Looking to upgrade from an old Latitude, curious as to what mobile hardware you folks use for writing your open source projects?
ThinkPad X230 with 9 cell, 16 GB RAM, total 1TB storage, and an Atheros NIC. A bit limiting at times, but I ‘outsource’ heavier tasks to my much more powerful desktop. I’m quite uncompromising with laptop design and ‘ergonomics’, so I’m trying to piece together a custom laptop based around the Framework mainboard before the X230 no longer meets my demands.
For testing stuff on Windows and work stuff that requires it, an X1 Carbon Gen 7 with 16GB RAM and 256 GB storage.
I use a ThinkPad x280 that was my previous school computer so I bought it out after school for like 150€. I really like it, just wish it had a bit more RAM.
I currently use a 2021 Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition and I really enjoy it. It’s a bit pricey at $1650 MSRP but it comes with a high end all AMD 5900HX, 6800M, 2 SoDIMM slots, and 2 M.2 slots. Plenty of ports: 3x USB-A, 1x USB-C, Ethernet, HDMI, headphone jack, and power jack; I’ve needed all of them and it’s just enough. Quite good battery life for a gaming laptop and supports USB-C charging. I currently dual boot Windows and Ubuntu. Biggest flaws are the preinstalled SSD is crap and there’s no webcam.
I just bought a Thinkpad x1 carbon preloaded with Fedora and it’s pretty fantastic.
I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about the Carbons, especially the older ones as Linux machines.
So far I love it. I bought it brand new from Lenovo and you could pick from I think 3 or 4 distros. I picked fedora, which it came with 38. When I first booted up it had a bios update which honestly surprised me that they would bother. Then upgraded to 40 through the fedora upgrade path. All painless.
I was fully prepared to make a windows live USB just to flash the bios/firmware.
I have one from 2015 that is literally falling apart, but it still works okay. I’m going to be sad when I have to finally give up on it. Unfortunately, it’s not great for repair. I was going to replace the keyboard because some keys are malfunctioning, but it requires basically pulling apart the whole computer including some parts that are taped on.
I just got a Lenovo Yoga 9i and am pretty happy with it. It has a really nice display and wanted to experiment with a convertible as I occasionally wished I had a tablet but wouldn’t use it enough to justify it. Having a laptop that can double as a tablet was attractive.
Random notes:
- Fingerprint reader doesn’t work.
- There is a sysfs file to set an 80% charging limit which is nice.
- WiFi often seems slow and the signal strength is reported as low. I suspect this is poor AP selection as it seems to connect to a further AP in my house rather than the closer one.
Still very happy with my Dell XPS 13 9310 I bought in late 2021. (wow was it so long ago?) I use Adobe Creative Suite daily and make videos in Da Vinci Resolve.
Without being specific, I’d try to get something with firmware updates available on LVFS: https://fwupd.org/
And you might want to check for distribution specific notes on that model e.g.
- https://ubuntu.com/certified/laptops
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Category:Laptops
- https://linux-on-laptops.com/
- https://www.linlap.com/doku.php
If Wayland is more important to you than AI/ML/LLMs then you probably don’t want anything with an nVidia GPU
I have a framework 13 with fedora and I like it.
You beat me to it! I have the same setup. Did you have any issues with the 39->40 update? It broke my icons in plasma
I haven’t had time to upgrade yet actually
For me sound broke but I just had to rm a file and reboot
I just bought a Framework 13, and I got say, it’s amazing. First of all, everything works out of the box. That’s surprising for a laptop with Linux. Even the Dell I used to own that specifically advertised compatibility with Linux and even came with Ubuntu had a fingerprint reader with no Linux support. Meanwhile, the fingerprint reader on my Framework has worked flawlessly.
Second, it’s blazing fast. I got the new AMD one, and it’s definitely fast enough to handle everything I’ve thrown at it.
Third, if something breaks on it, like the screen, replacing the part is incredibly easy. I’ve replaced a couple laptop screens before, and while they’re easier than phone screens, it’s still a PITA. And that’s if you can find a replacement screen.
And then lastly, eventually I’ll be able to upgrade it. I like that.
So yeah, if you can afford the price premium, I highly recommend the Framework 13.
I use a NovaCustom laptop. As far as I know these are the highest end laptops that work with a Linux-libre system. I was interested in the Framework 13 (which I think can accommodate a Linux-libre friendly wifi card) but it’s too small for my tastes, however a Framework 16 with an Intel CPU would be ideal if/when it comes out, though.
I’m curious why you want an intel cpu over an amd one
In my experience Intel graphics have better compatibility with Linux-libre. I’m unsure about Linux-libre on AMD; according to at least one report it requires firmware blobs, which I’d rather avoid.
(I’m aware that firmware blobs are unavoidable with modern-ish hardware but I’d prefer to avoid as many of them as possible)
Thinkpad T470, i stupidly got a dual core, i’m looking to upgrade to a T480 though
Yeah I’ve got a t480. Sweet spot between upgradeable, repairable, affordable, performant. I’ve got a secondary NVME in mine for Debian. It’s got an internal and external battery. I replaced the thermal paste and the internal battery in about 20 mins. Very pleased with mine.
my thinkbook 16p g2 is trash. Nvidia driver is not working well and the device wakes up from suspend whenever it’s plugged out or in on any usb or power connector, and then heats up your backpack.
A Starbook from Starlabs.
To run Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or some other FOSS OS?
I’m running Fedora on a refurbished Thinkpad P1 Gen 4, and I’ve had good luck running Linux and the BSDs on higher end refurbished Dell Optiplex, Latitude, and Precision equipment.
Apple hardware is nice, and MacPorts gives me access to the vast majority of my *nix tools.
Shopping for new hardware I’d look at the list below to get Linux preinstalled.
- Thinkpad X1 Carbon
- Slimbook
- System76
- Tuxedo Computers
- Juno Computers
- Starlabs Systems
Or buy refurbed equipment from Dell or Lenovo.
Thinkpad E16
