Linux laptop recommendation thread🐧💻

I’m on the market to buy a new laptop, and Lemmy has successfully coaxed and goaded me to give Linux a serious try.

I’ve never used *nix as my personal OS.

Which hardware/laptop do you recommend? And which OS to pair it with for a Linux newbie?

I’m a software engineer, and quit my job to pursue an MSc in AI. So my uses will be:

  • programming
  • study
  • browsing lemmy
  • gaming
Grass,

I just want a modern AMD apu laptop with coreboot, slotted ram and multiple nvme slots, but like everything these days it would seem I’m asking for too much.

cyberpunk007,

That would be perfect.

Grass,

My modded t440p goes with me everywhere until then. I have that IIRC core2 dell(?) armored laptop running fully blobless too but it’s just a server backing up my 2fa emergency keys and such things. It was a fun little side project building and flashing coreboot but the hardware is a bit dated these days. The t440p is good for anything other than gaming or 4k movies at least.

kidpixo,

I bought a lenovo p14s AMD 2 years ago without OS, 32GB RAM and M.2 SSD, very happy with Arch, BTW. Coreboot would be nice, but it doesn’t seem feasible yet…

const_void,

Coreboot would be nice, but it doesn’t seem feasible yet…

Why not?

kidpixo, (edited )

Modern CPUs, especially AMD. Correct me If I’m wrong !

const_void,

Yeah, that’s incorrect. System 76 is producing machines with modern CPUs that use coreboot:

system76.com/laptops/oryx

kidpixo,

Nice , but my question was more if it possible to put it on other commercial machines, especially AMD one

vox, (edited )
@vox@sopuli.xyz avatar

my current dell one has an amd cpu, slotted ram (no soldered on crap) and nvme + sata (with space for a drive); too bad the build quality and the touchpad sucks
my old lenovo one also had replacable slotted cpus (with Pentium 2020m pre-installed). The lid also just slid off (like on a rail), with only one screw needing removal, no flimsy plastic clips. I broke plastic part of the hinge on that one by just flipping it over, oh well.

Grass,

I miss the old days and what I thought the future of tech would be like back then…

Dehydrated,

Framework, System76, Slimbook and Tuxedo are great choices

jo3shmoo,

Another happy framework user. I have the AMD 13. The modularity allowed me to completely disassemble and clean/save the machine when my wife spilled an entire chai latte on a 1 week old computer. Fan can get a little loud, but the machine just works great and there’s a great community around it.

Dehydrated,

I was so close to buying a Framework and put Linux on it, but unfortunately my job requires me to use macOS, so I got a MacBook. I read a lot about the noise caused by the single fan, but the I’d say it’s worth it for the modular ports.

alice_mac,

The MacBook’s are damn good though, so it’s not the end of the world for you.

Plus with Asahi they are pretty close to being a decent Linux machine too.

Dehydrated,

The M3 Pro doesn’t support Asahi yet :(

But I’m glad they got the HDMI output to work. I’m so excited for the release, I’m gonna install it as soon as it drops. I don’t necessarily need Thunderbolt, I just want some kind of video output. USB C display don’t work at this time. I also love their solution for audio: the speaker safety daemon as well as the audio preprocessor.

I’m so excited, Asahi will be great, especially soon with KDE Plasma 6.

alice_mac,

Those GitHub links are pretty cool actually.

Fred,

Second framework. The upgradeable is unmatched… Except if you want to go from the 13inch to 16inch.

CodeHead,

Framework

This. It’s awesome. I have the i7-1165G7 and my son has the newer intel one. I prefer the smaller one but the larger one has a dedicated GPU. This is all you need… everything is replaceable. But pick the size you most likely need

lud, (edited )

Framework seems nice but only 4 ports is a huge deal breaker.

Dehydrated,

I’d say System76 is the 2nd best choice.

blotz, (edited )
@blotz@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know if I can recommend framework. I’ve been having lots of reliability issues with their hardware.

I had massive issues a few months in. Lots of weird issues such as SSD randomly disconnects, screen flicker & system crashes, and issues with powering on after leaving the laptop overnight.

Been emailing back and forth with them since October trying out different fixes. All this time I haven’t really been able to use my laptop reliably. It should be getting sorted eventually. Their warrenty is pretty good and they finally agreed to replace the whole thing.

The laptop was nice. The modular ports was kinda cool because you can choose your io. The nice part was being able to open the laptop and upgrade parts without voiding warrenty. I think this is hardware issues rather than linux compatibility issues.

Maybe a Thinkpad would be more reliable for uni work

Toldry,
@Toldry@lemmy.world avatar

Please update me when you get your warranty replaced laptop and tell me whether that one also has problems

Sendpicsofsandwiches,
@Sendpicsofsandwiches@sh.itjust.works avatar

Linux runs on literally anything. The hardware doesn’t matter too much these days, but which distro you pick does. I would say to just load a flash drive with a live image of a distro you think looks cool and see how you like it on a trial basis. Try a couple of them before you reqlly make a decision and then load the full image

muntedcrocodile, (edited )
@muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world avatar

I use manjaro xfce but i would reccommend fedora or mint if ya starting out. Fedora seems to just work most of the time hardware wise.

cm0002,

The hardware doesn’t matter too much these days

WiFi, Bluetooth and Nvidia graphics have entered the chat

hperrin,

Fingerprint reader and webcam standing by

agelord,

The proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers works pretty well in most distros. Just go to your distro’s driver manager and enable the proprietary driver.

cyberfae,
@cyberfae@lemmy.world avatar

Nvidia cards can still be tricky, especially on optimus laptops. It’s not nearly as problematic as it used to be, but I still run into occasional issues with it. If I ever buy a new computer for gaming, I’m going to go with AMD.

DarkDarkHouse,
@DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I did, and I’d do it again next time. You can eventually convince NVIDIA cards to go, but relatively, AMD just works.

havokdj,

Linux gaming on laptops in GENERAL can still be tricky

Source: have both optimus and advantage laptops.

AMD mobile graphics tend to sometimes have less hiccups, but for the most part you are still going to have to tell the program to use the dGPU.

cyberfae,
@cyberfae@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t mind telling the game to use a dedicated graphics card and I don’t mind tinkering in general, but I want the graphics driver to work as expected. For example my Nvidia optimus setup doesn’t always play nice with the external monitor and I’m currently dealing an issue where an nvidia specific setting is needed to get some games working, but that same setting causes issues in other games.

averyfalken,

WiFi and Bluetooth yeah, if you run Linux mint setting up the proprietary drivers us literally like 2 buttons in the drivers menu

PlantObserver, (edited )

I have a very similar use case so here is my opinion.

HARDWARE

-No dGPU unless this is your PRIMARY gaming computer. (Reason: better battery life, lighter laptop, with recent AMD iGPU you have decent performance for non-VR/not massive openworld AAA games.)

-recent AMD CPU. (Reason: better performance to watt ratio than Intel which makes a big difference for most of your use cases. Better multi-core performance which makes compiling code much faster. Massively better iGPU for light-medium duty gaming.)

-atleast 16GB ram if not expandable but as much as you can reasonably budget.

-16:10 or taller aspect ratio screen (16:9 sucks on laptop size devices, the extra height makes a big difference for school, coding, browsing, pretty much everything but watching 16:9 movies)

-Resolution: personal preference. IMO 1080p or 1920*1200 for 16:10 is ideal for 14" and below laptops. Lower resolution means better battery and on a small screen the PPI is high enough. If you are OK with a trade off of battery life and want a super crisp display then 2K is the highest I would go. 4K is retarded on laptop sized screens unless you are plugged in 90% of the time and you’ll have to fuck with scaling then.

-metal body for stiffness and durability

-decent key travel (usually longer travel means better IME)

If you want to do machine learning/AI work professionally I use and recommend investing in a dedicated desktop with a large memory nvidia (cuda cores) GPU and installing the cuda drivers. Trying to cram commercially viable ai hardware into a laptop is a losing battle and you’ll end up with a worse experience for both use cases, wont be able to fit large models in the memory anyways, and end up buying a desktop for AI while being stuck with a laptop that is worse for laptop use)

SOFTWARE

#1 Nobara OS KDE - best OOB experience for gaming IMO. Easy transition from windows. Has kernel fixes and many laptop specific fixes (asusctrl for example) by default which means you have a good chance of extra features like LEDs, fingerprint, etc working without tinkering). Fedora based.

#2 Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE6) - best non-gaming distro to learn and grow into IMO. Access to deb packages. Stable. (nobara has been stable for me as well, but it is LMDE’s bread and butter). Ease of transition from windows. Can game just as well if you are capable of following simple instructions to configure the stuff done by default on nobara and pop (may need to manually change kernels, drivers, etc to get the best performance on new hardware)

#3 Pop_OS - used it for years, but I prefer Nobara after comparing. Ubuntu based so you have access deb packages without ubuntu’s bullshit. Setup out of the box for gaming. I got fed up with failed updates, broken packages, and sluggishness so I swapped to nobara which has been a treat.

EDIT: you can snag some good deals on amazon warehouse deals (used-like new) laptops. These are usually just open box returns and if there is anything wrong you have 30 days to return it.

I recently upgraded to an Asus vivobook S 14x OLED (M5402R) for $780 CAD ($580USD) with a ryzen 7 6800H, 16GB DDR5, a 1TB gen 4 nvme, and it has zero signs of use, slight coil whine under load that I can only hear if I put my ear next to the keyboard and don’t have any sound or music on (I suspect this was the reason for the return on mine since its a common complaint for this model. That’s what I was hoping for since I’m not that picky and its worth the steep discount IMO.) Everything works oob on Nobara. I believe lenovo also regularly heavily discounts their previous gen thinkpads which are a great option, although the AMD configs are rare. Good luck!

01189998819991197253, (edited )
@01189998819991197253@infosec.pub avatar

I just received a 2010 MacBook pro, but don’t like macos and the 2010 can’t support modern Mac. So, Linux. I installed budgie completely forgetting it was snap. I was planning to install LMDE. I’ve never heard Nobara OS, so will give it a shot first. Thanks!

TheGrandNagus,

Nobara is just Fedora with some tweaks.

01189998819991197253,
@01189998819991197253@infosec.pub avatar

I was reading their site after I posted, and saw that. I do love Fedora! It’s going on the MacBook. Hopefully the antiquated hardware can handle it smoothly. I’ve always got antiX lol.

fl42v,

I can only argue with metal body here: that’d vary on model-to-model basis. I’ve had a few thinkpads made of plastic, and they’re fine after a few drops here and there, and hinges are alive and well, also I’ve seen some (mostly new-ish) laptops made of literal aluminum foil that are bent AF; what’s even worse, one wasn’t even what they call unibody, i.e. the frame was sandwiched of aluminum shell and a piece of crappy plastic with heat inserts for screws → after like a year of normal usage those inserts literally broke off with the surrounding plastic.

The latter one was some ultrabook by HP. Namedropping here 'cause I have some personal issues with their products, so, frankly speaking, fuck them in particular :)

eatham,
@eatham@aussie.zone avatar

HP products are just always shit. I have a HP pavilion which was made of plastic, and it is basically unusable after 2 years of normal use. The plastic is the lowest quality crap I’ve ever seen.

Tangent5280,

I’d like to declare that HP sucks ass. That is all.

eatham,
@eatham@aussie.zone avatar

HP products are just always shit. I have a HP pavilion which was made of plastic, and it is basically unusable after 2 years of normal use. The plastic is the lowest quality crap I’ve ever seen.

noxy,
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

Avoid Lenovo. At least, I have not had great experiences with the ThinkPad T14s AMD, both gen 1 and gen 2.

Gen 2 came with an Aetheros (sp?) bt/wifi card that would never wake up after suspend, had to get an Intel replacement, thankfully the bad one wasn’t soldered in and I could replace it.

Trackpad has glitches that had to be mitigated in the kernel - mitigated well enough that it doesn’t bother me but it’s still silly

And both gen 1 and 2 still cannot reliably wake from suspend, and experience unreasonably high battery drain while suspended

Then again that could be a problem with all modern laptops…

8tomat8,

I’ve never had better experience with Linux than on ThinkPad. It made me love distro hoping again.

caseyweederman,

I’m a fan of the old IBM ThinkPads. Not sure about the recent ones.
I’ve had huge problems with one of Lenovo’s Legion laptops. Awful support too, they did everything they could to not have to fix it. It took a licensed third party to finally take us seriously and fix the dang thing.

So I wouldn’t recommend Lenovo unless the only alternative was Dell.

Hellstormy,
@Hellstormy@lemmy.world avatar

I run Kubuntu on a T15 Gen 1 for work and it works really well.

nxdefiant, (edited )

I’ve run Linux on the T410, T520, P50, P51, X1g2, X1g5, X1 Yoga, and p16s, all when those laptops were new. Sometimes the wifi was hard to configure, or the fingerprint scanner didn’t work, or the wwan card wasn’t supported, or the power states where fucky and drained the battery, but that was in it’s way all part of the fun.

It’s definitely gotten easier over time to run Linux on new hardware and I’ll pick a Thinkpad for the job every time. I use a modern Thinkpad with linux for work every day.

drdnl,

I have had a couple T14s without issue, did you remember to change the suspend mode in the bios to Linux?

noxy,
@noxy@yiffit.net avatar

Yep

pewgar_seemsimandroid, (edited )

uhh ThinkPad yes ThinkPad ThinkPad is linux THINKPAD PENGUIN

a a a a a a a a a a

a a a a a a a a a a

a a a a a a a a a

a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a

a a

a a a a.a a a

fine print: oh yea also framework

SLGC,

Which ThinkPad?

ChillPill,
@ChillPill@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been rocking a first gen X1 Yoga (6th gen intel) for like 5-6 years, three or so of those years I’ve been using Pop!_OS and its been pretty good. I suspect that a 6th gen intel may be a little lacking for your uses, just to say that most ThinkPads will be good.

derpgon,

Rocking E15 Gen2 with AMD CPU for about 3 years now, can’t complain besides the fucking fingerprint reader having proprietary drivers (thus not working on Linux).

So, the E model line is a nice work laptop with basically no GPU performance whatsoever.

pewgar_seemsimandroid,

yes

drdnl, (edited )

We use about seven ThinkPad T16 and P16s professionally with zero issues. Can recommend

Edit: the AMD versions, those generally work better with Linux

onlinepersona,

linuxpreloaded.com for a longer list

These are my favorites (EU based)

  1. TuxedoComputers
  2. SlimBook
  3. Star Labs Systems

Tuxedo Computers can get you a very good dev laptop for ~1500€ (64GB RAM, AMD/Intel CPU, NVIDIA/AMD graphics card). If you will be working in AI, I imagine you’ll need CUDA (?) aka NVIDIA.
If you don’t go for anything on linuxpreloaded (which I wouldn’t recommend), it’s good to check whether what you’re buying has linux hardware support by checking the Linux Hardware DB. Even if you don’t look, it’ll probably work, but better safe than sorry if you’re going to dump 1/3 or 1/2 of your months salary into something (depending on where you are).

For a distro, I dunno what level you are, but Distro Chooser can help you out with making a choice. My recommendations:

linux beginner

Linux mint. nice desktop environment, looks like a mashup between windows and mac, still missing advanced options, but quite customisable. comes with suitable standard software and cloud integrations (you can connect to a bunch of clouds), relatively up to date

Ubuntu is well-known, some proprietary companies even consider it “the linux” and only make linux versions for it. It’s quite stable. However, it isn’t my first recommendation anymore as they are going down a proprietary route. I’m not sure if they have ads yet, but wouldn’t surprise me if they started.

desktop environment

This is the desktop suite, a bundle of packages that work well together on any distro, with its own look and feel. There are basically 3 camps:

  • windows look n feel
    • KDE: is the most known, is very customisable, has an abundant amount of themes, icon sets, login screens, fonts, and a well-sized userbase. They prefix many app names with “K”. Ubuntu even has a distro version called “Kubuntu” with KDE on it
    • Cinnamon: main user is Linux Mint
    • LXDE and XFCE: look closer to windows 95 and windows XP, consume minimal resources. configuration is through the interface, advanced configuration through files
  • mac look n feel
    • Gnome: they are well known and source of flame wars (gnome vs KDE). windows don’t have title bars, things are very rounded, not very configurable, heavily mac inspired
  • tiling window managers
    • these aren’t desktop environments, but sit more in the middle, they manage windows. best to watch a video about tiling window managers. they are very geeky and perfect if you love using nothing but your keyboard

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Adanisi, (edited )
@Adanisi@lemmy.zip avatar

Pinebook Pro seems like a good option. It’s like a netbook. But it’s much more free than your average netbook and uses an ARM processor.

Debian Stable is a good distro for a beginner, in my opinion.

Fuzzypyro,

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

How is a netbook good for his use case? I don’t think you could game on it unless you exclusively play Quake III.

WeLoveCastingSpellz,

I use an asus rog g15 from 2021. It actually has pretty great linux support with asus-ctl but I can’t recommend it in good concience for professional purposes, it is decked out with rgb also asus has a pretty bad reputation of customer support.

shea,

you can at least turn the LEDs off or set them to white

h_a_r_u_k_i,
@h_a_r_u_k_i@programming.dev avatar

deleted_by_author

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  • Fal,
    @Fal@yiffit.net avatar

    What tinkering do you think a framework laptop requires? Even the diy option is basically just install RAM, put case together. It’s an hour of work max if you’re being REALLY meticulous

    WhyJiffie, (edited )

    But if you’re pursuing a MSc, you shouldn’t be wasting your time with gaming either, so that’s not a problem… /s

    Marty,
    @Marty@programming.dev avatar

    I’ve heard great things about system76, never had one of their laptops myself but still have the desktop I got in 2011 (Wild Dog Pro). I personally use the frame.work 13, and it has been working great with Arch installed. I do not recommend Arch, use something like PopOS, or LinuxMint.

    redbr64,
    @redbr64@lemmy.world avatar

    I have been eyeing a framework laptop. Just curious how you use the modular ports in your case: do you have different ones you swap sometimes?

    GorgeousDumpsterFire,

    I have a “typical” set of ports (2x USB-C, HDMI, USB-A) that’s on my laptop most of the time. I also have the 2.5GbE adapter that I use occasionally.

    redbr64,
    @redbr64@lemmy.world avatar

    I assume for charging you have to have the USB C one, and have it on a specific slot?

    GorgeousDumpsterFire,

    I can’t speak for all of the models, but my AMD Framework 13 can charge on any slot. I really like being able to charge from either side of my laptop.

    redbr64,
    @redbr64@lemmy.world avatar

    That’s actually nice little bonus!

    Marty,
    @Marty@programming.dev avatar

    2 type c’s and 2 type A USB are in it 99% of the time. I have the HDMI, and display port modules but have rarely used them. I also keep the 2.5Gb Ethernet for when I break the WiFi to get back into the router, and a microsd for when I reflash my raspberry pi’s .

    maxprime,

    Is there any advantage to having extra ports over a dongle with all of those at once?

    GorgeousDumpsterFire,

    IMO, modular ports is not the main selling point for Framework. I was sold on their commitment to a platform that is repairable/upgradable.

    Marty,
    @Marty@programming.dev avatar

    Other than they fit nicely into a pocket in my backpack…no. The main reason I love their product is the reparability aspect, allowing me to swap ports is just a neat feature.

    redbr64,
    @redbr64@lemmy.world avatar

    I guess that makes sense, I can still just put the dongle I already have for edge cases like plugging into a DisplayPort monitor, needing Ethernet, etc. Also I didn’t realize until someone else commented that they have extra storage ones, that would probably be one for me

    refreeze,
    @refreeze@lemmy.world avatar

    I keep a copy of Windows installed on a storage card, saves from having to mess about with partitioning for dual booting.

    redbr64,
    @redbr64@lemmy.world avatar

    Oh, they have extra storage cards, that’s pretty sweet actually

    blotz,
    @blotz@lemmy.world avatar

    What generation of framework do you have?

    Marty,
    @Marty@programming.dev avatar

    Intel 11th gen. I was in the first few batches when it came out and haven’t had a need to upgrade, but love that I can if needed.

    blotz,
    @blotz@lemmy.world avatar

    Oh man that’s the same as me! I’ve been having all sorts of issues with reliability with mine so I was curious if it was different generations. I guess I’m unlucky?

    Marty,
    @Marty@programming.dev avatar

    I’ve had no issues that weren’t caused by me, but I also have a pretty minimal setup.

    BurnSquirrel,

    I was typing up a reply and realized this said most of what I was saying. The only thing I’d add is that support matters, popularity matters. Supported or popular HW platforms are less likely to have small random niggles than an off the shelf dell laptop. System 76 or tuxedo lines are ideal supported platforms. Think pads area super popular.

    PopOS or Mint are as easy to use as ubuntu, but without being chained to snaps, which everyone is moving towards flatpaks except canonical

    ItsaB3AR,

    Just gonna throw in a recommendation for Nobara as a distro. Based on Fedora, maintained by Glorious egroll who makes great versions of proton. Distro is tuned for gaming but is great for regular use too. Used it for over a year and set my GF up with it as her first Linux desktop.

    ikidd, (edited )
    @ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

    +1 for Nobara. I never could stand the farting around it took to get Fedora to use codecs and non-free software, so I was a little off-put trying Nobara, but it’s been a pleasure to use. I still miss the AUR but not as much as the last time I left the Arch ecosystem. And it comes out of the box ready to game, with everything you are going to need to have the best experience you’ll find on Linux without having to beat your head against all weird things you have to do to configure properly.

    And KDE is a first-class citizen instead of sitting on the backburner waiting for a chance. I liked that change in the last release even though it was working well enough despite being non-default.

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    As someone who’s only ever used GNOME and has a Nobara install, what would the transition be like and is it worth it to reimage my machine with a KDE N39 install?

    ikidd,
    @ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

    You could just add the plasma-full package or the more minimal group and log out, it’ll be a choice in the display manager login screen. I’d go with the Wayland session. If you can’t run Wayland because of GPU issues, you’re probably better off with Gnome.

    Ibaudia,
    @Ibaudia@lemmy.world avatar

    Any used ThinkPad will be an incredible value with Linux installed.

    yum_burnt_toast,
    @yum_burnt_toast@reddthat.com avatar

    just be careful about those thinkpad chromebooks

    aberrate_junior_beatnik,

    Check out the Framework 16. Ubuntu and Fedora are officially supported. I run Debian on my Framework 13 no problem.

    rolaulten,

    I have a framework. Hands down the best laptop I’ve ever worked with/on.

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