I wonder if anyone here is running linux on a Microsoft surface book :) ( It seems like a good piece of hardware )
Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
101–110 of 163 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#102I'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.
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.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#103I am very happy with my System76 Lemur, but I definitely paid a premium for dealing with a linux focused company.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#104Another 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.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#105I 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.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#106I 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.
The poster explicitly said Linux, and that's the sentence you start with?
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.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#107I 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…
There are a couple of issues with the lasts MacBook pros.
https://teamsammut.com/blog/2015/09/apple-macbook-pro-linux-...
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#108i am using an old Lenovo R61e, bullet proof like very sturdy, 4 gigs, and was a breeze to though up Ubuntu on! try it
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#109I am very happy with my System76 Lemur, but I definitely paid a premium for dealing with a linux focused company.
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.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#110I 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.
My System 76 experience (Gazelle, 15-1/2 in screen) has been good. Keyboard is better than average, for what that's worth.
That's what I bought in 2014, a Gazelle. If they've improved they keyboard since then I'd give it another go.