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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?

#351

Post by daviddever23box »

Currently using a first-generation Lambda Tensorbook / Razer Blade 15" Advanced (2021) - this is the Intel Tiger Lake-H variant (no P/E cores in this device) with a 15" QHD screen and an NVIDIA RTX 30-Series discrete graphics processor (see https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/razer-designed-linux...).

My other Linux laptop is a Dell Precision m5520, which shipped with Ubuntu 14.04 IIRC and has a 4K touchscreen. It remains the me the best-integrated Linux developer device I've used.

Beyond that, I'm an Intel NUC guy.

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

#352

Post by fsflover »

dima55 wrote: post #206
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…

This whole post is about Linux support. All known issues, including everything you're linking here is about Windows.

> about Windows

It's not about Windows. Lenovo sold the privacy and security of its users by putting a malware in BIOS. This time it affected Windows systems, but who know what comes next.

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

#353

Post by joshspankit »

xet7 wrote: post #240
joshspankit wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Native? Are you comparing emulated x86 to native Windows ARM via dual-boot?

Windows arm64 can not boot natively on M1/M2. There is no drivers for Windows to do that. It's just about running Win11 arm64 in Parallels in macOS. Asahi Linux has modified kernel where is M1/M2 drivers, and remaining of Asahi is from Arch Linux. Asahi is installed like new version of macOS, notification about it goes to Apple, Apple just does not know it's actually Asahi Linux install. M1/M2 hardware has possibilit…

That’s where I thought we were on the M1/M2 but got really curious about your statement “the performance feels native.”

I thought you were saying that you found a way to run Windows on bare metal and were comparing bare metal vs Parallels

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

#354

Post by neogodless »

habibur wrote: post #164
neogodless wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha I wonder about that. How many laptops have you bought, over what timespan? What versions/variations of Linux have you run? What are your use cases? I put Linux Mint (Cinnamon) on a Lenovo Legion 5. It's really pretty good, but has glitches. With Cinnamon (X11 + GNOME) there's weird issues with fractional scaling. (1080p laptop; I have bad eyesight and prefer 125%.) Added KDE Plasma 5 which fixed the scaling issue,…

Fedora. Last 6 laptops. Since 2016. Started with Lenovo. Second one was MSI. And now have moved to cheaper ones as Linux, at least Fedora, runs on anything I buy.

Do you run Steam?

Do you utilize fractional scaling?

My only known issue with Linux Mint (GNOME) was fractional scaling issues, which mostly affected Steam / games.

"Runs on" is a bit low of a bar! But I'm glad you don't run into any glitches.

Thanks for responding!

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

#356

Post by nrp »

auraham wrote: post #218
ChuckMcM wrote: post #211

Just got a 12th gen Framework laptop and it works great. The only thing that would be nicer is if they managed to do a touch screen. Still have my Lenovo T420i as a backup but the Framework is faster, runs longer on a charge, and generally does everything a bit smoother.

What distro are you using? I read somewhere in HN that the 12th gen is not recommended for Linux (previous gen was suggested instead).

We have updated recommendations here: https://frame.work/linux

There was a brief period of time early in Alder Lake availability when Intel pushed graphics drivers with regressions that went out in certain kernel versions, but support for 12th Gen has been stable since then.

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

#357

Post by darthrupert »

neoromantique wrote: post #343
darthrupert wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. Still, one could say that party interests is a feature of every communist state, so it fits in practice.

strictly speaking, party has nothing to do with communism, in fact its singular goal is to aid the society on the path to communism, which once achieved is global, stateless and most importantly classless. In short, the only feature of party is to make itself redundant. Of course, that's the utopia, which has never happened (and never will), just like pure capitalism, however. It is important to understand the underl…

When translating these ideals to real life:

- global means imperialistic

- stateless means only one party

- classless means only one class

In other words, utterly oppressive and regressive.

It's important that theoretical goals are noble, but the real world results should be good as well.

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

#358

Post by Aspos »

Jnr wrote: post #282
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…

Even though M1 MBP runs Linux, it has a very basic GPU driver, no hardware acceleration for video decoding/encoding. The "Fastest CPU + GPU + battery life" probably will not be true if using Linux on it. Would be great if Asahi users could provide regular benchmarks between MacOS and Linux on M1, to see how it is progressing. When it comes to Thinkpads and other similar laptops - get one without the dedicated Nvidia…

I have 4 ThinkPads with Nvidia GPUs on my desk now and none had driver issues in Ubuntu, they all work out of the box.

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

#359

Post by loudmax »

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…

Wow that StarFighter looks awesome! Too bad about the lack of trackpoint though.

I wonder if they'll come out with an ARM model. Open source OS's are in a good position to take advantage of alternate CPU architectures.

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

#360

Post by trylfthsk »

Love my Thinkpad T15G: - No major issues in Manjaro

- discrete graphics (3080 mobile). Using the proprietary driver, graphics switching seems to work pretty well.

- 128gb ECC ram (has xeon 11xxxm)

- durable; survived around 45 flights; runs 120 hours a week.

- trackpoint!

- fits into a normal backpack

- the hulking mass builds core strength while traveling

Cons: - Battery "life" is more like insurance against yoinking the charger.

- don't leave on lap under heavy load if you're a male hoping to maintain fertility

- not really easy to clean and keep clean; something about the rubberized finish gets noticeably dirty after a few hours of use following a thorough scrub, but I might also be a bit oilier than the average duck.

Aesthetically it's just the right amount of boring, but I know most like something a little sleeker.

Edit: formatting and additional con: Lenovo pricing is obscene without playing games using coupons, corporate portals, etc.

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