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Having a Linux desktop is a no brainer. Linux laptops, on the other hand... Has anyone had a good experience with a Linux laptop? As soon as that's possible I'

Having a Linux desktop is a no brainer. Linux laptops, on the other hand... Has anyone had a good experience with a Linux laptop? As soon as that's possible I'd happily ditch MacOS

dbcurtis 9y ago
I've had various Lenovo T series laptops at home and at work for over 10 years, either running Linux only, or as Linux/Windows switch-boot systems. The only reason I've ever had windows on any of those laptops is to run embedded development tools required by employers. The Linux part of the experience has been largely smooth and painless. Before purchasing, make sure that the video and wifi are well supported by Linux and meet the needs of your application, but I've found with most Lenovo's the laptops hit all the checkboxes for me. I'm not trying to shill for Lenovo, there are certainly other quality laptops out there. I happen to like the pointing device and keyboard and general build quality, and I try not to spend a lot of time over-optimizing my purchases with a lot of research. So, yes, I've had great experiences with Linux laptops.
- beefield 9y ago
  The biggest trouble I had with my current T was due to me buying it immediately after launch, and it took some months before the usual distros started working with wifi and 3g modem without hickups.
  - dbcurtis 9y ago
    Fair enough. Waiting until the pioneers' questions have been crawled by Google is a good strategy.
matthewn 9y ago
The Thinkpad X series has been giving me a first-rate Linux laptop experience for something like a decade now.
- sparrish 9y ago
  I can second this. Only the bluetooth audio didn't work out of the box on my X1 Carbon. Great machine and runs like a workhorse on Ubuntu 17.04.
oever 9y ago
I do not understand this remark. Linux is being used on laptops by many developers. Whenever I go to free software developer meetings, all I see is people running Linux on laptops.
neverminder 9y ago
The usual suspects: Dell XPS, System 76, some people say good things about lenovo, etc. I personally have Google Pixel LS running vanilla Ubuntu, no problems.
Finnucane 9y ago
I have a Mythlogic/Clevo laptop running Mint that works quite wel, though I admit that it wasn't until Mint 18 that an annoying bug in the trackpad was cleared up. Other than that it is fine.
sunstone 9y ago
I've run linux on various different laptops (samsung, asus, toshiba, etc) and generally they are functional with a few niggling issues that often get resolved over the subsequent year or two. Thinkpad's though seem to give close to perfect results "out of the box".
INTPenis 9y ago
Our perceptions are completely reversed. I avoid Linux on a desktop PC because my desktop PCs have all been powerful enough for gaming and large enough for a good GPU. While my laptops have been strictly for work/hobby. So for me Linux on an IBM (now lenovo) laptop has been flawless for over 12 years now. In the beginning it was actually FreeBSD but I didn't feel like going into specifics. And on my desktop PC I run Windows.
ghaff 9y ago
As other have said, Lenovo Thinkpads are a good choice. They've been the standard laptops used for Linux at Red Hat for ages.
biktor_gj 9y ago
My 2015 Macbook Pro Retina works pretty well with Kubuntu 17.04. Only problem was HiDPI support, but I just set the resolution at 1920x1200 instead of 2560xsomething and called it a day. 0 hardware issues, and much much faster than osx or Windows

Having a Linux desktop is a no brainer. Linux laptops, on the other hand... Has anyone had a good experience with a Linux laptop? As soon as that's possible I'd happily ditch MacOS

dbcurtis 9y ago

I've had various Lenovo T series laptops at home and at work for over 10 years, either running Linux only, or as Linux/Windows switch-boot systems. The only reason I've ever had windows on any of those laptops is to run embedded development tools required by employers. The Linux part of the experience has been largely smooth and painless. Before purchasing, make sure that the video and wifi are well supported by Linux and meet the needs of your application, but I've found with most Lenovo's the laptops hit all the checkboxes for me. I'm not trying to shill for Lenovo, there are certainly other quality laptops out there. I happen to like the pointing device and keyboard and general build quality, and I try not to spend a lot of time over-optimizing my purchases with a lot of research. So, yes, I've had great experiences with Linux laptops.

beefield 9y ago
The biggest trouble I had with my current T was due to me buying it immediately after launch, and it took some months before the usual distros started working with wifi and 3g modem without hickups.
- dbcurtis 9y ago
  Fair enough. Waiting until the pioneers' questions have been crawled by Google is a good strategy.

matthewn 9y ago

The Thinkpad X series has been giving me a first-rate Linux laptop experience for something like a decade now.

sparrish 9y ago
I can second this. Only the bluetooth audio didn't work out of the box on my X1 Carbon. Great machine and runs like a workhorse on Ubuntu 17.04.

oever 9y ago

I do not understand this remark. Linux is being used on laptops by many developers. Whenever I go to free software developer meetings, all I see is people running Linux on laptops.

neverminder 9y ago

The usual suspects: Dell XPS, System 76, some people say good things about lenovo, etc. I personally have Google Pixel LS running vanilla Ubuntu, no problems.

Finnucane 9y ago

I have a Mythlogic/Clevo laptop running Mint that works quite wel, though I admit that it wasn't until Mint 18 that an annoying bug in the trackpad was cleared up. Other than that it is fine.

sunstone 9y ago

I've run linux on various different laptops (samsung, asus, toshiba, etc) and generally they are functional with a few niggling issues that often get resolved over the subsequent year or two. Thinkpad's though seem to give close to perfect results "out of the box".

INTPenis 9y ago

Our perceptions are completely reversed. I avoid Linux on a desktop PC because my desktop PCs have all been powerful enough for gaming and large enough for a good GPU. While my laptops have been strictly for work/hobby. So for me Linux on an IBM (now lenovo) laptop has been flawless for over 12 years now. In the beginning it was actually FreeBSD but I didn't feel like going into specifics. And on my desktop PC I run Windows.

ghaff 9y ago

As other have said, Lenovo Thinkpads are a good choice. They've been the standard laptops used for Linux at Red Hat for ages.

biktor_gj 9y ago

My 2015 Macbook Pro Retina works pretty well with Kubuntu 17.04. Only problem was HiDPI support, but I just set the resolution at 1920x1200 instead of 2560xsomething and called it a day. 0 hardware issues, and much much faster than osx or Windows