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Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

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Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#191

Post by davidovitch »

cwaffles wrote: post #154

HP Elitebook 865 G9. Top notch Ryzen chip, up to 64GB RAM (non soldered), IPS screen, LTE WWAN modem, 75whr battery, very user serviceable, and USB 4 (charging + display). ~$1400 USD https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-elitebook-865-g9-notebo...

I have an EliteBook 845 G7 and also that one is top notch, minus the screen and driver bug on the WWAN modem. I whish HP did not include a keypad though on the bigger screen sizes since your hands are always towards the left instead of the middle of the machine (Dell and Lenovo have 15/16 inch options for which the keyboard does not have a keypad).

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#192

Post by killjoywashere »

autoexec wrote: post #166

PSA: I don't believe that Lenovo should be trusted. They sold malware infected devices in exchange for money and have a long history of subjecting their users to privacy and security problems. With the superfish fiasco first they insisted there wasn't any risk: “We have thoroughly investigated this technology and do not find any evidence to substantiate security concerns,” ( https://www.techshout.com/lenovo-denies-ac…

Thanks for this. It was actually a motivating reason for the poll.

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#193

Post by elboulangero »

colordrops wrote: post #56
rendall wrote: post #19

I have had 0 problems with XPS Dell running Ubuntu. I've run it both as a dual boot with Windows and a standalone. Loved it so much I bought a second. The 13 in "Dell XPS 13" refers to the screen size. You can have a bigger screen. 15 & 17. My laptops are Dell XPS 17. I have heard good things about the Dell Precision as well.

I have an older XPS, the 9560, and compatibility with Linux has been pretty good, but the build quality has left a lot to be desired. I had to replace the Killer wifi card with an Intel card, as the OEM one was flaky and this seemed to be a known issue that wasn't acknowledged by Dell. The battery failed on me 3 times, and I eventually gave up on the warranty and bought a third party battery which I installed myself.…

I also had to replace the Killer wifi card. After that there was nothing to complain about regarding Linux compatibility.

BUT I also had to replace the battery after a year or two (it was swollen to the point that I couldn't close the laptop anymore).

And finally the rubbery coating of the case degraded badly and turned into a gooey, sticky mess (apparently a known issue with this kind of material, for those living in tropical weather).

So I'm done with Dell for a while.

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#194

Post by paisawalla »

jll29 wrote: post #4

Writing this from my X1 Carbon (with my M1 MacBook Air also next to me). I'd be particularly interested in what experience folks have had running Linux on ThinkPad X1 Nano s. Note on your methodology: a purely numeric vote is an automatic win for Lenovo simply based on market share, so you should ask people about problems, if any.

I run the Nano, with 32gb, without any issues. My previous laptop was the X280, then the X220. Obviously the 220 was of a completely different philosophy, comprising almost totally user-serviceable parts. However, barring the serviceability, the Nano is an equivalent in terms of Linux support. Actually, the 280's fingerprint reader was not supported whereas the Nano's is.

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#195

Post by pram »

piyh wrote: post #111
ergonaught wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't any major issues running Linux in a VM on an M1. Not my first choice, perhaps, but it's certainly functional.

How do you do this? I'm relatively new to mac, tried UTM and everything was stuck in QEMU modes and had terrible performance.

I've been using vftool with arm64 Ubuntu server cloudimg. Directly uses the virtualization framework, easy to work with once you get it going.

https://github.com/evansm7/vftool

my command: vftool -k vmlinuz -i initrd -d disk.img -p 4 -m 2048 -a "console=hvc0 irqaffinity=0 root=/dev/vda"

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#196

Post by runjake »

NeverFade wrote: post #29
wheats wrote: post #7

Someone correct me if I am missing some nuance here but I think the two MacBook options aren't contenders for best laptop running Linux. The drivers simply don't support basic things like the touchpad or wifi (at least not without extensive reworking and a modified kernel). Perhaps in some years Asahi Linux will be functional as a daily driver on the newer ARM/Apple Silicon but it's definitely a hobby laptop right no…

Linus himself uses Asahi over an M2 Macbook Air: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/linus-torvalds-uses-...

I believe he also runs it in console mode and doesn't use graphics, X.org, Wayland, etc. So, keep that in mind.

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#197

Post by kube-system »

than3 wrote: post #68

I don't get why so many people like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. They don't come with SODIMM slots, RAM is soldered directly to the board. If RAM goes bad, you have to do circuit level repair which requires a potential reball. The X1 Extreme comes with SODIMM slots from what I hear, but that is not the X1 Carbon. It certainly won't be lasting anywhere as long as previous Thinkpad models that have replaceable parts.

Sockets are dead. They were good when they were all pro and no cons, but now days, they’re a bottleneck in terms of power consumption and in performance.

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#198

Post by Kadin »

RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #73
8jy89hui wrote: post #53

My framework laptop has served me very well for the last year or so. This is one of the few pieces of open source hardware that is genuinely better (IMO) than many other larger hardware brands. The entire device is just so well built and the upgrade path is so well defined.

How is the weight/ mobility/ versatility? I jumped on the System76 train initially and feel burned. I'm looking for an alternative for my next machine. Its gotta actually have functional battery life next round. I expected a firmware update at some point from system76 to resolve this and it basically has never happened.

I just got issued a System76 at work and I thought I must have configured something wrong.

On one hand, I guess I'm glad it's not me; on the other hand, I wish it was just some dumb config toggle ("terrible_battery_life enable") that I could flip back to get more than a few hours of working time, or ~48 hours in my briefcase with the lid closed (!!!), before it was dead as a brick.

It's like the early 2000s all over again, where the battery just got you from one outlet to the next.

I feel bad even saying anything, because I like the company and Pop_OS and what they're trying to do in general. But damn, that's a big flaw to just ship products with in 2022.

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#199

Post by ramraj07 »

kaivi wrote: post #90

I've gotten myself a Dell Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme laptop recently. It's what my ideal laptop is supposed to be: easily serviceable, plenty of ports, indestructible and linux-friendly. Even the onboard WLAN supports monitoring mode. Running NixOS+xmonad on it, encountered no problems whatsoever after it was configured. One major difference from an ordinary laptop experience is the old-style resistive trackpad, bu…

Just looked it up, I see the appeal of just toting this in your hand while flying with no other baggage (assuming the battery lasts forever), but what’s the price again? The center review said it’ll cost almost 10 grand.

Re: Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days?

#200

Post by RandomWorker »

clepto wrote: post #158

I used a Framework for a while, and I’d definitely give it my vote for the best Linux laptop I’ve used(Also PopOS has the best out of the box support for most laptops in my experience). This being said, I traded my framework out for an M1 MacBook Pro, and just use OS X now. The reality is my OS X environment is functionally identical to Linux(and this includes very heavy use of Docker, I don’t know what anyone compla…

I’ve got a colleague who has been daily driving since he joined our company, he’s been really enjoying it as a developer machine. Looks super sleak and he most recently upgraded to the intel gen 12 with significant speed bumb and use the previous guts for a side project.

If you are a tinker this laptop is for you and the abilities are endless.

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