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My problem is the Apple track pad and physical form is just so hard to beat. I could take my Macbook with me wherever I went because of how light and slim/small

My problem is the Apple track pad and physical form is just so hard to beat. I could take my Macbook with me wherever I went because of how light and slim/small it is. If anyone has some decent alternatives which I could load up Ubuntu on I'm all ears. On a Desktop I would pick some flavor of Debian in an instance.

ccakes 7y ago
100% The average dev seems to be looking for a behemoth if a laptop but I’m at the other end. My daily until recently was a 12” MacBook and it’s been my favourite laptop so far Would love something Linux-friendly in that form factor (incl build quality and weight)
- thefunnyman 7y ago
  I've had good success with Thinkpads. Many people mistake the carbon fiber for cheap plastic which it definitely is not. They handle Linux very well and have great durability. I've currently got an X1 yoga 4th gen since they're all metal and I like the premium feel, but I've owned many other Thinkpad devices over the years. The X1 series is what you'd be looking at if you want an ultrabook. As an added bonus, companies buy and sell tons of Thinkpads so there's a good used market.
TsiCClawOfLight 7y ago
If you are looking for a MacBook Air replacement, check out the Dell XPS 13 or ThinkPad x2xx series. The Dell in particular has very impressive build quality. If you want a MBP, the ThinkPad x1 Carbon or T4xxs series (note the s, for the slimmer version) are still the best replacements IMHO.
- bproven 7y ago
  Yep, thinkpad carbon X1 are probably the best non-mac I've owned.
Ingon 7y ago
I tried quite a few replacements, including ThinkPad X1 and LG gram. Something felt off in all cases, until I realized that 16:10 aspect ratio for 13in laptop was key. That frankly eliminated quite a few options. Additionally, X1’s trackpad and Gram’s keyboard felt quite bad. At the end, in a whim, I tried a cheap Motile 142 from walmart ($329 at the time). 14in monitor seems to offset the aspect ratio quite well, the trackpad and keyboard are decent. Additionally, it is Amd 3500U, which seems well supported by the newer kernels. Upgrading with 16gb ram and NVMe ssd, also pushed the performance and usability of the machine. At the end, I don’t think there is an universal answer to this. But with some experimentation, I’m pretty sure you can find a nice machine that works well for you. PS: Motile laptop is also 2.55 lbs, which is a great weight for that size.
- vehemenz 7y ago
  The new XPS 13 is 16:10 and has a good trackpad, supposedly.
  - JohnTHaller 7y ago
    XPS trackpads have been pretty awesome for years. Source: Owned an XPS 13 a couple years ago.
- evilolive 7y ago
  I've been wondering about getting a razer blade stealth 13" for some time, I'm just worried a bit about its built quality. I do prefer Mac OS as a daily driver, but I would like to be able to do some light proof of concept ML training on a laptop with an nvidia card, and also sometimes some CAD (I've had terrible experience dual booting windows on this current mbp) I'm currently trying google colab to see how much I can do with doing everything in the cloud
elisharobinson 7y ago
from my experience linux mint + think pad + synaptic drivers for gesture support = mac experience. with 1/10th the cost.

ccakes 7y ago

100% The average dev seems to be looking for a behemoth if a laptop but I’m at the other end. My daily until recently was a 12” MacBook and it’s been my favourite laptop so far Would love something Linux-friendly in that form factor (incl build quality and weight)

thefunnyman 7y ago
I've had good success with Thinkpads. Many people mistake the carbon fiber for cheap plastic which it definitely is not. They handle Linux very well and have great durability. I've currently got an X1 yoga 4th gen since they're all metal and I like the premium feel, but I've owned many other Thinkpad devices over the years. The X1 series is what you'd be looking at if you want an ultrabook. As an added bonus, companies buy and sell tons of Thinkpads so there's a good used market.

TsiCClawOfLight 7y ago

If you are looking for a MacBook Air replacement, check out the Dell XPS 13 or ThinkPad x2xx series. The Dell in particular has very impressive build quality. If you want a MBP, the ThinkPad x1 Carbon or T4xxs series (note the s, for the slimmer version) are still the best replacements IMHO.

bproven 7y ago
Yep, thinkpad carbon X1 are probably the best non-mac I've owned.

Ingon 7y ago

I tried quite a few replacements, including ThinkPad X1 and LG gram. Something felt off in all cases, until I realized that 16:10 aspect ratio for 13in laptop was key. That frankly eliminated quite a few options. Additionally, X1’s trackpad and Gram’s keyboard felt quite bad. At the end, in a whim, I tried a cheap Motile 142 from walmart ($329 at the time). 14in monitor seems to offset the aspect ratio quite well, the trackpad and keyboard are decent. Additionally, it is Amd 3500U, which seems well supported by the newer kernels. Upgrading with 16gb ram and NVMe ssd, also pushed the performance and usability of the machine. At the end, I don’t think there is an universal answer to this. But with some experimentation, I’m pretty sure you can find a nice machine that works well for you. PS: Motile laptop is also 2.55 lbs, which is a great weight for that size.

vehemenz 7y ago
The new XPS 13 is 16:10 and has a good trackpad, supposedly.
- JohnTHaller 7y ago
  XPS trackpads have been pretty awesome for years. Source: Owned an XPS 13 a couple years ago.
evilolive 7y ago
I've been wondering about getting a razer blade stealth 13" for some time, I'm just worried a bit about its built quality. I do prefer Mac OS as a daily driver, but I would like to be able to do some light proof of concept ML training on a laptop with an nvidia card, and also sometimes some CAD (I've had terrible experience dual booting windows on this current mbp) I'm currently trying google colab to see how much I can do with doing everything in the cloud

elisharobinson 7y ago

from my experience linux mint + think pad + synaptic drivers for gesture support = mac experience. with 1/10th the cost.