What’s the best sub 1k laptop? • Hacker News Board

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#11

Post by happymellon » Fri, May 13, 2022, 7:55 PM UTC

nextos wrote: post #6

panda888888 wrote: post #4

My vote is for the Macbook Air M1 base model. Price with edu discount is $899. Alternatively, check to see if their Chromebooks support Linux.

Me too, especially given that the M1 Air is (i) fanless and (ii) relatively friendly to Linux. In the US you might also want to consider ThinkPad X13. With some discounts, it can be a good alternative if you prefer a standard architecture. In the EU sadly ThinkPad is sold via a third party reseller which has an atrocious customer service. For around $600, depending on current deals, you can get a Surface Laptop Go wh…

> relatively friendly to Linux.

What makes you say that? Apple has never been friendly to Linux, and the M1 having zero support porting Linux by Apple continues this trend. What's more disturbing is that NVIDIA is friendlier.

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#12

Post by happymellon » Fri, May 13, 2022, 7:56 PM UTC

greatpostman wrote: post #5

MacBook Air m1 by far

A kid would probably be disappointed with a laptop that can't play games.

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#13

Post by nextos » Fri, May 13, 2022, 8:40 PM UTC

happymellon wrote: post #11

nextos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too, especially given that the M1 Air is (i) fanless and (ii) relatively friendly to Linux. In the US you might also want to consider ThinkPad X13. With some discounts, it can be a good alternative if you prefer a standard architecture. In the EU sadly ThinkPad is sold via a third party reseller which has an atrocious customer service. For around $600, depending on current deals, you can get a Surface Laptop Go wh…

> relatively friendly to Linux. What makes you say that? Apple has never been friendly to Linux, and the M1 having zero support porting Linux by Apple continues this trend. What's more disturbing is that NVIDIA is friendlier.

I prefer x86 machines but M1's bootloaders are unlocked and Apple made some changes to facilitate running Linux: https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1471799568807636994?ref_...

I still prefer open architectures, but the situation is better than with previous Macs, Chromebooks and even some PCs.

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#14

Post by themadturk » Fri, May 13, 2022, 9:46 PM UTC

happymellon wrote: post #11

nextos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too, especially given that the M1 Air is (i) fanless and (ii) relatively friendly to Linux. In the US you might also want to consider ThinkPad X13. With some discounts, it can be a good alternative if you prefer a standard architecture. In the EU sadly ThinkPad is sold via a third party reseller which has an atrocious customer service. For around $600, depending on current deals, you can get a Surface Laptop Go wh…

> relatively friendly to Linux. What makes you say that? Apple has never been friendly to Linux, and the M1 having zero support porting Linux by Apple continues this trend. What's more disturbing is that NVIDIA is friendlier.

Asahi Linux is relatively easy to install and is pretty usable, even at this early stage. The key to Asahi's creation is the open nature of Apple's boot loader. No, Apple isn't supporting Asahi as such, but neither is it actively or passively standing in the way.

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#15

Post by zamadatix » Fri, May 13, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

themadturk wrote: post #14

happymellon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> relatively friendly to Linux. What makes you say that? Apple has never been friendly to Linux, and the M1 having zero support porting Linux by Apple continues this trend. What's more disturbing is that NVIDIA is friendlier.

Asahi Linux is relatively easy to install and is pretty usable, even at this early stage. The key to Asahi's creation is the open nature of Apple's boot loader. No, Apple isn't supporting Asahi as such, but neither is it actively or passively standing in the way.

One could place a bet Asahi will get to such as stage at some point but at this stage you have to be a pretty die-hard tech nerd with a corner case usage scenario to claim it's "pretty usable" though. The speakers don't work, the USB ports won't work with 3.0 devices, the webcam doesn't work, the display brightness isn't adjustable, the touchbar doesn't work, and everything renders on the CPU since the GPU is unsupported killing the battery life. Eventually these things may be well supported or they may not.

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#16

Post by Mildlypolite » Fri, May 13, 2022, 10:00 PM UTC

I vote for a used thinkpad!

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#17

Post by MH15 » Fri, May 13, 2022, 11:25 PM UTC

panda888888 wrote: post #4

My vote is for the Macbook Air M1 base model. Price with edu discount is $899. Alternatively, check to see if their Chromebooks support Linux.

If you’re ok with Apple/macOS, this is the correct answer. Picked mine up at MicroCenter for $839. It’s been perfect for my workload.

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#18

Post by is_true » Sat, May 14, 2022, 2:17 AM UTC

rg111 wrote: post #3

I don't know why HN folks do not use or mention Asus much, but their mid to high range laptops are surprisingly good. Try Asus TUF series. I can vouch for them.

I had 3 and they still work. One has 10 years

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#19

Post by happymellon » Sat, May 14, 2022, 5:53 AM UTC

themadturk wrote: post #14

happymellon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> relatively friendly to Linux. What makes you say that? Apple has never been friendly to Linux, and the M1 having zero support porting Linux by Apple continues this trend. What's more disturbing is that NVIDIA is friendlier.

Asahi Linux is relatively easy to install and is pretty usable, even at this early stage. The key to Asahi's creation is the open nature of Apple's boot loader. No, Apple isn't supporting Asahi as such, but neither is it actively or passively standing in the way.

It doesn't support the majority of the hardware and Apple hasn't provided any specs.

> Apple isn't supporting Asahi as such

That isn't Linux friendly, that's Linux indifferent.

Re: What’s the best sub 1k laptop?

#20

Post by happymellon » Sat, May 14, 2022, 5:57 AM UTC

nextos wrote: post #13

happymellon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> relatively friendly to Linux. What makes you say that? Apple has never been friendly to Linux, and the M1 having zero support porting Linux by Apple continues this trend. What's more disturbing is that NVIDIA is friendlier.

I prefer x86 machines but M1's bootloaders are unlocked and Apple made some changes to facilitate running Linux: https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1471799568807636994?ref_... I still prefer open architectures, but the situation is better than with previous Macs, Chromebooks and even some PCs.

Apple did something that they don't know why, so that meams it has to be to support Linux!

The majority of the hardware is not supported, and Apple has not provided any specs. Just having an unlocked bootloader is not Linux friendly.