 13.3inch Apollo laptop? https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops/apollo https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops/apollo I've thought about buying that as a replacement for an old Macbook pro.

ukdm 10y ago
Not the Apollo, but Linux Voice did a review of their Proteus. Worth a read (PDF) https://www.linuxvoice.com/issues/011/laptop.pdf https://www.linuxvoice.com/issues/011/laptop.pdf
phatmanace 10y ago
Does anyone have one of these? - I've been thinking about getting one as a slightly "occasional" larger laptop for longer trips - I have an 11' air that I take to work every day thus I don't really want to shell out for a macbook pro just to get the 15inch screen Speccing up the triton with the HD screen and a bit more Ram is GPB500, which seems quite reasonable for a decent machine for programming and the odd bit of web surfing. The review linked here looked quite positive, but I'd been keen to here from someone that actually has one.

alex_duf 10y ago

I have a Thinkpad X1 carbon gen 2 and have absolutely no problem with it. In fact it's an amazing little laptop that I highly recommend if it's in your price ranges. I believe the latest generation of that laptop have a few minor issues with linux that are easily fixable.

bradleypowers 10y ago

We use Dell's Precision 15 5000 laptops. We get them with a Xeon E3-1505M and Quadro M1000M, which performs great in what we're doing (simulation, extremely multithreaded sensor processing, etc.). They're not cheap, but if you want "the best", I'd say they're a good candidate.

vox_mollis 10y ago
I was extremely excited reading your comment, given the prospect of a Xeon laptop. According to dell.com, it seems there is no option for ECC ram on this device. The sadness continues...
- bradleypowers 10y ago
  Agreed, lack of ECC support is the thing that makes this laptop almost perfect. Otherwise, it's fantastic.

nextos 10y ago

All Intel (but not Skylake) tends to be pretty good. My old MacBook Air 11 2012 (which Linus himself used to use) is almost perfect. It's only missing ACPI events for battery discharges (something I've only seen in x220, but I hated its fan noise). I'd like to point out that some very cheap Chromebooks that are getting Libreboot support (not ready yet for prime time though): https://libreboot.org/docs/hcl/index.html#supported_laptops_arm https://libreboot.org/docs/hcl/index.html#supported_laptops_...

kccqzy 10y ago
Interesting that Linus himself used to use a MacBook Air! I'm curious what he uses now.
- nextos 10y ago
  I think he uses a Chromebook Pixel.
capt_hotpants 10y ago
Hint: the 2011 airbook is practically indistinguishable to the 2012 model. but the 2012 model has a cheaper SSD. factory firmware on that SSD has a bug that causes it to permanently lock up / disappear from the bus, with the result that all data on it is lost. Apple will replace the SSD when it happens, but data will be gone. If you're getting/using the 2012 model, I'd recommend getting a replacement SSD from OWC or Transcend before installing Linux. The wifi is Broadcom and works poorly under Linux. Not so many crashes anymore, but frequent disconnects, horrible performance and quick loss of of signal when the ether is crowded or the laptop is a few meters away from AP. The wifi card can be replaced, but AFAIK, the Apple-provided firmware will not allow the machine to boot if the PCI ID of the wifi card does not match the original broadcom one. I don't think coreboot runs on the airbook either.

bischofs 10y ago

I just got a Dell precision 15 with ubuntu 14.04, $2K after tax - I returned it because the wifi rarely works, The gpu switching makes the gpu basically unusable because of screen tearing ( X.org sucks), and the battery life still is terrible( without some heavy optimizations). In 2016 it is sad that there still isn't a good seamless hardware/software linux laptop out of the box, It could be a great OS for day to day laptop use. I would recommend just buying a cheap dell or hp with an intel wifi card and no dedicated gpu and install ubuntu on that - at least you wont feel cheated after spending $1.5K+ on some nice hardware, and your battery life will be tolerable. I have heard macs run linux fairly well too.

Glyptodon 10y ago
Ha ha, I was just posting because my Boss is having some similar fun with the same model.
sre_ops 10y ago
Use opebox + compton and tearing goes away.

cprayingmantis 10y ago

I use a Mac at home but at work I'm using a Lenovo E550. It's a lot more bulky than my mac and it feels cheap in the hand but that's where my complaints end. It's a great computer for work installing Ubuntu on it was a breeze and it even still works with the dock so I can have triple monitors at work. The only thing I wish I could change is installing a SSD but alas the company I work for will only pay for so much ;) I've got an i5, 16GB of RAM(that I can upgrade), and a 500GB hard drive.

eterm 10y ago
Putting a non-SSD into a new laptop makes about as much sense as putting a lawn mower engine into a ferrari.
- frou_dh 10y ago
  Speed aside, it's nice to leave the world of moving parts.

BenElgar 10y ago

My general advice would be to check the Arch wiki (https://www.archlinux.org/ https://www.archlinux.org/), whether you intend to run Arch or not. It's a pretty good indicator to determine how much support you're going to get with the laptop and whether things generally work as they're supposed to. For example, here's the page for my laptop: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_%282015%29 https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_%282015%29

szatkus 10y ago
I have Dell XPS 9350 and it's not that good. Hardware is cool, though (and only XPS 13 that has 16GB option). I have Ubuntu 15.10 and needed to install custom kernel to get everything working.
- nja4 10y ago
  How is the battery life? I have this exact model, but I heard skylake had strange sleep or power saving problems under Linux. You have the 3200x1800 display too, and I am curious about scaling too. The drivers are terrible for Windows too. Been on support since November about the failing DPTF drivers.
- kbody 10y ago
  I assume you're not talking about the Developer Edition that comes with official Ubuntu, right?
gshulegaard 10y ago
I have written this elsewhere (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492941), but I caution everyone away from the 13 DE and go with the Precision instead (15"). I could dig up the litany of Dell Forum posts I wrote and responded to for my XPS 13DE (9343), but it would be time consuming. They eventually sorted it out, but the issue isn't the Sputnik team, its the hardware in the 13" XPS. The Precision M3800 has better hardware suited for Linux (Intel vs. Broadcom wireless for example). Also the Precision has thunderbolt...absolute must if you want a reasonable docking solution under Linux. Also consider: https://system76.com/ https://system76.com/ Their stuff has been rock solid for me.

glogla 10y ago

My advice: 1) If you're used to a retina macbook pro, you're doomed. There's nothing with as good display and touchpad. 2) If you can handle low resoltions (1920x1080 or even 1366x768) and generally lower quality screens, get a Thinkpad. New ones are very expensive but generally solid, while older ones are cheap and work well with Linux. 3) If you want a good screen, there's only Dell XPS 13. If you live in one of the few lucky countries, you can get it with preinstalled Dell Ubuntu fork.

MichaelGG 10y ago
Nit: Some ThinkPads have 2560 x 1440 displays now (or higher, I think, on the big ones). And their keyboard and touchpad buttons are vastly superior than Apple (though some people have wrong opinions on this). They also don't overheat like Apple, generally speaking.
- gambiting 10y ago
  "And their keyboard and touchpad buttons are vastly superior than Apple (though some people have wrong opinions on this)" There's no wrong opinion. Just an opinion.
- alfiedotwtf 10y ago
  Agreed. My Dell XPS 15 is running at 3840x2160. Unfortunately, there's a few quirks: - Wireless drivers broken in Jessio (unless you build your own kernel) - UI elements are EXTREMELY small (you have to set DPI before window manager starts) Apart from that, it's an awesome machine
  - izym 10y ago
    How well does the touchpad work under Linux? Also, how is the battery life and GPU switching? I'm currently deciding between the XPS15 and waiting for the rMBP refresh, and the XPS15 is seriously tempting.
    - alfiedotwtf 10y ago

CoolGuySteve 10y ago

My Asus UX305 (I have the previous Broadwell based model) was able to install Ubuntu with no extra configuration. The battery life, storage, and matte IPS screen are excellent and the device is extremely thin and light. The overall build quality is comparable to the MacBook Air but it costs half as much. The trackpad works very well. I bought it a few months ago for $600 from the Microsoft Store (irony acknowledged). Edit: My one and only complaint is that it only has mini-hdmi 1.4 instead of DisplayPort or HDMI 2, so no 4k@60hz external monitors.

erelde 10y ago
I have the same and concur no issues with debian, and about the HDMI, it's infuriating because on the same chassis last year, it was a full size HDMI... Someone just chose to change that particular port.
widowlark 10y ago
Came here to say that. I have Ubuntu running on a UX305CA and it works phenomenally well. You do have to update the kernel out of the box or the touchpad wont work.
Raed667 10y ago
How long does the battery last in moderate use ?
- CoolGuySteve 10y ago
  About 10 hours browsing or using the terminal, 5 hours playing Pillars of Eternity.

fulafel 10y ago

Retina 13" MBP 2015 works quite well, except for simultaneous use of the retina display with a non-hidpi monitor. You can also dual boot or with a little twiddling run OS X in a VM.

Glyptodon 10y ago

My Boss picked up an Ubuntu Dell Precision 15 5000 and though it's a beautiful machine ("4k" or "retina" screen, metal, etc.), it turned out to be a bit buggy/odd with the version of Ubuntu that it came installed with. May be nVidia Optimus related and the fact that it came with 14.04.x rather than a newer version of Ubuntu, not sure. And among other things Dell installs a special custom package to prevent the super key from working at all, which was/is very odd and was a bit of a hassle to reverse because not only do you have to uninstall their super key disable package, but you have to install a tool to configure Compiz to re-enable it once the package is gone. I'm guessing (but don't know) you get a better experience with the XPS 13"? Not sure if it's an unusual case or not.

jordigh 10y ago

It's a good idea to keep an eye out for the list here. There's a Thinkpad there which runs completely on free software, a good indication that the hardware support will be good: https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-f...

dandelion_lover 10y ago
More from FSF: "Hardware Devices that Support GNU/Linux" https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/ https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/

ralphc 10y ago

I'm dual-booting Win 8.1 & Ubuntu 15.10 on a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and Ubuntu works great, including touch screen, video, sound & Spotify, the whole works. As a bonus, if you're a distro explorer is has a "Novo" button in addition to a power button. "Novo" takes you straight to the Setup/boot menu, and distros boot well from SD cards. I've played with Kali, Tails and Ubuntu Gnome this way.

nokya 10y ago
Ubuntu 15.10 on a Yoga 2 pro, too. Everything works great (to my surprise, honestly).

DanBC 10y ago

It might be useful to say what you do for work, and which features you're more interested in. Do you need huge amounts of ram? Do you need very powerful processor? Or are you more interested in long battery life?

2close4comfort 10y ago

puri.sm

hodwik 10y ago

These days most linux distros support all laptops well. Just buy by the specs.

collyw 10y ago
I would stay away from brand new models unless you see that they are specifically supported. They tend to have more issues that will get improved over time.

bpizzi 10y ago

My Thinkpad T440S from 2014 works almost great under Ubuntu 14.04. Everything's going properly (keyboard, battery, etc) but the Wifi is not. Seems like a RTL8192EE isn't a linux' first class citizen :/ Btw I tried different distros before sticking with Ubuntu 14.04: it really the most finished (at least on my t440s).

sampo 10y ago
Realtek RTL8192EE was the default wifi card in T440s. It would have been clever to choose a configuration with an Intel wifi card, which was also available. The current model, T460s, comes with a Intel card by default. The driver for the Realtek card may have improved by now: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1239578 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1239578 Another solution is to buy a suitable Intel wifi card from ebay for $10-$20, open the laptop, and switch it in.
- bpizzi 10y ago
  Yes that was also my conclusions afterwards... But things have improved thanks to https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new (I stumbled upon that while doing a quick search after posting here yesterday...). Looks like my wlan is finally stable :)

imsofuture 10y ago

Very happy with my t440p and Ubuntu/NixOS.

99182912912 10y ago

Does OS X have decent virtualization? I want the Mac book displays but I only need OS X to run a Linux VM.

glogla 10y ago
Yes. Look up vagrant for nice and easy virtualization management.
- 0x006A 10y ago
  compared to the options on linux its rather limited.

Rick-Butler 10y ago

If you want a 15in, MacBook Retina Pro w/ bootcamp. If you want a 13in, I honestly feel the Dell XPS 13 Developer edition is amazing, better than the 13in Retina Macbook Pro IMO.

Rick-Butler 10y ago
Brainfart said boot camp meant parallels/fusion/virtualbox. Or go to the trouble of getting Linux on it and do the reverse. It's legal to virtualized OSX on Apple hard ware.

simon_acca 10y ago

I use a ThinkPad x1 2nd generation and from the my experience this is a great linux machine. Everything works, including the fingerprint reader and suspension. It's a 14 inches laptop, which makes it bit enough for programming and small enough to be carried around everywhere. In this respect, the fact that it only weights 1.3kg also helps a lot! The HiDPI screen makes it quite pleasant to stare at the screen for hours at hand. Given the high resolution, I have no trouble opening up 3 80char vim panes side by side, even though at home I connect it to an external monitor. Xrandr lists eDP1 (internal monitor), DP1, DP2, HDMI1, HDMI2 as outputs, this makes me think that a DP split is supported, even though I haven't checked yet. The keyboard is nice like all the thinkpads but be aware that the layout is different from the standard. In particular, caps lock has been replaced by home and end keys. After some getting used to, I must say I rather enjoy this change and I use the the two keys often! The laptop also has an "adaptive keyboard": a row of keys that change its function according to the context (on win). I only got to working the F{1..12}, volume -+, mute, light -+, keyboard light toggle, and two extra programmable keys. The battery situation is also good: One charge lasts about 5.5h, and with the rapid charge feature, you can bring the battery to 80% in just 1h. The rapid charge turned out to be very useful as I can charge the laptop between lessons at the uni for about 20' and keep going for 2h afterwards. Connectionwise, the lack of ethernet (it does have a network card and port but you have to use a proprietary adapter) and SD is noticeable at times. The other ports, namely: HDMI, DP, 2xUSB3, mic/headphones work as expected. I have not tried a docking adapter yet. So, to summarize the Best Features: * 2K screen (Amazing!) * good keyboard with sensible improvements over the standard layout * fast recharge * good battery life Possible improvements: * RAM is soldered and max 8GB * no SD or microSD port * m2 SSDs are still expensive

jruz 10y ago

I would get a macbook. I use Arch 90% of the time but usually I'm dealing with poor battery life and not rock solid wifi, but I can stand both. If I need long battery life or really stable wifi I would just boot OSX and run Arch on VMware with my /home partition mounted and work from there. Also you get the chance to do some iOS development in case you are into that.

ShookOnes 10y ago

It took me 18 years to finally get the guts to move away from Thinkpads. I ordered the Chromebook Pixel LS and absolutely love it and sport it better than an Apple hipster in Bushwick! Only downside to me is that it lacks F11,F12 and the hdd is soldered in. Not sure if anyone commented yet but Torvalds used a Macbook but I think since moved to some Sony VAIO if I'm not mistaken.

Harkins 10y ago

It's not a Lenovo. I thought it would be a nice alternative to Linux on a Macbook Air, but mine failed without warning less than three weeks out of its 1-year warranty and has been under repair for more than a month. I'll spare the hair-lullingly frustrating details, but if anyone else is in this situation, join the hundreds of other people who've filed a complaint about bad repairs at the Better Business Bureau to get a call from someone who can at least pretend to care (if not fix anything).

tkinom 10y ago

Any Laptop with HDMI 2.0 output that can drive 4K external display yet? That's what I like to upgrade to next.

mindcrash 10y ago

Purism Librem 13/15 Has a sleek MacBook like look and feel, but comes with a battle hardened customized Linux distro (PureOS) and separate physical kill switches for Wifi/Bluetooth and Webcam/Mic Next batch will go out in a few weeks I believe. You can check them out (and order) here: https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/ https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/

tmaly 10y ago

I use a MacBook Pro. I run all my linux programs just using homebrew. I also have docker on there if I need to truly run something. The battery life and screen quality are just off the charts. If I am going to stare are a screen for hours, I want crystal clear text.

neverminder 10y ago

Google Chromebook Pixel 2015 LS. If Linus Torwalds himself choose Pixel at some point - it cannot get more linux laptop than that. I understand Pixel is getting some (minor?) upgrades this year as well.

INTPenis 10y ago

I get an unlimited supply of thinkpads from work as it's our defacto laptop given to employees. I still bought my own personal X230 though because I think the Thinkpad is a great format for work. However, it cost about 1354 USD here in Sweden and I'm not too happy with the resolution. It's enough for two vertically split python files, but it could be much better.

jimmies 10y ago

I have a Dell Chromebook 13. Basically it is a Macbook Pro that happens to run Linux really well. I have used Thinkpads X (200, 201, 220) in the past, then switched to Chromebook C720, then this. After you install John Lewis' ROM (basically a Coreboot build), it is an absolute dream, and everything worked out of the box, wifi, bt, 3d acceleration, suspend/resume, audio jack detection, you name it. Trackpad is really smooth, 1080p resolution IPS, the battery lasts 10 hours, never gets hot, fancy back-lit keyboard, has 8 philips screws in total to take it apart. Hell, it even has a TPM module so I can do those fancy ssh password-less logins (https://github.com/ThomasHabets/simple-tpm-pk11 https://github.com/ThomasHabets/simple-tpm-pk11). If you really like the clit mouse, then this machine wouldn't cut it though. The speaker is kinda iffy and doesnt sound very nice, but nowhere bad. It is also only 500USD, so that's another factor. Pic: http://imgur.com/FRynGSw http://imgur.com/FRynGSw

yathern 10y ago
Acer c720 owner here - people tend to mock chromebooks all the time as glorified web browsers. To some extend, that's true. Most things I do that aren't development related are done on a web browser. It's absolutely perfect for that. Starts up extremely quickly, very light, long battery, lovely. For very occasional dev purposes, I simply used crouton, which works insanely well. I can even use sshfs and go back to ChromeOS and have the drive still mounted. Highly recommend the c720, or whatever is the more recent equivalent.
- jimmies 10y ago
  Oh I wiped Chrome and installed Linux directly on the SSD (upgraded it to 128gb). It works well too, Chromebooks are designed to work well with Linux :) Now mainline Linux kernel support is so good to the point that you don't need to hack on it to get it to work.
  - aksx 10y ago
    which distro do you use? i see KDE in the picture.

smacktoward 10y ago

I've been carrying a 2013 ThinkPad X1 Carbon for a few years now, running whatever version of Ubuntu is current at the time. Overall it's been a great machine; most everything Just Works™, and in the rare cases where something doesn't the large community of Linux-using ThinkPad owners has made it easy to find out how to fix it. There is one absolutely glaring exception to this, though: power management. For reasons I've never been able to figure out, and despite what feels like endless tinkering with power management settings, I've never been able to get more than 2 hours and change out of a full battery charge, which is (IMO) unacceptable. Now that it's getting on three years old I've been thinking about replacing it, and the natural thing to do would be to buy the newest X1. But I'm worried that I'm just going to end up with another machine that's constantly needing to be tethered to the wall again.

Kalium 10y ago

I've got a Dell Precision 5510 with supported Ubuntu that's been good to me so far. I had to argue with a keymapping or two, but it's been solid otherwise.

shaneofalltrad 10y ago
I dual boot (on its own ssd) with a Dell Precision m6600 and it is amazing. Only issue is it is a workstation with tons of power, quality built in that makes it a concrete slab on your lap. The power supply is a brick.
shaneofalltrad 10y ago
I also have installed Ubuntu on an old Vaio and that has more than enough power/space and it is comparable to a mac for usability.

davidw 10y ago

I have a Dell XPS 13, and it's great! High resolution screen, works well out of the box, light, compact, looks good.

chimeracoder 10y ago
I've had two generations of the Dell XPS 13 as well as a Thinkpad X1 Carbon. The Dell XPS 13 is the better of the two, hands-down.

awinter-py 10y ago

ubuntu on surface pro 3 is adequate (but barely). suspend 'works' but consumes same amount as power as when running. wifi tricky but gameable.

IThoughtYouGNU 10y ago

Dell Precision m4600 has been the best Linux laptop I have used so far. Good keyboard, powerful, fully supported with Ubuntu. I upgraded to this from an x220, the new Thinkpads suck :(

sandGorgon 10y ago

A Thinkpad. However a Dell XPS will works just as well...but it doesn't have the Linux community that a Thinkpad has. It's so cool that the Thinkpad Reddit has people asking "does anyone run Windows here" !

fhood 10y ago

I know a lot of people are suggesting MacBook pros and airs, which is great if you want both OS X and Linux, but.. apple = $$$. Part of what you pay for is OS X so if you want a Linux machine this is silly. If you don't specifically need Linux just Unix then I can't possibly recommend OS X highly enough. Also Linux distros and Mac hardware plays pretty well together but you WILL run into issues. My personal recurring problem is with graphics cards. For a pure Linux machine the thinkpad is probably the way to go. They are cheap and powerful and most Linux distros are designed to work on them. Unfortunately it will feel like a cheap clunky pos next to any Apple computer and Lenovo may have put spyware directly in the bios where you can't do anything annoying to it........like get rid of it. If you just wan't Unix go with a MacBook Pro. You do have to live with the price, and the fact that it is used primarily by hipsters and white girls for tasks one could accomplish on a raspberry pi (the new one at least). But the value of an OS written for the hardware is something that's hard to comprehend until you experience it. Oh and get you one of them fancy new raspberry pi's as well. They're super dope, and they run Linux great.

Jarlakxen 10y ago
There are a couple of issues with the lasts MacBook pros. https://teamsammut.com/blog/2015/09/apple-macbook-pro-linux-issue-tracking.html https://teamsammut.com/blog/2015/09/apple-macbook-pro-linux-...
LeifCarrotson 10y ago
When you buy the Thinkpad, you are paying for Windows.
blacksnowden 10y ago
LOL. You said " hipsters and white girls " still cracking me up. I use an Asus g60vx gaming laptop for linux. Been running Ubuntu with gnome desktop on it for years. Ive tested alot of linux live boots with that laptop and they all work. I would recommend getting any laptop with nvidia gpu. Linux has a apt-get install driver for most of nvidia gpus if not working after desktop environment installation.
crispytx 10y ago

rootdiver 10y ago

I wonder if anyone here is running linux on a Microsoft surface book :) ( It seems like a good piece of hardware )

dec0dedab0de 10y ago

I am very happy with my System76 Lemur, but I definitely paid a premium for dealing with a linux focused company.

p4wnc6 10y ago
I have had remarkably awful customer service from System76 and after my current 2-year-old laptop dies, I will refrain from ever dealing with System76 again. A friend of mine has also had the same problem with customer service. In both cases, new computers were received that clearly had defective components. I bought a large desktop system to serve as my primary work-from-home computer, and the motherboard was defective out of the box. My friend has twice received defective power cables from them. In all cases, they have argued that the burden of arranging and paying for shipping should be the customer's problem. In one case, I lived in an urban area not close to any UPS drop off locations, and trying to carry the huge desktop machine and walk to UPS was not feasible -- and System76 would not cover the cost of the taxi. Most companies will provide you with at-home pickup for this sort of issue, for no fee if it really is a defective component. I expected that I should be able to print a shipping label from them, repackage the device, and leave it outside at a designated time and/or hand it to a UPS driver myself who had been arranged to pick it up at my apartment building. I used to own Dell laptops in 2007-2009 and they did this for me once, and also even offered to pay for a local service technician to come to my apartment and fix it on site, all for no fees. Additionally, the customer service was unpleasant to interact with. They did not seem to treat my request or my issue reasonably, and in the end after I was frustrated and wrote them an angry email and they finally caved and offered to cover one-way shipping, I just said screw it, I'd rather not deal with the headache, and I contracted a separate service technician to help me replace the motherboard. I strongly, strongly recommend against System76. It makes me sad too, because I love to see a Linux-focused company, I am a supporter of Ubuntu, and I am happy to pay a premium for these things. I'd love for there to be more seller options ... but I just won't ever go back to System76. Too much hassle and frustration.

teddyc 10y ago

Another consideration is to go virtual. I setup a virtual machine for my Linux development and run it in fullscreen. I don't have to worry about driver support and it is portable so I can clone/migrate it to another machine. Snapshots of the VM come in handy, too; for example, taking a snapshot before upgrading from Fedora 22 to Fedora 23 in case something breaks. I also backup snapshots to cloud storage providers so I can recover from a total disaster. I don't notice much of a performance hit, but I think it does drain the battery faster, which is certainly a drawback.

naragon 10y ago

I have an HP Folio9470m that is running Ubuntu 14.04 like a champ. These days I use it more frequently than my Macbook Pro, especially for Docker related stuff.

roblooman 10y ago

i am using an old Lenovo R61e, bullet proof like very sturdy, 4 gigs, and was a breeze to though up Ubuntu on! try it

sampo 10y ago

ThinkPad T460s. Sure, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (4rd gen) looks thinner, but at the thickest point, at 16.9 mm the T460s is only 3% thicker than the X1 at 16.35 mm. Also the 1.4 kg vs 1.2 kg weight difference is not big. T460s is easier to open, if you want to add memory or change the SSD drive, or change other components. T460s still had a traditional RJ45 port for ethernet cable. With X1 you need an usb-adapter, or always use wifi. For both you can choose a 1920x1080 or 2560x1440 screen resolution.

bfrog 10y ago

Thinkpad X250

vise890 10y ago

I should probably point out that my personal machine is a Dell XPS 15 (infinity display), on which I run Arch. Almost everything works, but I'm having trouble with a couple of things: Graphics. It has switchable intel/nvidia but I get a better performance out of the intel chip still. Battery life is about 2.5/3 hours. I haven't tested bluetooth. The fan sometimes comes up without any apparent reason. Palm detection and gestures don't work, but the trackpad is ok otherwise The display is gorgeous, the machine is a beast and I'm very happy with it otherwise.

the_common_man 10y ago

Lenovo x1 carbon

wprapido 10y ago

guys, don't you find a 13in or even worse 11in screen too small to code on? regardless of resolution and DPI. i've worked on pretty much any screen size between 10in and 32in and anything below 15in is way too small to code comfortably. for office, communication, everyday use, 13in is just fine though

em3rgent0rdr 10y ago

I'm curious, what are some of the 5% of things you consider Mac can do but Linux can't.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

coderKen 10y ago

Buy a mac.

lllllll 10y ago

I bought an Asus UX303UA with 8gb of RAM(I expanded to 12gb), and Sata HDD(I upgraded to SSD). After easily updating to kernel 4.5 I'm really happy, Linux Mint Mate edition(tho mainly using i3wm) works wonderfully battery is 8-9h-ish easily coding.

greydius 10y ago

I have a System76 Gazelle and a 2015 Macbook Pro. In my opinion, the System76 is superior as a development machine. It's faster than the mbp, cost literally half as much, and has a better OS (imho). However, I must admit that I wish the System76 had a better screen.

chris_wot 10y ago

One thing I find difficult about a lot of laptops is popping the case! I always worry I'm going to break it. It's been a while since I've needed to do so though, but I've really only seen ChromeBooks have regular screws. Is this still common?

dskrvk 10y ago

Lenovo W520 with Ubuntu Gnome. The performance is great, and I haven't had any major compatibility problems. The touchpad is excellent and works great out of the box. Build quality is superb. Some issues though: * battery only lasts around 90 minutes on full settings, and half of that if you're compiling something heavy. This is a used laptop though, so no idea how many battery cycles it had when I got it. * switching to an external monitor is annoying. Out of the box it doesn't remember the display layout settings (mirror/extend/etc). If I switch off the on-board GPU and use the discrete one, the VGA port is unavailable. Sending sound over HDMI doesn't always work. * wifi sometimes gets into a weird state where it can't find any networks. Resetting the driver helps though. * the only available AC adapter weighs a couple of pounds and is huge. Haven't had any luck finding a more reasonably-sized aftermarket one. * the speakers are too weak even on 100% volume.