Not sure if it is an ultrabook but I am extremely happy with my Fujitsu Lifebook S904. Put Archlinux on it and it works fantastically well. Great battery life and performance. Only problem is its HiDPI screen which way too much software cannot handle (Hi Java!).
Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
21–30 of 87 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#22I 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.
How is the build quality? I've had Dell laptops in the past given to me by my employer and the screen hinge has been a source of failure on two of them.
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#23I 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.
What about the surface finish, isn't it prone to fingerprints etc?
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#24I use MacBook Air and Vagrant to run Linux (Ubuntu). Everything I need from Linux is a shell :) For other things OSX is enough.
What things do you do in Vagrant that you couldn't do in your OSX shell? I'm just curious.
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#25The Asus Zenbook UX501. Great screen and specs. Runs Linux out of the box.
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#26The 4th Gen X1 Carbon looks pretty awesome http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-ca... $1857 gets you: i7 6600U processor 16gb ram 512gb SSD 2560x1440 WQHD Screen WiGig OneLink+ Mini DisplayPort™ HDMI™ 3 x USB 3.0 microSD™ Weight Starting at 2.6 lbs (1209 g) Damn I think I might have just convinced myself here!
If it was a bit cheaper and had a 13" screen (or a smaller rim) I'd go for it. Right now the XPS 13 has an edge for me.
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#27I 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.
What about the surface finish, isn't it prone to fingerprints etc?
It's not bad. If you get & use the touch screen, that gets smudgy. Not really sure what to do about that.
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#28It'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...
And updated UX305CA works great with a 4.5 kernel.
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#29Chromebook 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 window under xiwi as though it were a regular Chrome tab makes it even better. I regularly have everything running in ChromeOS except Sublime running in its own tab while I'm coding.
Someone else can probably chime in as far as how well it works if you want to go full-Linux on the thing.
FWIW, I believe Linus Torvalds uses a Chromebook Pixel running Fedora. [0]
[0]: http://www.zdnet.com/article/chromebooks-biggest-fan-linus-t...
Re: Ask HN: Best ultrabook for Linux?
#30It'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...
I got an ASUS U31JG (13" non-ultrabook) about 5 years ago and added RAM and an SSD and it is still going strong (and nice to have HDMI and VGA). I think the Zenbooks evolved out of that line so an ASUS Zenbook (UX305) will be my likely replacement. Although I have also been eyeing the XPS13. It will likely be between XPS13 and UX305(FA or CA). But like I said, this 5 year old ASUS (with a few upgrades) is still chugging along.