It's not a Lenovo. I thought it would be a nice alternative to Linux on a Macbook Air, but mine failed without warning less than three weeks out of its 1-year warranty and has been under repair for more than a month. I'll spare the hair-lullingly frustrating details, but if anyone else is in this situation, join the hundreds of other people who've filed a complaint about bad repairs at the Better Business Bureau to get a call from someone who can at least pretend to care (if not fix anything).
Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
61–70 of 163 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#62Any Laptop with HDMI 2.0 output that can drive 4K external display yet?
That's what I like to upgrade to next.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#63ThinkPads 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
I've been looking at the Lenovo P50 for myself. Looks like the ThinkWiki site is a little out of date with the P-series models.
Anyone have any experiences running Linux with this or the P70 model?
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Macbook Air 11": http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/skitched...
More recently a Sony Vaio Pro according to this interview. http://www.businessinsider.com/linus-torvalds-qa-2014-6
He had a Chromebook Pixel before the Vaio. Wonder what made him switch.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#65All Intel (but not Skylake) tends to be pretty good. My old MacBook Air 11 2012 (which Linus himself used to use) is almost perfect. It's only missing ACPI events for battery discharges (something I've only seen in x220, but I hated its fan noise). I'd like to point out that some very cheap Chromebooks that are getting Libreboot support (not ready yet for prime time though): https://libreboot.org/docs/hcl/index.html#…
Hint: the 2011 airbook is practically indistinguishable to the 2012 model. but the 2012 model has a cheaper SSD.
factory firmware on that SSD has a bug that causes it to permanently lock up / disappear from the bus, with the result that all data on it is lost. Apple will replace the SSD when it happens, but data will be gone.
If you're getting/using the 2012 model, I'd recommend getting a replacement SSD from OWC or Transcend before installing Linux.
The wifi is Broadcom and works poorly under Linux. Not so many crashes anymore, but frequent disconnects, horrible performance and quick loss of of signal when the ether is crowded or the laptop is a few meters away from AP.
The wifi card can be replaced, but AFAIK, the Apple-provided firmware will not allow the machine to boot if the PCI ID of the wifi card does not match the original broadcom one. I don't think coreboot runs on the airbook either.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#66My general advice would be to check the Arch wiki ( https://www.archlinux.org/ ), whether you intend to run Arch or not. It's a pretty good indicator to determine how much support you're going to get with the laptop and whether things generally work as they're supposed to. For example, here's the page for my laptop: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_%282015%29
I have Dell XPS 9350 and it's not that good. Hardware is cool, though (and only XPS 13 that has 16GB option). I have Ubuntu 15.10 and needed to install custom kernel to get everything working.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#67I 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.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#68Purism Librem 13/15
Has a sleek MacBook like look and feel, but comes with a battle hardened customized Linux distro (PureOS) and separate physical kill switches for Wifi/Bluetooth and Webcam/Mic
Next batch will go out in a few weeks I believe.
You can check them out (and order) here: https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#69I use a MacBook Pro. I run all my linux programs just using homebrew. I also have docker on there if I need to truly run something.
The battery life and screen quality are just off the charts. If I am going to stare are a screen for hours, I want crystal clear text.
Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?
#70Does OS X have decent virtualization? I want the Mac book displays but I only need OS X to run a Linux VM.
Yes. Look up vagrant for nice and easy virtualization management.