Ask HN: Recommended Laptops for Linux?

I have a 2017 15 inch MacBook pro, and in general I'm a bit underwhelmed with it.

The main reason I use MacOS is because it's Unix-like, all of the tools I require for work are available on Linux.

I have a Lenovo Yoga at home - but running Linux on it never seems to be very smooth - the main issue I have with it (and this is a bit of a deal breaker) is that it doesn't ever seem to work properly with my Thunderbolt docks. I have two thunderbolt docks, one is an OWC, which is plugged in to two LG 4K UltraFines and I have a Belkin which is plugged in to an LG 5K Ultrafine. For various reasons, I don't want to change these docking setups.

Things that are important to me the most are RAM and screen quality. Portability, disk space, high end graphics cards, touch screens, quality of keyboard/trackpad (almost always use the keyboard and mouse attached to the docks) are all lower down the list.

Can anyone recommend a good linux laptop that would fit the bill here? Thanks!

5 comments

[ 132 ms ] story [ 689 ms ] thread

kasperset 5y ago ↗

Well I have not personally used this laptop but I have heard good things about system76 laptop line.

nickthemagicman 5y ago ↗

I imagine itd retty much going to be a mix of responses for Dell XPS, Lenovo, and system76.

I use a Dell XPS and it's great.

catacombs 5y ago ↗

I've had a Thinkpad X220 as my Linux machine for years, and I love it. The computers are cheaper than a Mac and are built to last.

simonblack 5y ago ↗

Lenovo with Intel hardware peripherals is probably the most suitable for installing Linux on.

At a pinch, Nvidia displays can be used, though you are constricted to using Nvidia's proprietary Linux drivers which they tend to provide whenever they finally bother to get around to doing.

I have just replaced my 10-year-old Thinkpad T410 with a Thinkpad P53. I hope it will be as versatile as my older machine.

lvturner 5y ago ↗

Yeah, I've always heard that Lenovo is generally the way to go, but my Yoga C940 really struggles with the USB-C/Thunderbolt Docks.

I've kind of got it working now, but the screen will occasionally cut out and I often have to reboot it so it will wake up the monitor etc - and only one of my two USB-C ports on the laptop are working (I suspect one of them got fried somehow - it doesn't seem to work in Windows either)

I know the Yoga range and the ThinkPad range aren't really comparable, but it's made me quite nervous about spending a larger sum of cash for a more 'workstation' appropriate laptop.