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Ask HN: Laptop similar to MacBook Pro in term of design

6 points by eswiac ↗ HN
I use a MBP 13' as my everyday laptop. Now It's been 3 years and I've been very happy with it, but now I would like to come back to Linux. It's not MacOS that keeps me from doing that, but the MacBook as a laptop, and its features/design.

Aluminium case, neat finition, robust case, backlit keyboard, multi-touch trackpad (that I heavily use), magsafe power port ... are the features that I will miss the most. Are you aware of a non-Apple robust laptop that could offer features somewhat similar ?

Note : I don't want to bootcamp with linux or refit on a MB.

Thank you for your insights.

13 comments

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27182818284
Maybe something from System76, but that is the best I can think of.
eswiac
Thanks ! I didn't know that brand.
pavel_lishin
Can't answer your question, but why don't you want to install Linux directly onto the MBP?
eswiac
Personal choice, for me Mac hardware run Mac software. And linux support of mac os hardware is not stable, except on Ubuntu maybe.

My MBP is old, the trackpad and the battery are almot dead, and I don't want to spend $$$ on a new MBP just to setup a linux on it. I am sure there are good laptops around here I haven't been able to put my hands on.

lstrope
That is not true. Arch, Fedora, Debian are all capable of supporting the hardware specs of a 3 year old MBP.

It depends a lot more on the experience you want with your system. Do you want KDE or Gnome? Or something more sleek like openbox? (openbox with Cairo-dock can almost be used as a drop in mac clone) With KDE out of the box it usually will setup basic two finger scrolling and mouse gestures for the track pad.

I would just put linux mint on your mac book and call it done. It will support your hardware and you'll appreciate the form factor more.

angryasian
well outside of these design features that op mentioned the hardware specs you can purchase a comparable laptop with hardware specs for half the price.
dpark
What laptop can you buy for half the price of MacBook Pro that has the same feature set? Especially the giant multitouch pad?
angryasian
well "giant" wasn't specified, but most new laptops have multi touch now. The difference is newer laptops by different vendors usually get heavily discounted or goes on sale much faster than mbp's. Just watch any deals site and you'll see. A nicely configured mbp will go for around 2k, you can easily get the same configuration for 1k, possibly much less with deals, coupons and discounts.
achompas
Are we talking about silicon specs? Or the actual laptop hardware?

This might be picking nits, but I can't think of any other company making a laptop with an aluminum unibody.

qx24b
I have a Samsung qx410 which is somewhat similarly built and has a great keyboard but absolutely sucks for linux in the touchpad department.

I think you should look at thinkpads, even though they might not meet your specifications they usually work much better with linux than other brands and are usually well built.

haesken
I'm in a similar situation, I'm replacing a Macbook4,1. I don't want to deal with EFI/refit/GPT/etc anymore. As far as 13' laptops go the ASUS U36SD-A1 is the most attractive to me, but I think I'm going to end up getting a SAGER NP5165 because I can get more power for the same price. The HP Envy series also looks pretty good, if you can find them for a decent price.