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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
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.
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.
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 ;)…
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.
https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-f...
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 th…