Poll: What's the best laptop for Linux these days? • Hacker News Board

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

#301

Post by michaelt » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 10:52 AM UTC

mato wrote: post #293

nine_k wrote: post #269

I see very disparate use cases for these laptops, so the competition is not really that fair. - Fastest CPU + GPU + battery life, x64 not needed, money no object: M1 MBP. - Reliable, serviceable, upgradeable, fashion-despising: T14 / T480 / T490. - Serviceable, upgradable, but sort of new kids on the block, and less fashion-oblivious: Star Labs Starfighter, Framework, System 76 Oryx Pro. - Sleek-looking at the expens…

I voted for the Dell XPS, but really wanted to vote for the Dell Latitude. I recently upgraded to a refurbished 8th gen (KBL, top of the line i7 model with NVMe and Thunderbolt) Latitude 7390, and everything "just works", including BIOS updates via LVFS/fwupd with only a few days lag over the announcement on Dell's site. With this level of support I finally feel like a first class citizen running Linux. Oh, and it ha…

I, meanwhile, have a Dell Precision 5570 and on the latest LTS Ubuntu it suffers from intermittent trackpad lag; crashing when moving from one docking station to another when suspended; the fans sometimes running when suspended; poor audio quality from the built-in microphone; it intermittently becomes unresponsive to mouse and keyboard; and it exclusively has USB C ports.

I very much do not feel like a first class citizen running Linux :(

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

#302

Post by coderoffortune » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 10:56 AM UTC

Still using Lenovo Thinkpad T540p, purchased it in 2015. Works like a charm, powerful machine.

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

#303

Post by dur-randir » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 10:56 AM UTC

I can't imagine buying anything Intel - s3 sleep is wrecked on all latest generations, and s1e is just asking you to cook your hardware, sooner or later, coupled with horrendous idle battery life, all for your money.

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

#304

Post by the1337god » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 10:59 AM UTC

I'm currently typing this on my second Dell XPS 15, and I'm looking for a new Linux-based SDE Laptop for my day job.

My first Dell XPS (Dell XPS 15 9560-NGG9X) literally exploded after overloading the USB bus with an external camera. It's completely dead...

My current Dell XPS (Dell XPS 15 9500 (FGHDC)) has startup problems, it keeps rebooting until it is warm enough to operate normally. This happened just a month outside the 1-year warranty. I am not the only one with this problem, the internet is littered with the same issue: https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=del...

I've had enough from Dell, I will never buy from Dell again. The quality is just so bad...

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

#305

Post by tambre » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 11:01 AM UTC

someweirdperson wrote: post #285

Which of those support ECC?

Same. I would really love to see a laptop like the Latitude 5430, but just with ECC added.

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

#306

Post by Lio » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 11:02 AM UTC

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.

Dell only support the XPS 13 for Linux. I like mine, it's not perfect but seems pretty acceptable. Everything works out of the box including bluetooth, battery life isn't great though.

If you want a larger screened Dell for Linux you should definitely go with the Precision line that you mentioned as you can order them with Linux out of the box.

You might be OK with an XPS 15 or 17 but I've heard of issues with the GPU on the XPS 15 so might be a bit of a crap shoot. So personally I would avoid them.

My advice for buying any Linux laptop would be always get one that comes with Linux out of the box even if you're going to replace it.

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

#307

Post by neoromantique » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 11:03 AM UTC

darthrupert wrote: post #243

I stopped buying Lenovos because they are a chinese company. Sure, almost everything is made in China, but I will at least choose not to support a company operating from a communist country.

China is terrible and one should avoid buying from China at all costs, but doing so because they're "Communist" is ridiculous, the only "Communist" part in China is that it has a tyrannical dictatorship they is cosplaying as "Communist", otherwise they're as capitalist as it gets when it suits party interests.

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

#308

Post by fweimer » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 11:05 AM UTC

boomboomsubban wrote: post #214

runjake wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've never read that about Torvolds, who I believe uses fairly standard GNOME. Could you be confusing him with Stallman who does things like use wget for browsing the internet?

Linus' announcement is here:

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wgrz5BBk=rCz7W28Fj_o02s0X...

And more context (I am not sure if it's accurate):

https://twitter.com/asahilinux/status/1553968394734813184

Driver support for bare metal use on the M2 Air was really, really poor at the time. Linus mentions Asahi Linux, so he probably wasn't running virtualized Linux under macOS. Maybe he SSHed into the box, or it wasn't an M2 model after all.

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

#309

Post by prmoustache » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 11:06 AM UTC

mypalmike wrote: post #152

I think the Thinkpad E series might be considered cheap junk here, but my Ryzen 7 E14 with 40GB RAM runs Windows 11 and Ubuntu great. I am using the extra SSD slot for Linux so I didn't have to partition anything. All the hardware works (though I haven't tried the fingerprint scanner yet). The only issue I've had is it doesn't love waking up the DisplayPort through the hub I bought, but that's likely a hub problem, a…

I am quite happy with my core i7 Thinkpad E580 maxed out at 32GB of ram on Fedora. Keyboard is nice, battery life is decent, screen is mat and availability of spare parts and I am quite confident on the availability of spare parts and batteries in the future. Lots of space with the nvme + ssd drives.

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

#310

Post by PartiallyTyped » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 11:08 AM UTC

bosie wrote: post #287

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wanted to add that the M1 has a limitation on the number of display outputs iirc 2 for the MBP, 1 for the MBA (but > 0 solutions exist, each with their own limitations).

> but > 0 solutions exist, each with their own limitations What are you trying to say with this “> 0” syntax? That solutions exist?

it was meant to be > 1, indicating that it’s multiple, ie more than 1.