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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?

#411

Post by mato »

michaelt wrote: post #406
mato wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> crashing when moving from one docking station to another when suspended; That is a thing? To be honest not sonething I'd expect to work reliably under any OS, the low-level complexities involved are mind-boggling. The rest do seem like legit complaints, that's a shame.

Given the docking station is basically a USB peripheral that supplies power? Being able to unplug and replug USB peripherals while asleep seems like a reasonable expectation to me.

No it's not. Assuming the OP means something vaguely modern, it'll be a Thunderbolt dock that shares PCIe devices to the host. Try and work out the complexity of a PCIe device disappearing while you're "asleep" in your head. Trust me, you don't want to go there.

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

#412

Post by boneitis »

nine_k wrote: post #248
boneitis wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not meant to be downer (as a very, very happy owner of a pocket T420s if its replacement T480s should fail me): To anyone considering going back this far in hardware gen, my T420s (i7, 16GB memory, LUKS-encrypted SSD needed for work) on Mint + MATE DE could flat-out _not_ handle work video calls unless it was the _only_ thing that was running with everything else closed down. Even then, it was watching slideshows. It…

Arte you certain your Zoom or whatever is using GPU? I had to tweak something to make Zoom and Youtube see the GPU better (for Youtube, something in the Firefox about:config), and it lowered CPU load on my i5 CPU quite a bit, down to things becoming pretty fluid (T470, currently at 6.0.12 but it worked with 5.x, too). While I fondly remember my T420 from 2011, its CPU was sort of... underpowered by today's standards.

I certainly tinkered around a lot with it over the years until it was blocking my work when I got my first remote job. Seeing the rebuttals here, sounds like it's worth dusting it off and giving it another shot at some point.

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

#413

Post by lucb1e »

DJBunnies wrote: post #183
lucb1e wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux on Thinkpad with Lenovo dock working just fine for my colleagues. Not that I'm a fan of Lenovo's but I coincidentally happen to know multiple people with that setup and no dock/linux/thinkpad-related issues. Since you say they were since "forced" onto a nonfree platform, perhaps this was years ago?

3 years ago. Apparently I struck a nerve here? My daily driver is Linux and I’m by no means a Mac fanboy, but I do think consistency is good when the alternative is a distraction from real work.

> when the alternative is a distraction from real work

When, then I certainly agree, presuming of course that the alternative is not worse in that regard

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

#414

Post by rendall »

mgbmtl wrote: post #34
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.

Does it sleep? I was really happy with an earlier Dell XPS (which my daughter still uses), but my newer one is horrible. I always have to do a full shutdown, otherwise if I don't use it for a few days, the BIOS resets and once I even had to remove the CMOS battery. Between the sleep, the bad mic, fan noise, I think my next one will be a ThinkPad (my 10 year old ThinkPad is still rocking, gave it to other family who j…

Sleeps, but there's a weird bug where it will not log in unless I briefly push the power button first.

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

#415

Post by rendall »

elboulangero wrote: post #193
colordrops wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

> 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

That happened to me too with the first one, but they actually on their own initiative sent me a new battery. I've had no problems with the second laptop.

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

#416

Post by rendall »

Lio wrote: post #306
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 GP…

> Dell only support the XPS 13 for Linux.

They won't refuse to repair it. It's identical in all ways except for the screen size, so. If something really weird happens, they might kick it back to you, but nothing really weird is going to happen.

> 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.

Or get a Dell XPS 17 and install your own ;)

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

#417

Post by clepto »

nine_k wrote: post #274
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 don’t know what anyone complaining about Docker on M1 are on about) Are you using ARM-based Docker images? Never an issue with availability of your base images? Not doubting, just interested.

Sorry for a late reply, I am generally using ARM based images and I have run into VERY few things that availability was a problem for. I’ve never seen anything based on Debian or Alpine not have ARM variants. The only base image I’ve really ever run into problems with was Cent, and I only had like one thing that used it which I switched over to Debian and it’s not caused any problem for me.

I can definitely see mileage varying depending on the specific things you need to run, but I wasn’t ever really concerned with it because I usually have enough control over the images I use that I can switch something to a different base if need be.

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

#418

Post by alwayslikethis »

Jnr wrote: post #395
Aspos wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They do "work", but the dynamic GPU switching is problematic, especially with Wayland. Especially when using external monitors. I could not have decent performance and heat/noise using external monitors. You can (and really have to) stick to using X but multi-dpi monitor mixing there is problematic. Also the KMS and tty management seems a bit buggy with Nvidia (even with early KMS). And then even after you get all of…

This is usually because the video outputs are often connected only to the discrete gpu, while the laptop screen is only connected to the integrated GPU, meaning you have to use both if you want monitors. On desktop, NVIDIA mostly works if you stick to X11 and deal with their proprietary driver. However, the hybrid graphics switching presents a lot of problems. Some ThinkPads actually can behave like desktops and disable the iGPU entirely, since they have a mux that can connect the dGPU to the laptop screen directly, without using any render offload shenanigans, though at a great cost of battery life.

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

#419

Post by guenthert »

I appreciate the effort to actually ask around which hardware works well with a given software, rather then buying on price/spec/style and later complaining that some feature or other isn't working.

I haven't bought a laptop in years, both my Chromebook Pixel, my Dell M6800 (desktop replacement -- you wouldn't want to lug it around) and a cheap Lenovo ThinkPad 11e still work fine (the Pixel is EOL'ed so I might debianize it soonish, but the highly reflective screen and the mediocre keyboard make it unsuitable as workstation). Can't think of a Linux problem with either (the Dell was actually listed as supported by Ubuntu). I use the Dell with a mouse, as the touchpad experience is poor (regardless of OS).

The ThinkPad has a surprisingly good keyboard, unfortunately the screen is rather underwhelming, else it would be an awesome network terminal. Good value in any case.

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