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Good affordable laptops I can run linux on without compatibility problems?

11 points by 55555 ↗ HN
I want to buy a laptop (sub $350) that will be a linux machine for messing around, programming etc. It doesn't need to do insane 3D rendering or hold a multi-terabyte porn collection or anything else taxing.

I am most comfortable with Debian-based distributions. Also, physical build quality and aesthetics are important to me.

What laptop did you buy? What distro do you run? Are you happy with it? How is the compatibility and out-of-box functionality?

10 comments

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gotorazor
If you can find a refurbed Thinkpad, that's a good option.

Or, just go on craigslist and buy a chromebook made in the last two years. Enable developer mode and run a script called 'crouton' which would allow you to install debian or ubuntu on the side.

That's what I am doing right now.

homerowilson
I bought a Toshiba CB35-B3340 13.3 Inch Chromebook/4GB RAM for $269. It has a really nice 1920 x 1080 display.

Then I installed the SeaBIOS firmware from John Lewis, https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download...

Then I installed Ubuntu 15.04.

Everything works great, including the HDMI adapter, wifi, sound, webcam, USB, etc. Accelerated OpenGL and WebGL works, although the performance isn't going to win any speed contests.

The thing only has 16GB flash storage, which is a little small so I added a 64GB compact flash card for more storage. Otherwise it's a great cheap Linux box.

hourislate
I purchased one just last week for the same purpose.

Newegg.com has Lenovo T420 Thinkpads on sale.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ztwnyh5

I upgraded the Ram to 8 gig and installed a SSD. Purchased a USB 3.0 card for the express card slot (2 x 3.0) and a second cdrom caddy that allows for another SSD. It also has an M2 slot next the RAM on the underside.

Laptop was $199, MEM was $48, Caddy was $12, SSD was $89, and USB 3.0 card was $12.

The laptop worked fine the way it was but with the upgrades it is just awesome.

Was a little hesitant because it is a refurbished unit but when I got it, it looked brand new and the battery charged to a full 100 %. I'm really, really pleased with the whole purchase.

As for Distros, Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Kali have had no issues. Install was uneventful.

55555
Thank you for your reply. A lot of people are mentioning that they added an SSD. Can I ask why this is so popular? Is the benefit purely disk read/write speed?
brudgers
Until I added one, I didn't realize how much difference an SSD makes. The machine boots, starts programs, shuts down, etc. much faster. Roughly, opening Thunderbird locally takes about the same amount of time as opening Gmail in my browser. Things happen at web app speed.
throweway
I got a second hand lenovo x230 with win 7 and run ubuntu in virtualbox and i am morr than happy. I only use vim and ghc and occasionally firefox so its good enough solution for me.
ekr
I got a Lenovo L520 with a sandy bridge i5-2410m, 4GB RAM about 1 year ago refurbished from Germany. I paid 97 Euros for it, great value for money I would say.

It's been rocking Arch Linux with i3wm ever since, and never had any problems with it. I used it mainly for programming.

brudgers
I bought a used ThinkPad, an aftermarket replacement battery, and a modest SSD for well under your budget. I run Ubuntu with some but not many or difficult interventions. It came with a Windows license too, for what that's worth.

I went with the ThinkPad because of the keyboard and the ThinkWiki. I went with Ubuntu because of AskUbuntu on StackExchange.

Good luck.

ferrari8608
System76 laptops are guaranteed compatible out-of-the-box with Ubuntu Linux. They're not super cheap, but they do have a financing option available. I have an oldish System76 netbook that runs Arch like a champ. A recent update made the wifi stop working for some odd reason (it was working perfectly until that), but there was an AUR package that fixed it for me.

Or just get a refurb Thinkpad on ebay. Last I checked, they're around $200-250 for an x201. The specs look a little dated, but they're really not bad for the price. From what I read the hardware is really solid too. I've been considering picking one up myself to play with Libreboot and some different distros on.

wprapido
lenovo W, X or T as well as dell E or XPS are good bets