Hey all.
I’ve booted Linux Mint Debian Edition and Arch on to a couple old machines including my old laptops. The performance is still rather brutal because these machines are so old and their battery lives are rough. They are also bulky and uncomfortable to carry around.
So, I’ve been thinking about getting a more modern laptop and putting Linux on it but I’ve been out of the laptop market for so long now I have no idea what’s good and what’s not anymore. Any recommendations?
I think I’ve heard decent things about Chromebooks but how’s the hardware of those? Are they relatively locked down and don’t play nice with Linux? I’m just looking for a machine for daily use (browser, light coding, remote connecting to my desktop for heavier stuff)
Thanks in advance
EDIT: Thank you to everyone for responding, I did not expect so much discussion! I’ve certainly changed my mind on Chromebooks and will look into the options recommended below in the coming months. Thanks!
Frameworks are the best modern laptop by far imo.
My daily driver is a 10yo Dell business laptop. Before that I ran a similarly aged Lenovo. I run mint.
In my experience, the amount of ram and an SSD are the biggest contributors to how good the performance feels. Running mint on 4G is possible, but performance is comprised. 8G is perfectly fine most of the time. 16G (my current setup) is peachy keen. I’m astounded what I can do in blender on a 10yo machine.
That said, if you can afford one (and they operate in your country - they don’t here), then grab a framework, like others have said. If that’s not an option, then add some ram and an SSD.
My 2c.
Used thinkpad is an easy choice. If you want new, I’ve been very happy with the framework 13
Definitely agree on the used ThinkPad. You can get some surprising deals from businesses offloading even relatively recent machines that are still in very good condition (used to daily drive a T14 Gen 3 that was half the price of when it was new despite being only two years old and still in warranty). However, new ones do still retain very good compatibility (no issues on my P14s Gen 5), although the price point does make a Framework the obvious other option to look at, especially due to the better upgrade and repair situation (soldered WiFi modules on newer ThinkPads are really annoying).
Old ThinkPads
My old Thinkpad from work runs Linux Mint like a charm. I tried dual-booting with Windows 10/11 for awhile and it was soooo sluggish. I deleted the windows partition entirely. Any use case I needed Windows for I’ve either run successfully on Linux or found a significantly better alternative.
If you can wait just a little longer I would seriously consider the Framework 12 that is going for pre-order next month and being shipped “mid-2025”.
Of course, this isn’t an option if you need a laptop right now. In that case the current Framework 13 offerings are the best you can get but of course are not as affordable and possibly a bit overkill for a simple browsing machine.Any idea what the price point is going to be?
Stay away from Chromebooks. Even if you get a Chromebook that is reported to play well with Linux, there can be issues. I have/had two different Linux Chromebooks. They both had unique pitfalls.
I had an arm-based Chromebook that was actually the development target of a custom distro. At its best, it still required a fairly specific wifi dongle to work without kernel hacks. Even then, the processor was slooow and storage was a bit of a problem if I was using it for anything other than text editing.
I’m running an intel-based Chromebook these days with Arch. The biggest bottleneck is the built-in nonupgradeable storage (16gb). Most of my home folder is symlinked to an SD card that I keep in the slot at all times. It works well and has great battery life, but there are easier ways to play with linux on a laptop.
You have plenty GNU/Linux compatible OOTB laptop manufacturers like:
Also check this for buying preinstalled libreboot laptops (some of the upper ones already do) minifree.org and here how to do yourself if you feel confident libreboot.org
Also you can consider buying a Dell laptop or Lenovo Thinkpad
I strongly recommend buying a laptop with AMD graphics, either integrated or external, for getting the best compatible machine for GNU/Linux, and avoid Nvidia, and Intel too if possible
I’d recommend avoiding all of these companies.
They will charge you a premium for inferior hardware and an OS they don’t have to pay licensing fees on.
You can buy a Lenovo gaming laptop with a 4070 for $900 from Walmart that will run Linux without issues. Don’t give these scumbags your money. They’re banking on you being stupid.
have you even read my comment? dont listen to this guy OP. Get yourself an AMD graphics
Get the best product for the cheapest price.
Don’t be a fanboy.
I don’t know where you live, but AMD is much cheaper than Nvidia, and everybody knows that. So maybe you’re the fanboy here. AMD is simply better on GNU/Linux because of open-source drivers. You’ll avoid many issues that, while easy to fix, someone getting a computer for GNU/Linux can easily avoid just by buying AMD graphics. I use two RTX 3090s on my main machine, btw
No, you’re the one definitely fanboying. You’re upset that someone is recommending a product from a company you’re not loyal to, so you will never stop responding until you have the last word.
If you can find a comparable laptop to what I linked for a similar or cheaper price, great. Link it. Otherwise you’re just fanboying while pretending you’re not.
If your next reply isn’t a link to a comparable laptop or an apology, I’m just going to ignore you.
Arguing with you people gets tiresome and it’s up to rational adults to see you for what you are.
I just sold my Framework 13 after daily driving it for a year. The HiDPI display bugs and workarounds just got too annoying.
I went back to my old Dell XPS 13 9310 and I’m loving it.
Good choice.
Framework always seemed like a meme.
If you haven’t already bought something:
What do you have now?
I would generally recommend against chromebooks. They’re often aimed at the lowest end of the market and have esoteric processors and boot processes that will make you frustrated.
I would generally recommend against small laptop manufacturers like framework etc. because of parts availability. People will say that you can get parts from the manufacturer but for how long? People will say you can make the parts themselves because the design is open source but I have a board etching setup, hot air station and injection molding machine and I don’t do that.
Obviously if you just want to “vote with your dollars” the above doesn’t matter.
If you want to get a laptop that’s gonna run linux well and last a long time get a used business class machine. There will always be a huge market for parts and they have almost always had someone put the effort in to document getting their distro to work right on their work assigned computer.
The black sheep option is to get a mac. Parts are everywhere for cheap and every microsoldering and computer repair shop will work on them because so many people have them and want to get them fixed. Obviously do your research first, but asahi is coming along and you’ve always got a Unix system to fall back on if it isn’t working out.
My current laptop I use when I’m away from home is a surface pro (one of the ones from like 2017). It just doesn’t hold more than two hours of charge now and constantly freezes just simply browsing.
After reading the replies here, I’m currently considering a refurbished framework 13 because I value its repairability though you do make salient points about their supply chain if they go under.
I may also wait a bit as I think I can hold off without a laptop for bit longer. All depends on where my job takes me in the coming months. Or if I still have one :/
I use Framework 13 with AMD for my Linux laptop, love it. I do not want to go back to any other brand.
Not often mentioned, but Surface Laptops run Linux thanks to Linux Surface on Github. I’ve been running Mint on a Surface Laptop 4 13.5" for years with zero problems. Used and refurbished models are much cheaper than the other options mentioned here.
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Positives - Excellent display and keyboard, nice form factor, very light and thin, comfortable fabric cover on keyboard bezel.
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Negatives - Smaller SSD (256g), limited ports, larger display bezel, reportedly somewhat difficult to disassemble, initial Linux installation a bit of a pain.
13.5" models with I7, 16g and 256g ssd are going for around $300 on ebay.
I have a surface pro 6 and I love it.
You should, however, mention that the cameras do not work (yet), which makes this a no-go as a full laptop replacement.
I have a Surface Go 1 and I’m really happy with it.
But, I have to admit it was tricky to boot Linux on it and the blutooth doesn’t always work. The cameras too, but I don’t care.
Still, it’s a great device that you can attach to a big screen to get the best of both worlds (easy to transport and useful at home).
What is the battery situation like?
The older, cheaper devices are obviously, well, older and thus the battery degraded a bit. Linux isn’t exactly optimized for these things either. I would expect less than great battery life.
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Going to piggyback off your post with this comment.
Where can we get laptop (m.2) wifi cards that are supported by FOSS drivers? I’ve been having a hard time finding them anymore.
Framework. Check the refurbs shop and get a great deal.
Stay away from Chromebook anything unless you get it for free.
+1 for the framework laptop. Have had zero complaints with mine. Framework also has some guides on their website for specific Linux distros if an issue comes up.
And just echoing another user here: AMD is better supported for the Linux kernel. Speaking from personal experience, I have used both an Intel based and AMD based system with no real issues
The one single thing I can’t stand about my Framework is the lack of S3 suspend, meaning I regularly have my laptop completely run down in situations my old one never would, even with its worn out battery. Unfortunately that’s not Framework’s fault and there’s nothing you can get with S3 if you want a newish CPU
Seconding Framework, they make great laptops.
Highly recommend getting one with an AMD processor, as AMD drivers are built into the Linux kernel updates. Driver updates will just work without you having to think about them.
This is the same for Intel variant Framework boards.
chromebooks are often well built with good keyboards at prices monumentally lower than comporable laptops, whilst being powerful enough to run linux well
you can quite easily get linux on almost all chromebooks, even arm ones (mrchromebox and postmarketos are references to look into for that) (postmarketos for arm stuff)
I have an hp chromebook g7 that I paid less than 20 dollars for, which has a good keyboard and is performant enough for firefox and typing on swaywm. it’s worth so little and is so light that it can just live in my backpack without worry. it’s also able to be charged from a normal usb c phone charger, supports usb c display output, and has a low power celeron that absolutely sips power
you can get much nicer chromebooks for cheap too if you’re into that, including some with unibody aluminum chassis and high resolution ips displays, all at prices less than even bottom barrel pc laptops
Came to say this. My 13 amd is a champ. Got my refurb and it’s brand new, I see literally 0 scratches or blemishes on it.
I’ve shopped around for a 12+ hour Linux laptop, I think you should wait a little while to pull that trigger, Qualcomm isn’t exactly great /w Linux, RISC is currently tripping on its own laces and people just aren’t interested in making this kind of thing exactly, yet.
I’m guessing that in a few years a lot is going to change with low power laptops that can still compute efficiently.
I have a 5 year old laptop that when I set it to highest efficiency can get almost 4 hours as long as I’m not doing 200 things, which is fine most of the time.
Plus I’ve read in a bunch of places that putting standard Linux on Chromebooks is way more complicated than it ought to be, so I’m not sure I’d pull the trigger on that without first researching the specific laptop you’re looking into.
Not that I’ve tried personally, just the Internets.
Framework
Yeah, I am thinking about getting one of those too, but I’m probably going to wait for the next generation before I buy one.
Unless they have a flash sale before the next release ;-)
Check out https://old.reddit.com/r/LaptopDeals/ daily until you find something that suits you needs and budget.
Here’s a gaming laptop from Walmart with a 4070 for only $900.
