Hey all.
I’ve booted Linux Mint Debian Edition and Arch on to a couple old machines including my old laptops. The performance is still rather brutal because these machines are so old and their battery lives are rough. They are also bulky and uncomfortable to carry around.
So, I’ve been thinking about getting a more modern laptop and putting Linux on it but I’ve been out of the laptop market for so long now I have no idea what’s good and what’s not anymore. Any recommendations?
I think I’ve heard decent things about Chromebooks but how’s the hardware of those? Are they relatively locked down and don’t play nice with Linux? I’m just looking for a machine for daily use (browser, light coding, remote connecting to my desktop for heavier stuff)
Thanks in advance
If you haven’t already bought something:
What do you have now?
I would generally recommend against chromebooks. They’re often aimed at the lowest end of the market and have esoteric processors and boot processes that will make you frustrated.
I would generally recommend against small laptop manufacturers like framework etc. because of parts availability. People will say that you can get parts from the manufacturer but for how long? People will say you can make the parts themselves because the design is open source but I have a board etching setup, hot air station and injection molding machine and I don’t do that.
Obviously if you just want to “vote with your dollars” the above doesn’t matter.
If you want to get a laptop that’s gonna run linux well and last a long time get a used business class machine. There will always be a huge market for parts and they have almost always had someone put the effort in to document getting their distro to work right on their work assigned computer.
The black sheep option is to get a mac. Parts are everywhere for cheap and every microsoldering and computer repair shop will work on them because so many people have them and want to get them fixed. Obviously do your research first, but asahi is coming along and you’ve always got a Unix system to fall back on if it isn’t working out.
I just sold my Framework 13 after daily driving it for a year. The HiDPI display bugs and workarounds just got too annoying.
I went back to my old Dell XPS 13 9310 and I’m loving it.
You have plenty GNU/Linux compatible OOTB laptop manufacturers like:
Also check this for buying preinstalled libreboot laptops (some of the upper ones already do) minifree.org and here how to do yourself if you feel confident libreboot.org
Also you can consider buying a Dell laptop or Lenovo Thinkpad
I strongly recommend buying a laptop with AMD graphics, either integrated or external, for getting the best compatible machine for GNU/Linux, and avoid Nvidia, and Intel too if possible
How about a “native” Linux laptop such as the Tuxedo Infinity Book Pro 14, or a similar model? That should provide more than enough power for the tasks you mentioned. There is also Slimbook, who make different Linux laptops though they are a little lesser known I think.
If you can wait just a little longer I would seriously consider the Framework 12 that is going for pre-order next month and being shipped “mid-2025”.
Of course, this isn’t an option if you need a laptop right now. In that case the current Framework 13 offerings are the best you can get but of course are not as affordable and possibly a bit overkill for a simple browsing machine.Any idea what the price point is going to be?
Frameworks are the best modern laptop by far imo.
Loving my T480 I got recently. Performance is meh but upgraded the memory to 32g and works good enough. Plus it was cheap on craigslist so I don’t have to worry about it too much.
Stay away from Chromebooks. Even if you get a Chromebook that is reported to play well with Linux, there can be issues. I have/had two different Linux Chromebooks. They both had unique pitfalls.
I had an arm-based Chromebook that was actually the development target of a custom distro. At its best, it still required a fairly specific wifi dongle to work without kernel hacks. Even then, the processor was slooow and storage was a bit of a problem if I was using it for anything other than text editing.
I’m running an intel-based Chromebook these days with Arch. The biggest bottleneck is the built-in nonupgradeable storage (16gb). Most of my home folder is symlinked to an SD card that I keep in the slot at all times. It works well and has great battery life, but there are easier ways to play with linux on a laptop.
Used thinkpad is an easy choice. If you want new, I’ve been very happy with the framework 13
Definitely agree on the used ThinkPad. You can get some surprising deals from businesses offloading even relatively recent machines that are still in very good condition (used to daily drive a T14 Gen 3 that was half the price of when it was new despite being only two years old and still in warranty). However, new ones do still retain very good compatibility (no issues on my P14s Gen 5), although the price point does make a Framework the obvious other option to look at, especially due to the better upgrade and repair situation (soldered WiFi modules on newer ThinkPads are really annoying).
Most laptops will be more or less fully compatible with linux I think. Though a few niche features like finger print or key card readers might be a hassle to get working. To me, the most important thing is the keyboard since some manufacturers forgo the end of/start of line buttons, for instance.
Most laptops will be more or less fully compatible
If by “most” you mean only the ones over 500 bucks. Chromebooks have almost completely taken over the bottom end of the market (which is more than adequate if you’re not gaming) and Chromebooks are not compatible with Linux unless you enjoy getting your hands very dirty.
Going to piggyback off your post with this comment.
Where can we get laptop (m.2) wifi cards that are supported by FOSS drivers? I’ve been having a hard time finding them anymore.
Installing Linux bare onto a Chromebook involves unplugging the internal battery (or buying a cheap special USB thing) to disable the hardware write protection and flashing a custom BIOS. Some models have issues with basic things like sound output not working through speakers or headphones or both. From experience I don’t recommend.
If you still really want to though there are two websites that are really useful and should have up to date information.
Can confirm. I finally managed to install Linux Mint on my Chromebook yesterday and while it wasn’t as difficult as I imagined, it was annoying. The guy at Google that came up with the battery ideea deserves prison time. My internal speakers don’t work anymore, but I wasn’t really using them that often so it’s not a problem for me.
Stay away from Chromebooks. Save up for a normal laptop.
Gonna have to anti-recommend tuxedo unfortunately. Never had a “Linux” laptop before and never had any issues, but two of the newest Infinitybooks have a number of issues with fan control, clock sometimes stuck at 800MHz, weird-ass Ethernet NIC with no upstreamed drivers and so on. It’s like a trip to 15 years ago in terms of weird little issues popping up every now and the .
The tuxedo kernel modules are a mess and not currently upstreamable, their interfaces are inconsistent across lineups/generations which they solve by building a unified Electron monstrosity “control center” on top.
The idea is nice but any mainstream manufacturer works pretty well these days, and the Schenker laptops with tuxedo software not up to par :/
Were you using it with their custom OS, or did you try to install something else like Linux Mint?
I’m on NixOS right now, but another person on Arch is reporting similar things. Don’t get the point of their custom distro instead of just making their stuff portable and easier to set up honestly.
I 100% agree. Whenever these companies start with their own projects I immediately get suspicious that their goal is to enshittify down the line with vendor lock-in.
The only reasons why I’m seriously considering a Tuxedo are 1. European brand and 2. Double SSD.
Not a lot of laptops seem to be offering double SSD while being Linux compatible, so my hands are kinda tied.
My primary needs were a big HiDPI screen, lots of memory, good CPU and it meets all of them. The only other devices meeting those are the high end ThinkPads that are no doubt nicer, but also double the price sooo it’s all good.
But someone who buys primarily for great Linux support might be disappointed.
I also have to say I haven’t spent much time investigating the issues I faced for time reasons, maybe some of them can be fixed easily.
Have you tried talking to customer support? I hear they are quite responsive.
I’ve Pulse 14 with plain Debian installation and so far didn’t notice any issues. Though admittedly, I’m not a heavy laptop user. Your mileage may vary I guess.
I have a Thinkpad T480 that I’m very happy with. I believe it’s around 7 or 8 years old, but it works great. Unlike most laptops, it doesn’t have soldered RAM, so it’s easily upgraded. One downside is that most units don’t come with a lot of storage, so you’ll probably want to get a larger drive. I spent around $200 on mine plus another $100 for the SSD. It’s a great inexpensive laptop that’ll last for years.
Not often mentioned, but Surface Laptops run Linux thanks to Linux Surface on Github. I’ve been running Mint on a Surface Laptop 4 13.5" for years with zero problems. Used and refurbished models are much cheaper than the other options mentioned here.
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Positives - Excellent display and keyboard, nice form factor, very light and thin, comfortable fabric cover on keyboard bezel.
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Negatives - Smaller SSD (256g), limited ports, larger display bezel, reportedly somewhat difficult to disassemble, initial Linux installation a bit of a pain.
13.5" models with I7, 16g and 256g ssd are going for around $300 on ebay.
I have a Surface Go 1 and I’m really happy with it.
But, I have to admit it was tricky to boot Linux on it and the blutooth doesn’t always work. The cameras too, but I don’t care.
Still, it’s a great device that you can attach to a big screen to get the best of both worlds (easy to transport and useful at home).
What is the battery situation like?
The older, cheaper devices are obviously, well, older and thus the battery degraded a bit. Linux isn’t exactly optimized for these things either. I would expect less than great battery life.
I have a surface pro 6 and I love it.
You should, however, mention that the cameras do not work (yet), which makes this a no-go as a full laptop replacement.
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