If you want Linux, Dell XPS and Thinkpads have the best out of the box support, you shouldn't have issues with them, but you should probably get the last gen to

If you want Linux, Dell XPS and Thinkpads have the best out of the box support, you shouldn't have issues with them, but you should probably get the last gen to be on the safe side. MBP with good performance around 2000$ leaves only the 2015 15" model i guess, that is still a very capable machine though and Apple still sells it. One thing to note is, that Intels new CPU generation enables 6/12 Cores/Threads for machines that previously had 4/8 and 4/8 for those that had 2/4 before. They are already in the latest Dells and should come to MBPs this year, but you'd have to wait a couple of years until they come down to 2k$