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Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

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Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#1

Post by khandelwal »

What's a good laptop to install Linux (Ubuntu) on? I'm looking to buy a new machine for work. System76 seems to make good laptops. Does anyone have experience with them? Is there anything else you would recommend?

People seem to rave about their MacBook Pros. Is it easy to make the switch from Ubuntu? Do I easily get all the software I'll need (svn, git, django, python, vim)?

Essentially I think, my question is, is the experience on a MBP so much better, that it's worth having to learn the MacOS platform?

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#4

Post by davidw »

khandelwal wrote: post #3
davidw wrote: post #2

Dell occasionally has systems for sale without Windows, or with Linux preinstalled: http://www.dell.com/ubuntu

I'm hoping to avoid Dell. Their laptops (at least the ones I've been familiar with) seem to have poor build quality.

I've had decent luck with mine. I did splurge for the extra warranty coverage, so the one time I did have a broken drive, I had a guy at my door (in Innsbruck, Austria) the next morning with a new drive.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#5

Post by Symmetry »

Pretty much everyone I know who runs Linux on their laptop uses a Thinkpad. They don't come with Linux installed but they tend to have good driver support and pretty good quality.

You might also consider system76, but I don't have experience with those.

EDIT: I'm currently running Linux on my T410. Suspend was broken with Ubuntu 10.4, but everything works perfectly now with 10.10.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#6

Post by kls »

Yes the MBP is a good machine, and you can get all of the items you listed on OSX. It is a good development platform if you decide to go that route. I have worked exclusively on MBP for the last two generations of my machines. This is coming from a guy that got burnt really bad on the 68-PPC conversion a while back (had basically a brick within 6mo of buying a new 68). That is another story but sufficient to say, I swore off Apple computers and after using a MBP for a while, I decided that it really was worth the switch. I don't consider myself a fanboy so I feel that I offer a pragmatic opinion to people on the advantages of switching.

Also a thing to consider is that with the MBP if you decide that OSX is not for you, you can always install Linux or do Bootcamp and dual boot, or run Virtual Box and have a Linux VM. I do the latter for any odds and ends Windows only software that I need to run, but those are getting fewer and fewer these days.

If you decide to stay in the PC world I recommend Sager laptops. They are probably close to or superior to the MBP in terms of quality.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#7

Post by samstokes »

Symmetry wrote: post #5

Pretty much everyone I know who runs Linux on their laptop uses a Thinkpad. They don't come with Linux installed but they tend to have good driver support and pretty good quality. You might also consider system76, but I don't have experience with those. EDIT: I'm currently running Linux on my T410. Suspend was broken with Ubuntu 10.4, but everything works perfectly now with 10.10.

Got a T510 here (with the extra-high-res 1920x1080 display) and it's great. Everything works in Ubuntu 10.04 (I don't have any problems with suspend-to-RAM or -to-disk).

I spent a while looking into MBPs and it seems the Linux support is still fairly laughable - the latest models won't even boot it, and even the older ones require a kernel recompile to get sound working. I'd buy an MBP without hesitation if I wanted to run OS X, but not as a Linux machine with a nicer case.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#9

Post by joezydeco »

khandelwal wrote: post #3
davidw wrote: post #2

Dell occasionally has systems for sale without Windows, or with Linux preinstalled: http://www.dell.com/ubuntu

I'm hoping to avoid Dell. Their laptops (at least the ones I've been familiar with) seem to have poor build quality.

Using a Dell Latitude E6500 and it's pretty solid. Lots of metal.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#10

Post by starbuckt »

khandelwal wrote: post #3
davidw wrote: post #2

Dell occasionally has systems for sale without Windows, or with Linux preinstalled: http://www.dell.com/ubuntu

I'm hoping to avoid Dell. Their laptops (at least the ones I've been familiar with) seem to have poor build quality.

Their business laptops (at least the latitudes) are really good. I'd even say that they are better than Thinkpads, but YMMV.
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