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

    • SeeFerns@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      Came to say this. My 13 amd is a champ. Got my refurb and it’s brand new, I see literally 0 scratches or blemishes on it.

    • modcolocko@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      0·
      3 days ago

      chromebooks are often well built with good keyboards at prices monumentally lower than comporable laptops, whilst being powerful enough to run linux well

      you can quite easily get linux on almost all chromebooks, even arm ones (mrchromebox and postmarketos are references to look into for that) (postmarketos for arm stuff)

      I have an hp chromebook g7 that I paid less than 20 dollars for, which has a good keyboard and is performant enough for firefox and typing on swaywm. it’s worth so little and is so light that it can just live in my backpack without worry. it’s also able to be charged from a normal usb c phone charger, supports usb c display output, and has a low power celeron that absolutely sips power

      you can get much nicer chromebooks for cheap too if you’re into that, including some with unibody aluminum chassis and high resolution ips displays, all at prices less than even bottom barrel pc laptops

    • Baaron87@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 days ago

      +1 for the framework laptop. Have had zero complaints with mine. Framework also has some guides on their website for specific Linux distros if an issue comes up.

      And just echoing another user here: AMD is better supported for the Linux kernel. Speaking from personal experience, I have used both an Intel based and AMD based system with no real issues

      • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 days ago

        The one single thing I can’t stand about my Framework is the lack of S3 suspend, meaning I regularly have my laptop completely run down in situations my old one never would, even with its worn out battery. Unfortunately that’s not Framework’s fault and there’s nothing you can get with S3 if you want a newish CPU