Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#1

Post by jrepinc » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 3:34 PM UTC

Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop
opensource.com

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#2

Post by geophile » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

My friend had a Purism, which was a frustrating experience in many ways. And it was quite expensive.

I am a very happy customer of System76. I got a Galago. Ten days later, the Darter was released. I returned the Galago, got the Darter, no problems whatsoever. And support has been excellent.

The Darter, running Pop OS is an extremely nice machine: Great keyboard, good touchpad; although a bit too sensitive while using the keyboard; good screen; and Pop OS is a beautiful and stable OS.

My daily driver had been a 2015 MBP, but the newer MBPs are extremely disappointing. The Darter provides so much more for the money.

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#3

Post by Data_Junkie » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 5:26 PM UTC

It's like people don't know you can just install Linux on anything for free.

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#4

Post by rlpb » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

Data_Junkie wrote: post #3

It's like people don't know you can just install Linux on anything for free.

That's not necessarily true. Especially for beginners - they often end up in driver (un)availability hell for some component or another.

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#5

Post by cocoa19 » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

rlpb wrote: post #4

Data_Junkie wrote: post #3

It's like people don't know you can just install Linux on anything for free.

That's not necessarily true. Especially for beginners - they often end up in driver (un)availability hell for some component or another.

Even if there are drivers, a lot of them are really buggy.

I'd expect official Linux support to guarantee better quality level (less buggy)

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#6

Post by wilsonfiifi » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 6:55 PM UTC

Or you could just grab yourself a sleek dell XPS 13 developer edition that ships with Ubuntu [0].

  [0] https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/xps-13-developer-edition/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/cax13w10p1c706subuntu

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#7

Post by saghm » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:21 PM UTC

cocoa19 wrote: post #5

rlpb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not necessarily true. Especially for beginners - they often end up in driver (un)availability hell for some component or another.

Even if there are drivers, a lot of them are really buggy. I'd expect official Linux support to guarantee better quality level (less buggy)

I don't begrudge anyone buying a laptop with Linux pre-installed, but at least in my experience, most mainstream laptops work pretty well out of the box with Linux nowadays. In the past decade, I've used a a custom Sager notebook, a Lenovo Ideapad, and most recently, an HP Elitebook, and on all three, wifi and graphics worked without needing to do any driver configuration. On the Elitebook (which I'm typing this comment from), the touch screen even worked out of the box on Linux, which surprised me, as I wasn't planning on getting it working myself if it didn't.

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#8

Post by roseway4 » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 7:37 PM UTC

Canonical has certified a range of hardware for Ubuntu use. This includes the Lenovo P1/X1 Extreme (I run Pop OS on the former), a variety of Dells, and many other high-quality laptops that your IT team may be comfortable supporting.

https://certification.ubuntu.com/

I appreciate the work that System76 has put into smoothing out many of the rough edges of using Linux on a laptop but haven't felt compelled to consider their products, nor those from other boutique vendors. They all appear to be relatively expensive vs Lenovo/Dell etc and, at times, look to be clunky/have inferior build quality.

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#9

Post by kstatz12 » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 8:47 PM UTC

My two daily drivers are a System76 Galago and a Thinkpad T480. The only complaint i have about the system76 is the fans go like hell when I have a web browser open, much less intellij. The thinkpad is great and the extra support is fantastic

Re: Buying a Linux-Ready Laptop

#10

Post by Boulth » Fri, Jul 19, 2019, 9:03 PM UTC

saghm wrote: post #7

cocoa19 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if there are drivers, a lot of them are really buggy. I'd expect official Linux support to guarantee better quality level (less buggy)

I don't begrudge anyone buying a laptop with Linux pre-installed, but at least in my experience, most mainstream laptops work pretty well out of the box with Linux nowadays. In the past decade, I've used a a custom Sager notebook, a Lenovo Ideapad, and most recently, an HP Elitebook, and on all three, wifi and graphics worked without needing to do any driver configuration. On the Elitebook (which I'm typing this comm…

I had a similar experience with Dell XPS 13 and Arch. Everything worked out of the box including touch screen and external dock (monitors, USB). Actually I had the feeling it worked even better than on Windows (where the dock needed some fiddling with USB 3 drivers).