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Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?

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Re: Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?

#61

Post by koehr »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #11

The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is the usual recommendation as far as having the most "Macbook"-like design (e.g. slim, unibody aluminum, but powerful).* ThinkPads generally have pretty solid Linux support, and System76 makes a line of Linux-only laptops, although both of them will be a good bit chunkier than your MBP. Neither are bad laptops if you're willing to trade sleekness for a tad more power or durability.…

Check out the System76 Galago Pro. You get a monster of a machine performance wise (easily surpassing a MacBook) in a case that's not at all chunkier than a MacBook and for half the price. Only downside is the pretty bad battery life.

Re: Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?

#62

Post by jinnko »

Lio wrote: post #25
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #11

The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition is the usual recommendation as far as having the most "Macbook"-like design (e.g. slim, unibody aluminum, but powerful).* ThinkPads generally have pretty solid Linux support, and System76 makes a line of Linux-only laptops, although both of them will be a good bit chunkier than your MBP. Neither are bad laptops if you're willing to trade sleekness for a tad more power or durability.…

XPS seems to me more like a replacement for the MacBook Air 11” size wise... except that it has a 13” HiDPI screen and a 6 core processor. I keep mine in an 11” MBA case. I’ve found mine to be really good. They seem to have fixed issues with the trackpad that bothered me. Only things I’m not keen on are the PgUp, PgDn key positions above the cursor keys and mixing the 4k screen with a 1440 external screen. I opted to…

It's also well worth using the mainline kernels with the XPS as power management along with any flakey drivers is vastly improved. It's easy when done with the ukuu utility.

Re: Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?

#66

Post by crtasm »

basch wrote: post #60
jdillaaa wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the X1C. Little thing I noticed about the matte IPS screen (which I selected for outdoor usage much like you said) is that the screen goes black when I wear my sunglasses with a polarized lens, so if your sunglasses are polarized perhaps consider buying some non-polarized ones :-)

or buy polarized lenses with the opposite orientation. if you turn your head 90 degrees can you see the screen?

This led me to wonder: why isn't there a default orientation for things you look at and another for things you look through?

Re: Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?

#67

Post by wayneftw »

Acer E5 575G upgraded to 16gb RAM and 256gb ssd, running Manjaro Linux with XFCE. Good battery life, lightweight and cheap.

Everything works out of the box. I even got advanced touchpad gestures working with a little research. This was also the first Linux desktop experience in 20 years of trying occasionally that got me to switch from Windows for work.

Re: Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?

#68

Post by uncletaco »

xgbi wrote: post #21
rasengan wrote: post #10

Razor Blade 15 works very well, also under heat. The Surface Pro is also fantastic except the lack of webcam support.

What is the Linux story on a surface? I admit I like Microsoft’s products form factor a lot, especially the surface book.

I agree. I went with a 2015 chromebook pixel (running guix system) just because I wanted a 3:2 screen ratio.

Re: Ask HN: Best Linux Laptop Replacing a Macbook Pro?

#69

Post by AlexITC »

I'm now working with a Dell Precision 5530 which costs around 3k on its current specs.

The good:

- It had ubuntu 16.04 which means the hardware has good compatibility with linux and you don't need to pay for the windows license.

- 32Gb of ram, and it supports even more.

- The 512Gb NVMe SSD is very fast.

- The battery lasts several hours on non-CPU intensive tasks, I haven't need to charge it when using it for browsing the web on non-working days.

- Even that the screen is 15", it is actually smaller than my precision 3510.

- It doesn't get as hot as my 3510 gets sometimes.

- I'd say that the keyboard is decent.

- It has more input ports than the macbook pro.

- It's built from a decent material instead that my 3510 which is just plastic.

The bad:

- When I installed ubuntu 18.04, I found an issue with the nvidia driver which I was able to solve, if you want to get ubuntu preinstalled, the only choice was to get the nvidia P1000 included (even that it seems to have poor support), if buying again, I'd probably get Windows preinstalled instead to avoid paying for the graphic card.

- The AC adapter is lighter than the one from my 3510 (which gets easily damaged on the port, I expect this to last longer but we'll see).

- The trackpad is not as good as it could be, it is common to paste content accidentally (I believe it detects the middle-click gesture), I guess there may be a software trick to avoid it but haven't invested enough time, I can live with the issue.

- As the screen has tiny borders, the camera is placed below the screen which is something I laugh about each time I do a videocall.

Those are the details I can think about, I'm far happier with linux on dell laptops than what I ever was using a macbook pro.

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