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Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

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Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#51

Post by acabal »

I've been using the Razer Blade 2015 and I highly recommend it. It's expensive, but the machine itself has Macbook-level build quality and internals. The screen is great and everything works out of the box with Ubuntu. While I do have dual-boot set up, I run Ubuntu 95% of the time and it's been basically flawless. (Caveat: I haven't tried the webcam or hibernate, and I don't use the Nvidia card.)

It's by far the best 14" machine I found when I was shopping around last year. While it's marketed as a gaming laptop it also happens to be a fantastic general-purpose or development machine, especially since Linux runs so well on it. IIRC they recently announced the 2016 model which is cheaper and lighter yet.

Downsides are 1) it's expensive; 2) proprietary parts means no DIY repairs, and Razer requires you to ship your machine in for their very expensive in-house repairs; 3) the black/neon-green color scheme is a little silly, though it's not nearly as bad as pretty much any other laptop marketed as a gaming machine. I bought a round matte black sticker to cover the logo on the lid and it fits pretty well.

Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#52

Post by larrik »

wyldfire wrote: post #19

I can endorse the Dell XPS13 9343: small, light, great battery life, great screen/keyboard. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. Some folks decided to replace the Broadcom wifi with Intel, because it's not ideal for linux. I believe that the newest XPS13 uses Intel instead.

I'm pretty salty about Dell these days. I recommended my grandparents get a Dell so I wouldn't have to do too much tech support (I'm really rusty at Windows these days), and Dell decided that a machine manufactured and purchased in late 2012 is "too old" for them to bother making working Windows 10 drivers for. That's some real bullshit there.

Of course, Microsoft has no idea, so the machine gets updated to Windows 10 and tries to send 60hz to the 50hz built in monitor, which decided (actually sensibly) to just blink at you until you fix it.

That was a great experience...

Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#54

Post by marcelluspye »

daveguy wrote: post #38
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #29

Chromebook Pixel has been an awesome sometimes-Linux laptop for me. I'm still spending most of my time in ChromeOS, but the crouton project/extension allows me to have another linux chroot running for when I need to do work. There's a number of supported distros, although I've stuck with Ubuntu and XFCE, mostly because it stays out of my way. The fact that you can have the entire chroot or an individual app run in a…

Can anyone comment on how difficult it is to put Linux on a chromebook? Is it locked down with a need to "root"/jailbreak or is it just a matter of some startup keys? I have avoided chromebooks because ChromeOS always seemed like a limiting factor and potential privacy issue. Can someone summarize the ChromeOS -> Linux process and pain factor?

For crouton, which is still tied to chromeos, absolutely not. All that's required is developer mode enabled. For a full, clean linux install, it varies device to device, but is in general a bit more of a pain. There's a full list of compatibility on the arch wiki I believe.

Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#55

Post by tronje »

plessthanpt05 wrote: post #17

the thinkpad t460s is amazing...and supports up to 20gb ram.

I'm surprised a lot of people are recommending the X1 Carbon, with little mention of the T-series. The T-series is a favorite among a lot of people I know, and the T460s is very similar to the X1 Carbon, offering a WQHD screen, similar internals, similar battery life, at a lower price point. It's just slightly heavier, but it also has a port for a docking station which the X1 Carbon does not have, if I recall correctly.

For a more low-budget option the Lenovo L-series thinkpads are also pretty cool.

Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#56

Post by lictorlyons »

I have to agree the XPS 13 is perfect for linux. I have been using the XPS 13 9333 for about 3 years now. I run debian, 7 but now 8, and it just works for most things. I had to install the firmware for the wireless card but that was simple enough. I just got the new XPS 13 9350 a couple of months ago and am using that daily running Debian 8. I had to add the firmware for the wireless, base broadcom controller, and it works great. USB-c works well too. I also have the Dell TB15 thunderbolt 3 dock but that does not work unfortunately. Once the thunderbolt 3 drivers for the dock are working I will have the prefect laptop. Right now I have to manually connect montitor/keyboard/power. Once the dock works its one cable to plug in at the office.

There are lots of posts on the dell forums with steps to get linux installed on the XPS. The current developer edition is not supported on the latest hardware, 9350. Once the thunderbolt drivers are done they are supposed to release a new developer edition with Ubuntu. The dell Sputnik team posts on the forums regularly so you can stay up to date on the progress. They are fostering a very good community for linux enthusiast.

Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#57

Post by emidln »

neverminder wrote: post #8
grigio wrote: post #6

Probably chromebook pixel 2,asus ux305 or xps13

I second Chromebook Pixel 2015 - quality tops macbooks.

I'm running Arch on my Pixel 2015 LS.

Regarding HiDPI: Gnome 3 and Cinnamon both work very well. I don't use many apps besides gnome-terminal, chrome, virtualbox, emacs, skype, and banshee. Except for Skype and Emacs, all of those worked with HiDPI out of the box. For Emacs, I just increased my font size. The skype buddy list is really small. I haven't investigated really changing it because I use it infrequently and it is still legible.

There has been huge variance in the build quality of the 2015 Pixels. I've had several RMA'd due to squirrelly disk controllers/flash devices failing (and disappearing from dmesg). There are common reports on the Google+ group of the keyboard rattling as well.

They are really nice machines when they work. The keyboard is great. The trackpad is great. The screen is gorgeous. The camera is good. Speakers are loud. Microphones are clear. The expansion is decent with 2 USB 3.1 Type C and 2 USB 3 Type A and an SD reader (unfortunate that the SD reader is USB2 and not USB3, due to all of the USB3 ports being exposed externally). The disk is undersized at 64GB, but acceptable for me to allow mobile development (This isn't a docker-friendly machine if that's your thing).

Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#58

Post by jzwinck »

larrik wrote: post #52
wyldfire wrote: post #19

I can endorse the Dell XPS13 9343: small, light, great battery life, great screen/keyboard. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. Some folks decided to replace the Broadcom wifi with Intel, because it's not ideal for linux. I believe that the newest XPS13 uses Intel instead.

I'm pretty salty about Dell these days. I recommended my grandparents get a Dell so I wouldn't have to do too much tech support (I'm really rusty at Windows these days), and Dell decided that a machine manufactured and purchased in late 2012 is "too old" for them to bother making working Windows 10 drivers for. That's some real bullshit there. Of course, Microsoft has no idea, so the machine gets updated to Windows 1…

I in-place upgraded three computers to Windows 10. All three had serious problems with the upgrade. On one the graphics became slow because it had Intel HD 3000 which apparently doesn't work well in Windows 10. On another the monitor would not turn on when resuming from sleep. On the third, the entire installation screwed up and required a wholesale reinstallation.

Those were one HP, one Lenovo, and one homegrown PC. So don't blame it on Dell.

Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?

#60

Post by hsitz »

evmar wrote: post #12

It's a year old but I'm still really happy with the ASUS Zenbook (UX305FA) I got: http://neugierig.org/software/blog/2015/07/linux-zenbook-ux3...

Same here, great experience with Linux on UX305FA. I switched to multi-boot setup, shrinking Windows partition and giving Ubuntu 14.04 half of the 256GB SSD. Switched window manager to i3, which is excellent, can't imagine going back to floating windows after i3. UX305FA is supposed to be a relatively slow processor, but most everything seems snappy to me, and power handling is excellent (with TLP package).

Also, UX305FA is fanless. I love having no fan, hope to never again have a laptop with a fan.

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