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What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#52

Post by onlydeadheroes »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #51
chpmrc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Docker on macOS literally halves the battery life (since it's running a VM).

If it halves the battery life that’s a really bad sign of an inefficiency somewhere. Docker isn’t even a VM.

I think docker runs in a vm on platforms other than Linux.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#53

Post by ggm »

rayiner wrote: post #24
ggm wrote: post #3

ThinkPad carbons rated well by owners. Pre carbon X series rated well by diehards

I own one (6th gen). It’s okay relative to other PC laptops. The WQHD display is good. Trackpad is passable. Lenovo’s quality control is shit. The bezel is a peelable sticker....

Lenovo: Trashing the brand, one change at a time..

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#54

Post by yulaow »

Thinkpad t480 (t480s if you need at any cost something as slim as possible) or t580. Bonus part: nothing is soldered so you can replace any minor part without problems (yes I hate any notebook which has not easily replaceable ram or ssd or, worse, battery)

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#55

Post by mark_l_watson »

JHonaker wrote: post #31
mark_l_watson wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Likewise with me. The iPad is a great device for non-programming activities.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#56

Post by mldbk »

yulaow wrote: post #54

Thinkpad t480 (t480s if you need at any cost something as slim as possible) or t580. Bonus part: nothing is soldered so you can replace any minor part without problems (yes I hate any notebook which has not easily replaceable ram or ssd or, worse, battery)

T480 (Intel Core i7-8650U, 32GB RAM) owner here.

To be honest it is not doing its best, I mean not everything works at its best out of the box.

What is broken:

1) There is some bug in intel firmware out of the box. You will never get your peak CPU freq @ turbo boost mode. Check dmesg and see some fake errors like:

```[35678.237593] CPU0: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 123) [35678.237593] CPU4: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 123) [35678.237595] CPU4: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237597] CPU0: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237637] CPU5: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237638] CPU1: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237639] CPU6: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237640] CPU3: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237640] CPU2: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237641] CPU7: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179)```

It's well known problem, just google "Lenovo throttling fix".

I am sitting on 4.20.16 and still I've to apply some workarounds, such as undervolting CPU and so on.

2) Huge power consumption.

I spent weekend to lower it up to 4-6 wh in idle from 14 wh in idle (sic!)

You have to turn everything unneeded off in BIOS (smartcard reader, card reader, ...?). Changing Thunderbolt Assist Mode to Enabled is a must. But be aware of some nasty bug, when after turning assist mode on you will get a brick instead of working device. To avoid it you have to upgrade BIOS, thanks I get BIOS updates in Gnome Software Center (Fedora). Of course take care and install tlp and so on.

3) There is bug in ACPI, when you enter into S3 mode (by design only CPU0 should be online) all of cores will wake up immediately after entering sleep mode. This leads to increased power consumption in sleep mode (approx 10-15% during all night).

There are some other little quirks that I don't remember at the moment. However overall it's a great laptop.

I am running Fedora 29 and pretty happy.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#57

Post by mldbk »

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…

Almost agree with everything, but not everything so smooth.

Please check my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19451272

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#58

Post by mldbk »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #51
chpmrc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Docker on macOS literally halves the battery life (since it's running a VM).

If it halves the battery life that’s a really bad sign of an inefficiency somewhere. Docker isn’t even a VM.

Docker isn't even a VM on Linux Kernel :)

On macOS/Windows it will run a small VM with Linux Kernel first.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#59

Post by Can_Not »

I currently have a Dell XPS 15 (the model before all USB C ports) with 4k screen, nvidia, Intel quadcore. Replaced windows 10 with ubuntu 18.04, so far the best linux laptop experience I've ever had. Brightness keys work. Closing the lid suspends correctly. I probably need to look for a bath script to turn on/off the nvidia card.

Re: What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

#60

Post by itroot »

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…

How are you are dealing with all those HiRes problems on linux? Or it's ok now?
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