I’m actually looking into buying a new laptop and seriously considering choosing some Linux distro as my new OS (I’ve always used Windows before, and Mac once for work)
How do y’all recommend which laptop I should choose?
Whatever you do, pick one that ships with Linux or is at least explicitly marked as compatible.
You do not want the headache of having a laptop with this one component that genuinely doesn’t work properly. Most will work, but for example fingerprint scanners are a very touchy subject. My freakin battery is not properly recognized by anything that isn’t Windows. It’s stupid, some just don’t care about existing, well defined, open standards.
Personally I’d go with a Framework laptop. Otherwise Tuxedo or System76 might have something you like.
Tuxedo is great. Beautiful devices. I’ve been asked about this ramdomly 2-3 times by people along the lines of “wow, that’s a nice laptop, where did you get that?”. Component upgrades also at decent prices.
Linux compatibility though… Good, if you use one of their preinstalled/supported options, but can be a pain otherwise. I installed debian and still haven’t figured out all problems with sleep/hibernation mode. The tool they offer is some bloaty node js crap that doesn’t work well.
Other than that, I think if you buy any laptop that is maybe 2 years old you should be good. Best way to check is maybe to Google the model + Linux and see how others experienced it.
I just preordered a Framework 16 inch because their concept is amazing and early reviews are pretty good. It’s a laptop where every part is replaceable and upgradable. You can replace/upgrade the motherboard/CPU, RAM, NVMe storage, keyboard, display, etc. all yourself, and they sell the parts separately. Even the ports on the sides are swappable - you can choose to make them all USB-C ports, or make any of them USB-A, 3.5mm audio, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, DisplayPort, HDMI, MicroSD reader, etc.
They have a 13 inch version that’s already shipping today… The 16 inch is a preorder to ship Q2 2024. Their newer ones use an AMD CPU and AMD graphics which should work better on Linux than Nvidia graphics.
More expensive than a regular laptop company though… They don’t have the scale that Dell, Lenovo, etc have so parts are more expensive for them (plus large R&D costs).
I’ve been using MainGear laptops for about 15 years now. It’ll come with Windows and I’ve either dual booted or just wiped it to install Linux everytime. Great prices for what you get hardware wise. My first laptop I bought from them is still running and in use. Never had an issue with Linux running the hardware. But prior to them almost every laptop I had I had issues all from the bigger makers.
Is it that Linux is getting popular, or that most people don’t buy new computers anymore now that their phone does everything they used it for, so it’s only the enthusiasts still buying?
That’s an interesting thought. I’ve wondered this about Chrome’s market share in browsers too. How much of it is just that so much traffic is now from phones where, even if you have another browser installed, apps open links in embedded Chrome web views.
Do we really want to be bigger anyway? I kind of like where Linux as a desktop isn’t really big enough for all the scammers and malware makers to care.
(And I know it’s huge for servers and malware also targets that, but they are usually maintained by professionals, not your parents that would probably run every shell script they are offered as help)
If Linux would become the biggest desktop os you are going to find so much more bad advice whenever searching for help online. I wonder if the nice people we have now are really ready for when the terrible people invade the community.
Perhaps a little lesd nice for those of us already using linux, but definitely better for the majority of people for getting less scammed by big corps. But one plus for us would be better support for apps and games that are still mostly or exclusively on other OSes.
Yeah kind of partially agree but not entirely sure what to say man. I’ve had my windows machine and my Linux box hacked in the past, didn’t do much besides ruin my ability to do my homework and general productivity, so I can’t say much.
I would prefer there to be more actual meaningful stuff out there for there to be hacked and or made different but a lot of the time almost all complex systems compound into or towards static failure, just look at the USA with being a military hegemony like Sparta or China slowly running out of people to sell junk to, the big oil companies slowly trying to micromanage the shift to renewables, people that believe in conformity, confucianism and “the myth of stability” ironically usually slow down all of societies progress rather than supporting an actual stable diffusion of change
That is what we like to call a “gateway drug”, first they try out an Android, then “just a taste” of Steam Deck, and next thing you know they’re installing arch btw on their grandparents’ computers
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