Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729 • Hacker News Board

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#21

Post by eptcyka » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:21 PM UTC

Avamander wrote: post #12

jjice wrote: post #4

Tossing Linux on used enterprise laptops is maybe the best bang for your buck machine you can get. They're often time a great value and within three years old. Used multiple Thinkpads and Dells over the years that were fantastic and gotten sub $400. Things I learned to look out for: - Locked BIOS - Look into the manufacturer's repairability reputation. I replaced the entire keyboard on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon and it wa…

> Things I learned to look out for: Don't buy any recent Intels. Some Intel ThinkPads have accelerometers built-in just to throttle your PC to oblivion when it moves. Basically unusable in any moving vehicle such as a train. It's basically anti-portability baked-in. When it doesn't throttle, it just has abysmal battery life compared to AMD Ryzen ThinkPads of the same generation. Both lose horribly to Apple's ARM chip…

M1 and M2. But those are in an entirely different price bracket. I’d go so far as to say those are not comparable.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#22

Post by mystifyingpoi » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:24 PM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #3

Whenever Microsoft makes me make an account and I cannot bypass it I just make an throwaway with not so pleasant words in the email. Followed by installing EndeavourOS.

I really hope this still works forever. Unfortunately I suspect, that one day they'll require a phone verification or similar, like many services do nowadays.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#23

Post by internet2000 » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:24 PM UTC

> But the thing that got me, in all honesty, was the brand. “Fujitsu laptop” sounds like colour in a William Gibson novel: “crawling into the avionics bay, Case took out a battered Fujitsu refurb, and stuck a JTAG port in the flight computer—”.

It's kind of hard to take this opinion seriously after that.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#24

Post by fulafel » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:25 PM UTC

cromka wrote: post #10

dmitrygr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacBook Air M1. Find one with max ram (Facebook marketplace, $400), have storage upgraded to 2TB (IYKYK), Linux support is good.

Sorry, but no: https://asahilinux.org/docs/platform/feature-support/m1/#tab... Can't even drive an external display over the DP. Linux support on Apple hardware is subpar compared to ARM Thinkpads.

I guess it's the physical HDMI port that's needed, as Minis and the Pro laptops have working monitor HDMI monitor support?

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#25

Post by Ezhik » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:25 PM UTC

internet2000 wrote: post #23

> But the thing that got me, in all honesty, was the brand. “Fujitsu laptop” sounds like colour in a William Gibson novel: “crawling into the avionics bay, Case took out a battered Fujitsu refurb, and stuck a JTAG port in the flight computer—”. It's kind of hard to take this opinion seriously after that.

This website is called Hacker News.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#26

Post by Teknomadix » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:26 PM UTC

jjice wrote: post #4

Tossing Linux on used enterprise laptops is maybe the best bang for your buck machine you can get. They're often time a great value and within three years old. Used multiple Thinkpads and Dells over the years that were fantastic and gotten sub $400. Things I learned to look out for: - Locked BIOS - Look into the manufacturer's repairability reputation. I replaced the entire keyboard on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon and it wa…

My daily driver for several years now has been an AMD Ryzen 7 powered ThinkPad t495. $120 used. After upgrading the RAM to 64gb it felt very snappy and usable. I run NixOS / Hyprland with rofi/waybar. When an accident happened and the first t495 was damaged, I bought a second for $80, swapped the parts and was back in business. I use it for coding, web research, and a bit of CAD design via FreeCAD. Very happy with the hardware!

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#27

Post by baq » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:26 PM UTC

jack_tripper wrote: post #13

dmitrygr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacBook Air M1. Find one with max ram (Facebook marketplace, $400), have storage upgraded to 2TB (IYKYK), Linux support is good.

How did you upgrade the soldered storage?

Take it to a shop which cnc mills the original one off and solders a compatible new one on. Maybe you can desolder the old one, but why bother.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#28

Post by makeitdouble » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #20

marcodiego wrote: post #14

> install Windows 11. This came with the laptop. And the installation makes installing Linux feel easy: I had to do so many weird tricks to avoid having to create an account with Microsoft during the installation. The way secure boot evolved is disgusting. Specially because, at the time it was becoming popular, people we're warned that was more a tool of control than for security. Having to install a proprietary OS t…

But what happened doesn't make sense even. Why would upgrading the BIOS suddenly restore the option to toggle Secure Boot? If the previous owner (assuming, some company) disabled this, why would it be so trivial (comparatively) to work around it?

If the company fully managed the previous windows install, they'd have control on the upgrades to the BIOS as well and could just block them. These restrictions disappear with standard windows install.

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#29

Post by gear54rus » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:39 PM UTC

Avamander wrote: post #12

jjice wrote: post #4

Tossing Linux on used enterprise laptops is maybe the best bang for your buck machine you can get. They're often time a great value and within three years old. Used multiple Thinkpads and Dells over the years that were fantastic and gotten sub $400. Things I learned to look out for: - Locked BIOS - Look into the manufacturer's repairability reputation. I replaced the entire keyboard on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon and it wa…

> Things I learned to look out for: Don't buy any recent Intels. Some Intel ThinkPads have accelerometers built-in just to throttle your PC to oblivion when it moves. Basically unusable in any moving vehicle such as a train. It's basically anti-portability baked-in. When it doesn't throttle, it just has abysmal battery life compared to AMD Ryzen ThinkPads of the same generation. Both lose horribly to Apple's ARM chip…

> Some Intel ThinkPads have accelerometers built-in just to throttle your PC to oblivion when it moves

Wtf? That sounds crazy, any sources?

Re: Linux on the Fujitsu Lifebook U729

#30

Post by jebarker » Sat, Nov 15, 2025, 4:42 PM UTC

rcarmo wrote: post #9

If you have an old Intel MacBook Air, they work beautifully with Linux as well: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2025/11/05/2200

I did this with the 11”, which was one of the greatest sized laptops for travel IMO, just had to replace the explody looking battery!