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

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

#81

Post by tastysandwich » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:51 AM UTC

I've had three Dells. Two 15s and a 13. All have worked fantastically with Linux (Ubuntu). I'm using a 13" now. It even hibernates perfectly when I close the lid.

However... All were purchased within a few months of them being released, and all had hardware issues within a few months after that. Got replacements under warranty, and the replacement units would then work flawlessly for years.

(Dead speaker, dead battery, dead wifi chip)

Leaves me wondering if the first few batches of Dells tend to have more manufacturing defects? And it's therefore advisable to wait ~6 months for them to sort these issues out?

Does anyone know if this is a thing, or just bad luck?

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

#82

Post by coolspot » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:51 AM UTC

I like my Lenovo Legion 5 Pro gaming laptop with Ryzen 5, Nvidia RTX, 4k display on PopOS with CUDA and everything working.

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

#83

Post by PakG1 » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:52 AM UTC

NeverFade wrote: post #29

wheats wrote: post #7

Someone correct me if I am missing some nuance here but I think the two MacBook options aren't contenders for best laptop running Linux. The drivers simply don't support basic things like the touchpad or wifi (at least not without extensive reworking and a modified kernel). Perhaps in some years Asahi Linux will be functional as a daily driver on the newer ARM/Apple Silicon but it's definitely a hobby laptop right no…

Linus himself uses Asahi over an M2 Macbook Air: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/linus-torvalds-uses-...

It's probably in his interest to run on the least stable environment possible to better identify kinks for prioritization.

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

#84

Post by ge96 » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:54 AM UTC

Using Ubuntu on Carbon X1 Gen 5

I only wish replacement batteries were good/not fake.

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

#85

Post by RosanaAnaDana » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:55 AM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #59

RosanaAnaDana wrote: post #46

How do I down vote one? I'm on a System76. I gave it a shot. No.

Can you tell us what problems you ran into?

Oh man. So many. I don't want it to just be bagging on System76 and PopOS! though. I really bought in because I believed in the partnership, but I really believe that PopOS! has kinda 'lost track' of what they were trying to do.

System76 issues:

Battery life is basically a joke. I can't use the machine without it being plugged in.

For the price, the trackpad/ keypad/ keyboard experience is not great. I've had dells with better trackpads. At the price point I paid ($2200 in 2020), they are not a premium experience.

There have been no firmware updates to address issues like bluetooth or battery life.

Considering its built hand in glove with PopOS, depending on what update you are on, various things just break every-time, like audio or the popshop, or bluetooth.

That all being said, I'm an abusive owner, and its been a workhorse. I just can't recommend it based on its price-point. Everything just needs to be 'better', but mostly the hardware/firmware/OS relationship.

I still want an 'it just works' linux machine. The System76/PopOS! combo isn't there yet.

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

#86

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:55 AM UTC

thoughtsimple wrote: post #8

Apple silicon MacBook is not a good choice. Love what the Asahi people are doing but come on. Terrible idea.

None of these even deserve to be in the running. HN has a serious Apple bias.

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

#87

Post by RosanaAnaDana » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:57 AM UTC

blondin wrote: post #74

colordrops wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you tell us what problems you ran into?

not OP but... the trackpad sucks, it seldom works. the material feels cheap. the builtin speakers are a joke. the machine is very fast but the fan goes off like an airplane during compute-intensive tasks. the custom OS is annoying (but that's on me, i should have picked Ubuntu). the OS is annoying because you solve most of your issues with solutions, blogs, etc. written for Ubuntu. or Debian. i have 5 laptops. the sy…

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I literally get made fun of for how loud my fans are, and that they are CONSTANTLY running.

This machine would be unusable without over the ear headphones.

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

#88

Post by shortcake27 » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:58 AM UTC

I would strongly advise against the 2019 Intel MBP. The design suffers from shocking thermal issues. Everyone I know who’s had one has had problems. You can pick up an M1 Air for less money, yet has better battery, better, performance, and fewer thermal issues. For more money, the M1 Pro is awesome - full size function keys, SD card, HDMI, Magsafe. I feel like Apple really brought it back with the new Pro’s.

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

#89

Post by GrinningFool » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:58 AM UTC

monero-xmr wrote: post #10

System 76 is the first Linux laptop I’ve liked. Have had intermittent issues with the touchpad after updates. Solid machine.

The last System 76 I had was great [with Linux] for about a year. But after a year or less, it started having other failures - had to replace the wifi, trackpad stopped working, half the keyboard stopped working. Wouldn't recommend based on that experience.

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

#90

Post by kaivi » Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 2:58 AM UTC

I've gotten myself a Dell Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme laptop recently. It's what my ideal laptop is supposed to be: easily serviceable, plenty of ports, indestructible and linux-friendly. Even the onboard WLAN supports monitoring mode. Running NixOS+xmonad on it, encountered no problems whatsoever after it was configured. One major difference from an ordinary laptop experience is the old-style resistive trackpad, but I can live with it because I don't use mouse as much.

The firmware can't be replaced with Coreboot unfortunately, but it is fantastic for a laptop. I have never seen a BIOS with so many configurable settings. There's even a key combo which shuts off all radio, lights and LEDs, which of course can be configured in detail.

Don't get the rubberized keyboard because it's impossible to type a sentence on. I also suggest ordering the m.2 NVMe separately to save serious money, and the Snapdragon X55 DW5930e modem from Aliexpress at a fraction of the price.

I've also heard legends about how great Dell's Worldwide repair program is where people have had parts delivered to them next day on the island of Borneo in Indonesia, but that's yet to be tested.