Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 69 posts

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#31

Post by JHonaker »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #7
automathematics wrote: post #6

I typically use my google pixelbook recently since it lets you run a containerized linux in a secure OS but I get it if that's not your thing. - System76 laptops are generally well reviewed. The Oryx Pro looks nice - I had a Dell XPS15 and hated everything about it for some reason, but - I have a Dell XPS13 and I absolutely LOVE it, so that that for what its worth

I bought an 4K display Oryx Pro last fall and love it. The 1070 GPU let's me do ML locally. But, it is large and heavy. I find myself grabbing my MacBook when I am on the move. I would like to replace the MacBook with a very light weight Linux laptop, sometime.

I have an Oryx Pro as well. When I don’t need the power, I find myself grabbing my iPad with “Pencil”. It’s probably a function of what I do. When I’m not coding or playing a game, I’m reading papers and writing math.

When I’m on the go, I’m not looking to do the kinds of things I do at work.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#32

Post by anonlapwarmer »

tristram_shandy wrote: post #19

ThinkPad T480 (with a 1080ti in an external GPU enclosure for gaming at home / ML) 32 GB, 10+ hour battery life, 1Tb of flash storage with OPAL transparent self-encryption, WQHD main display, two USB C ports + two regular USB ports + an ethernet jack, automatic firmware updates through the package manager, and most importantly, no driver issues with the laptop and Linux whatsoever! I replaced my workstation and gamin…

Just got mine on the Presidents' Day sale. Not Linux rn but as a Hackintosh it's working pretty well apart from SD card reader, not reading fan sensors in iStat Menus / HWMonitor / Mac Fan Control and slow WiFi after sleep. iMessage, FaceTime, most Synaptics gestures working fine.

- 20L5

- WQHD

- larger extended battery

- Quad-core i7-5550U

- lighted keyboard

- 16 GiB (will upgrade later to 32 or 64 if unofficially-supported)

- Swapped WiFi to DW1830 and added a third antenna

- Samsung 970 Pro 1 TB + Lenovo SSD tray (took off the retail SSD label on one side for the heat-spreader thermal adhesive)

Looking on Amazon/eBay/AliExpress for vinyl art (Banksy perhaps) to cover up the ThinkPad logo or maybe having it vinyl wrapped with the stuff used on cars (heat-shrunk).

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#33

Post by zlynx »

Your problem with the Dell was likely its Nvidia GPU. Even if you aren't using it, the Linux drivers seem to leave it "on". You have to actually unload or never load the drivers.

My XPS 15 gets six hours, easy on Fedora 29.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#34

Post by ahachete »

rayiner wrote: post #22
ahachete wrote: post #9

Writing from a Carbon X1 6th gen right now. Ubuntu 18.04 stock, no tweaking required, all worked no problem. The best laptop I ever had. Previously owned a 4th gen. 16.04, minor tweaking, also excellent laptop. Pricey, but the best you can get.

Do you use it as a laptop? What’s the battery life like with no tweaking?

Yes, very frequently. I haven't measured it, but it lasts quite long.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#36

Post by rsyring »

saltedshiv wrote: post #18

I've had a Dell Precision 5510 and now I'm using a Precision 5520. Ive run Ubuntu, but am currently running Fedora 29 on the 5520. Fantastic machine. Best Linux on laptop experience I've ever had.

I switched to a ThinkPad due to the 5520 bottom mounted camera. I never thought I'd hate it so much, but we started doing lots of video calls at work, and it really became an issue for me.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#38

Post by lasagnaphil »

frfl wrote: post #8

Pro tip, whatever laptop you do get, look into TLP[1]. It'll make a significant difference with battery life. [1]: https://www.tecmint.com/tlp-increase-and-optimize-linux-batt...

Or powertop, which works well too.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerTOP

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#39

Post by tristram_shandy »

ioddly wrote: post #30
tristram_shandy wrote: post #19

ThinkPad T480 (with a 1080ti in an external GPU enclosure for gaming at home / ML) 32 GB, 10+ hour battery life, 1Tb of flash storage with OPAL transparent self-encryption, WQHD main display, two USB C ports + two regular USB ports + an ethernet jack, automatic firmware updates through the package manager, and most importantly, no driver issues with the laptop and Linux whatsoever! I replaced my workstation and gamin…

> I replaced my workstation and gaming computer with this setup and am finally down to one-device nirvana. That's a tantalizing option, what kind of gaming do you do on it? I'm at a point where I'm ready to have one computer, but while I don't do very much gaming any more I do like to pick up new games.

The external 1080Ti will run pretty much everything flawlessly.

I play Overwatch, Rocket League, GTA V, etc, and run everything with max settings and get consistent 60FPS with vsync and no tearing.

Of course, you can always upgrade the graphics card in your external GPU enclosure to keep up with future titles

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#40

Post by jseliger »

automathematics wrote: post #6

I typically use my google pixelbook recently since it lets you run a containerized linux in a secure OS but I get it if that's not your thing. - System76 laptops are generally well reviewed. The Oryx Pro looks nice - I had a Dell XPS15 and hated everything about it for some reason, but - I have a Dell XPS13 and I absolutely LOVE it, so that that for what its worth

FWIW, Dell's XPSes are supposed to get an OLED screen shortly: https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/08/dell-4k-oled-xps-alienwa.... May not be valuable to everyone, but it's likely valuable to some people.
Post reply on HN