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Best Linux laptop for web development?

16 points by thinkhuman ↗ HN
Looking for a solid recommendation of a reasonable, reliable laptop for daily development work in Linux (any distro). 15"+ screen, 16gb+ RAM, good keyboard, good trackpad. Preinstalled Linux or Linux-compatible--basically, looking to move on from Macbook Pro and fully embrace my Linux love.

28 comments

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gravypod
There is a good thing to remember about buying laptops: the more powerful the CPU and GPU the less battery life.

If you want a good laptop, you can never go wrong with a thinkpad.

maxaf
+1. Also goes without saying that Amazon has lots of quality refurb ThinkPads. They're priced accordingly but are solid machines nevertheless.
gravypod
Honestly you can't go wrong with buying some off craigslist. The same if not better price.
maxaf
I do a lot of craigslist deals, and it's not for the faint of heart. Here in NYC one has to be a bit street smart to avoid getting robbed or worse by a craigslist buyer or seller.

Amazon is probably a safer place for most people.

jensen123
> If you want a good laptop, you can never go wrong with a thinkpad.

Actually, you can. I purchased a 3rd generation X1 Carbon last year. It had a very annoying fan. I guess that's what you get when you buy an "ultrabook" with relatively powerful specs. In the end, I got myself a heavier T450 instead. This T450 has been excellent.

lgieron
Macbooks have strong specs and are pretty quiet. I'm not aware of any other models that can do both, though.
maxaf
Linux on MacBooks can be hit or miss.
thinkhuman
Reading through HN, I can see I'd better clarify: I'm looking for actual recommendations of specific laptops--not "buy a Dell", "Buy a Thinkpad", etc. There are hundreds of each of those kinds, for example. I don't need a brand recommendation.
jdietrich
The Dell XPS 15 is one of the nicest PC laptops available. Thin, light, powerful and available with a 4k display. Linux support is apparently very good, with the caveat that there's an Optimus graphics chipset.

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/ https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA_Optimus

keithblaha
I have one of the latest generation of xps 15- looks and works great. I'm on the final beta of Ubuntu 16.04 using cinnamon 2.8, works perfectly out of the box with nvidias drivers (using nvidia-prime instead of bumblebee to control optimus since bumblebee wasn't cooperating for me this time around)
zumu
Google Pixel might be a good choice.

I currently develop in Linux on a much cheaper chromebook, and it's great.

planteen
I use System76 though mine is a bit lower end than your specs. Their machines come pre-installed with Ubuntu. The company is headquartered in Denver but I think all manufacturing is in China.
snehesht
I'm using Archlinux on Thinkpad T440s with 8Gb ram and i5-4300U processor. It usually gives me on average 5 hrs of battery and it's lightweight to carry around.

The primary factors I chose thinkpad was due to 1. Battery backup 2. Awesome Keyboard 3.I wanted 14inch screen size.

Answering your question, Even a chrome book would suffice for web development, all you need is a browser and editor. It's really upto you to see which laptop suits your need.I suggest you do this.. 1. Write all the specs you think you need like screen size, battery life, if you need a GPU or not, weight of the laptop... 2. Check the top brands (Lenovo t,x series, Dell xps, HP, toshiba...) using those specs as filters and make a list of laptops you want to finally choose from 3. Go to a store and try those laptops out firsthand, see how comfortable you're with the keyboard etc..

vmasto
A browser and an editor is far from enough for web development. At the very minimum you will need node.js at the very least for task managment and build process, all the browsers and VMs to load IE and Edge testing plus maybe Photoshop, or at least some kind of industry acceptable image/design software.
snehesht
Yeah definitely, but it's not really necessary to run them on your laptop. You could simply vnc into a remote machine to use tools like photoshop etc. As for nodejs or any other building tools they don't affect your choice of laptop.

If you need performance then you may have to sacrifice battery and weight. if you need something you can carry around you have to give up performance as your primary choice.

thinkhuman
I don't know about you, but I need much more than "a browser and an editor" on the laptop. I run a lot of apps outside the browser, I create VMs, etc. That RAM and a decent processor are crucial to me.
josemrb
I'm also looking to upgrade later this year, I suggest the Dell Precision 5510 or 3510
drakonka
I've been happy with my X1 Carbon running Fedora 23. I tried installing Ubuntu first and ran into a bunch of problems. So far all good with Fedora aside from having to add a boot parameter (intel_pstate=no_hwp), until there is a kernel patch.
dragonorta
I'm curious about what is making you want to move away from a MacBook to a linux laptop. I've been using a Lenovo G580 with Ubuntu for about 3 years for web development at home, and a MacBook at work. I vastly prefer the Mac to my personal Ubuntu laptop.

One of the reasons that I prefer the Mac is that the dev tooling is fairly effortless to get set up and use. On Ubuntu, I'm often spending MUCH more time getting tooling set up than on the Mac.

thinkhuman
I'm curious about your tooling issues. Anything specific you can share?
edimaudo
I believe the DELL XPS line has what you are looking for.
pmags
If you're willing to give up a tiny bit of screen size for portability, I highly recommend the Dell Latitude E5450.

* 14" 1920x1080 screen * Excellent keyboard (better than my 13" Macbook Pro) * Very usable trackpad * 6-7 hr battery life * RAM and Hard Drive easily upgradable * Works great w/recent Ubuntu-derivatives (probably other distros as well, but I haven't tried 'em)

I recommend you try and pick on up via Dell Outlet -- with an occasional 40% off coupon (e.g. there's such a discount available right now) you can get one for less than $450.

nickysielicki
I was just about to pull the plug on an E64XX laptop on eBay. Thanks for the tip about Dell Outlet.
erans
Most Thinkpads will work just fine out of the box. The hardware is great (I specifically like the keyboard and the little red point mouse).

The T series (and W series) are the work horses here with various screen sizes, disk options and RAM.

I personally use the X1 Carbon 3rd gen (X series) as it is comparable in specification to a Macbook Pro 13" (I have the one with the 16GB of RAM). It's a little costly but its worth while and will probably serve me for the next 2+ years.

wprapido
i'm a happy dual-boot (win10 + ubuntu 14.04) lenovo W520 user. tried other linux distros as well as freeBSD, PC-BSD, openBSD. never had any (at least seriously work impacting) issues with hardware compatibility