2011 Lenovo Thinkpad X220 daily user here. Really nice machine really for my needs, running the latest Debian smoothly.
I do have a spare ready to take over if needed. Old hardware could always die very suddenly. It's a frugal solution, both cheaper and more ecological than buying new.
I have been wondering about this too. I'm pretty attached to my 2014 MBP (running macOS) but dislike the latest line of Macs (and want to have a linux laptop). I've been looking mostly at the new Dell XPS 13 range as they look really good. I just worry that the build quality will never match up to Apple's.
Considering the crappy keyboard on my 2018 mbp and annoying stuff like no extenal monitor if using battery (unless the laptop's open, for some reason, I already prefer my 2015 xps 13
Made an account just to comment on this. The new keyboards are a nightmare. My keys on my 2016 Macbook Pro kept sticking and after a while started falling off. To fix it, they have to replace large parts of the machine, including the screen, so your machine is likely to be in the shop for the better part of a week. Once repaired, the problem will persist, because it's not like they're actually able to correct the design flaw by giving you a new keyboard.
I've been a loyal Mac user for about 16 years - even used to run Yellow Dog Linux on my old PPC - but I've started migrating my family to the Dell XPS for their new laptops. From what I read, the new rubber components in the most recent laptops don't really fix the issue either. I'd stay away.
Do you still need "unofficial" kernel patches to make it work properly under Linux? That's not what good support looks like.
And the "no hardware support for ACPI suspend" thing is common to a lot of newer mobile hardware - they call it "Connected Standby", so just be aware of that misfeature.
I owned multiple Surface devises, and while I think it's a good machine for development in general, it's definitely not a "best laptop to run Linux", due to incomplete hardware support.
In addition to the sleep, the webcam is not supported at all, and the wifi driver is far from perfect.
An extremely annoying issue, although not relevant to Linux itself, is that the Fn key frequently disables itself, and there's no way to lock it (there was in the SP3). I've verified this on both a Surface Book and a Surface Book 2.
Admittedly it's a different model, but I can't even get my Surface Pro 4 to boot from a Linux ISO. I followed Microsoft's instructions meticulously and it just didn't work when Linux was on the USB drive. I don't think the Surface line of products in general is great for Linux support.
There's plenty of good ones, just look for hardware that has good Linux support, like an Intel GPU, or AMD if you need more power, compatible wireless chipset etc.
If you don't mind slightly dated HW and want the smoothest experience, I'd get a Purism Librem[1], the XPS line is known to be a solid choice as well, there's vendors like System76.
I personally have an ASUS ROG GL702ZC, which is a Ryzen/AMDGPU based workhorse laptop that works well out of the box.
Thinkpads have already been mentioned but I also highly recommend the Dell Latitude, especially the 7490. They have fantastic keyboards, great battery life, and absolutely amazing displays (among the best 1920x1080 displays I have seen on a laptop). Plus they run many Linux distributions out of the box with minimal configuration.
If you live in the US or Europe I'd recommend the US/UK Dell Outlet. You can get a Dell Latitude in great condition (often like-new condition) for a nice deal, especially when they have their laptop promotions. I've had a good experience with their onsite service as well.
I looked a those, but found the 5400 series more practical (I use a 5480). US keyboard, 3 button mouse, and it has the same screen resolution, but a slightly more readable dot pitch.
For me the choice was based on the 3 button mouse, and the screen pitch.
What annoys me is that the only way to get the USA keyboard (for a UK purchase) was that the machine was procured in the USA.
This is one thing Apple get right - offering the USA keyboard layout in the UK market. That said, I don't like the feel of the current Macbook keyboards.
The one that you own already and that's sitting in a closet because it won't run well using a "current" version of its stock OS. Chances are that it will work very well with Linux.
XPS13. It works perfectly out of the box, you can even order it with Linux pre-installed. Do I need to explain further? The experience of running Linux on my XPS has been "boring as it should be" because everything just works. (I'm using Fedora 29)
I don't know what the _best_ laptop is, but I've been running Ubuntu 18.04 on my XPS 15 for a couple of months and it's been a fuss-free experience so far. Once you switch the hard drive to AHCI mode, that is...
Chromebooks with Crostini make for a good "second laptop". It is finally getting to the point where it is usable as my daily driver.
The main advantage is that in ChromeOS, things like Netflix and Hulu work at full resolution. And everything is touch optimized. Under Crostini, Linux apps are getting very well integrated.
Note, that there are still a few things that are in the works yet. I'm on the beta channel, and just got v74, which gives audio support to Linux apps. And 3d is still being worked out. (Audio in isn't in place yet though, for security reasons).
I also have a Thinkpad X1 Yoga, which so far has been 0 trouble with Linux (suspend/hibernate work as expected). The only thing that doesn't work is the fingerprint scanner. Thinkpads in general are fairly well supported, partly because many Red Hat developers carry thinkpads from what I've heard.
I agree, after the MacBook keyboard touchbar thing I’ve started using a chrome slate tablet and was amazed by how fast it is. It doesn’t have fans so it can’t be fast for long compute operations but short compiles or bursts are very fast. The keyboard is simple but yea tablet keyboard but it’s so small and lite I can carry with me almost everywhere. The biggest issue for me is when restarting the device for upgrades I lose my whole Linux even setup. Although I enjoyed finally learning how to use tabs in screen.
Not a new laptop but the t440p is an excellent choice still. Cheap, serviceable, extendable to 16gb RAM, with easily upgradable CPU... still one of the best in its category.
I got myself a HP Spectre x360 last year, it‘s the i7-8550, 16GB RAM, 4K Touch model.
After a bunch of BIOS updates Thunderbolt properly does it‘s job.
Latest model should work fine as well due to minor upgrades.
I use a TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 13 since 2017 and I love it. It's essentially the German version of a System76 Galago Pro. You can configure it to your needs, it's not too expensive and the hardware just works with Linux (Ubuntu 16.04/18.04 in my case).
My MBA 2013 just barfed and while I was waiting to get my new one in I decided to install xubuntu 18 LTS on a 2007 Sony Vaio (2mb, Core 2 Duo, tiny and slow harddrive). While it's nowhere near as fast as an SSD, it loads reasonably well and looks reasonable out of the box, and definitely usable for browsing/typing and a bit of compiling.
So what I'm saying is that I'm not sure if the question is specific enough.
That said, any el cheapo laptop will run well, & a good SSD with a bit of ram is all I'd be looking for if I were buying new... or I'd go top-end & gorgeous, like a Lenovo.
I have a Dell Inspiron 7000 which has a discrete GPU (GTX 1050Ti).. Once it runs, it runs very well, but being somewhat newer to Linux it was a big hassle which wasn't settled easily.
I owned several IBM Thinkpads, and one or more Dell (one XPS, at least).
Thinkpads are definitely very well supported (at least, the high-end standard form-factor ones; I had an Helix, and the support was mediocre), and they would go first in my list of Linux-supported laptops.
The Dell XPS 13 was working very well, AFAIR. I can't remember/find though, if I had other ones.
I have a 3rd gen Lenovo Carbon X1 and absolutely love it. I am coming from a late 2016 MBP touchbar which I can't stand to use anymore because of the keyboard issues (which I encountered twice, my mom has encountered, and my brother in law has encountered).
My only complaint with Ubuntu on the X1 is going to and waking from sleep is problematic for me. Sometime when I wake from sleep I have to do a hard reset (get frozen on the lock screen). Other times i successfully wake from sleep but the touchpad doesn't function 100%, mainly it won't allow me to two-finger scroll or click and drag.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 120 ms ] threadI do have a spare ready to take over if needed. Old hardware could always die very suddenly. It's a frugal solution, both cheaper and more ecological than buying new.
I've been a loyal Mac user for about 16 years - even used to run Yellow Dog Linux on my old PPC - but I've started migrating my family to the Dell XPS for their new laptops. From what I read, the new rubber components in the most recent laptops don't really fix the issue either. I'd stay away.
And the "no hardware support for ACPI suspend" thing is common to a lot of newer mobile hardware - they call it "Connected Standby", so just be aware of that misfeature.
In addition to the sleep, the webcam is not supported at all, and the wifi driver is far from perfect.
An extremely annoying issue, although not relevant to Linux itself, is that the Fn key frequently disables itself, and there's no way to lock it (there was in the SP3). I've verified this on both a Surface Book and a Surface Book 2.
If you don't mind slightly dated HW and want the smoothest experience, I'd get a Purism Librem[1], the XPS line is known to be a solid choice as well, there's vendors like System76.
I personally have an ASUS ROG GL702ZC, which is a Ryzen/AMDGPU based workhorse laptop that works well out of the box.
1 - https://puri.sm/products
If you live in the US or Europe I'd recommend the US/UK Dell Outlet. You can get a Dell Latitude in great condition (often like-new condition) for a nice deal, especially when they have their laptop promotions. I've had a good experience with their onsite service as well.
For me the choice was based on the 3 button mouse, and the screen pitch.
What annoys me is that the only way to get the USA keyboard (for a UK purchase) was that the machine was procured in the USA.
This is one thing Apple get right - offering the USA keyboard layout in the UK market. That said, I don't like the feel of the current Macbook keyboards.
The one that you own already and that's sitting in a closet because it won't run well using a "current" version of its stock OS. Chances are that it will work very well with Linux.
The main advantage is that in ChromeOS, things like Netflix and Hulu work at full resolution. And everything is touch optimized. Under Crostini, Linux apps are getting very well integrated.
Note, that there are still a few things that are in the works yet. I'm on the beta channel, and just got v74, which gives audio support to Linux apps. And 3d is still being worked out. (Audio in isn't in place yet though, for security reasons).
I also have a Thinkpad X1 Yoga, which so far has been 0 trouble with Linux (suspend/hibernate work as expected). The only thing that doesn't work is the fingerprint scanner. Thinkpads in general are fairly well supported, partly because many Red Hat developers carry thinkpads from what I've heard.
Btw, Fedora drives the h/w.
So what I'm saying is that I'm not sure if the question is specific enough.
That said, any el cheapo laptop will run well, & a good SSD with a bit of ram is all I'd be looking for if I were buying new... or I'd go top-end & gorgeous, like a Lenovo.
Thinkpads are definitely very well supported (at least, the high-end standard form-factor ones; I had an Helix, and the support was mediocre), and they would go first in my list of Linux-supported laptops.
The Dell XPS 13 was working very well, AFAIR. I can't remember/find though, if I had other ones.
Only issue I have is the nipple thing doesn't work after a wakeup even, but I don't use it so don't care.
My only complaint with Ubuntu on the X1 is going to and waking from sleep is problematic for me. Sometime when I wake from sleep I have to do a hard reset (get frozen on the lock screen). Other times i successfully wake from sleep but the touchpad doesn't function 100%, mainly it won't allow me to two-finger scroll or click and drag.