I feel called out here lol. Granted, I’ve only recommended it to people I know who complained about the performance of windows. Linux is so much more optimised
No no no no. I love the pinebook pro. But please don’t suggest it to anyone as a newbie hardware choice trying to get anything done. There are so many little quirks on hardware this slow and moreso having to deal with arm repos and all of the incompatible software/workarounds.
A few examples.
If you want to watch YouTube you basically have one browser option. Chromium. Additionally if you want to watch any drm content then you need to install a docker container that runs chromium that has drm enabled.
App images and flatpak software repos are nowhere near complete which can be not great for someone who is just trying to get some work done. Really not great when some devs are exclusively distributing via flatpak.
No virtualization. It just doesn’t have the capability. Sure there are docker containers but that isn’t exactly virtualization.
I love my pinebook. It’s a great machine for just have a very cheap low spec thin client with a decent keyboard and screen but I would never ever recommend it to a newbie.
What is this “Windows” thou speakest of? I use grub just to experiment with kernel options and select different kernels without writing too often to the efi eeprom
Not a laptop, but I replaced my old laptop with a micro PC from minisforum EM680 and I’m very happy running Linux Mint in it. If you tend to use your laptop on the same spot, it’s a great way have a more performing and ergonomic PC for the same or lower price.
I can power it from my monitor, so I can have only one cable at the desk. Bluetooth and wifi working out of the box.
At any rate, I suggest you stick to AMD graphics as they have native open source support.
my brother runs a thinkpad T380. best thing about it is that there is a swappable and a built-in battery. he bought it “refurbished” so his didn’t include the internal one for some reason. but you can open and even upgrade some components.
all for around 300€.
we think these have benn bought by companies for full price (1000+€) and are now being replaced, so the market for used thinkpads is very saturated at the moment.
currently runs windows, but i see no problems with running linux on a laptop, you aren’t gonna game on integrated graphics anyway.
i’ve used Linux Mint Cinnamon a fair bit, i really like it. i’ve heard KDE offers more desktop customization, but i have no idea what that would actually look like. Kubuntu apparently has it.
Choose whatever laptop you like, and do a quick search on the model for incompatibilities. If there’s something critical or long-term, like a very specific hardware module not working well without its proprietary driver, consider changing, but most of the time, Linux will just work.
For distro, PopOS is good. It doesn’t come with a bunch of bloatware, but it is also not barebones. Mint is also a great choice.
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