Any good / recommended Linux laptops?

[newlyminted7]

Anyone have any good recommendations for Linux laptops?
Price range of USD$1-$2k.

Also, any thoughts or opinions of these?
Purism Librem 14: https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-14/
("PureOS" worth it?)

System76 decent?
https://system76.com/laptops

Pine laptops?
https://pine64.com/product/14%E2%80%B3- ... 46c16e2e66

StarLabs?
https://starlabs.systems/

Dell still any good? Lots of "review" sites seem to like them...
Ideally, I'd like to support "the little guy", though.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

System76 laptops are hit and miss; some are good, others not so much. Their tech help is horrible. My laptop has been back twice and it still hasn't been fixed.

[spamegg]

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/no ... nu-linux-2

[Rocky Bennett]

I recently bought an older Lenovo T470p laptop with a 9th Gen Intel i7 with 8 cores and 32 GB of DDR4 RAM for only $750 U.S. It runs every distro that I throw at it perfectly.

[AndyMH]

Both dell and lenovo sell laptops with ubuntu, if it works with ubuntu it should work with mint.

Save money - buy a second hand thinkpad.

[wwfwng]

. . . Save money - buy a second hand thinkpad.

Agreed.

[Kendoori]

I can vouch for the Thinkpad T480. As I understand it, this was the last of the line regarding replaceable batteries and other user-upgradable parts. Well-equipped ones can be had as open box, or new, or gently used for well under $1k US. I bought a new, but underprovisioned one on eBay, replaced the SSD with one I had, and added more RAM. Thinkpads are well understood and liked in Linux land, and besides getting help here, there is an active subreddit for Thinkpads (including one specific to Linux), and an active Thinkpad forum here: https://forum.thinkpads.com

I am running Mint 20.1 with the 5.8 Kernel, and have also successfully run Pop!_OS on my T480, and before that my X230, X220, and X201

[missmoondog]

agree about saving money and buying second hand thinkpad, although never had any problem installing mint on hp or even toshiba laptops.

[absque fenestris]

Aside from brand recommendations: what do you want to do on your laptop?
There are a few differences depending on whether you use the device on the side for some home office and internet - or whether you want to work seriously with GIMP, FreeCAD or even Blender ...

[Finston Pickle]

I have an Entroware laptop (available in the UK - based in Liverpool)

Their Kratos laptop has been excellent. They source it from China, I guess an online search would reveal who in China.

They (Entroware) supplied the laptop with UEFI and safe start disabled, clean and ready for a Zorin 12 install. I've now moved on to a great Ubuntu/Mint O/S that rhymes with seven.

[Moem]

Aside from brand recommendations: what do you want to do on your laptop?

This is an excellent point. The right laptop means a laptop that is good fit for a certain person, and we're all different. Some of us want a big screen, some want maximum portability, some want a machine with a lot of "oomph"...

[deepakdeshp]

The database
https://community.linuxmint.com/hardware/search

[newlyminted7]

Thank you everyone for your replies, I appreciate it, it helps me a lot.
Ideally a core i7 chip, 12-16GB RAM, etc. I wouldn't be using many intensive software applications like video editing, 3D, or CAD, but I'd still probably go for a decent video card.

[Rocky Bennett]

Thank you everyone for your replies, I appreciate it, it helps me a lot.
Ideally a core i7 chip, 12-16GB RAM, etc. I wouldn't be using many intensive software applications like video editing, 3D, or CAD, but I'd still probably go for a decent video card.

Yes, then a used or refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad will be just perfect for you.

[spamegg]

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en#

[GS3]

Save money - buy a second hand thinkpad.

While I do not have any experience or opinion with Thinkpads I concur with the recommendation to buy second hand. You can buy a computer which was top of the line two or three years ago for a fraction of what it cost. Governments and big corps sell computers all the time and there are good deals to be found on eBay and other online stores. You'll get a lot more bang for the buck.

When people ask me about buying a laptop the first think I ask is "why a laptop?" Most people do not need a laptop and would benefit from getting a desktop. A laptop has only one advantage: portability. That is it. So, my niece who is going to college and needs to take the computer to class, dorm, home, etc. then yes, she needs a laptop. (Or do what I did years ago and attach a handle to the case of a desktop and a screen on the side and make it "portable")

But if the computer is going stay be at home a desktop has many advantages. It is easier and cheaper to expand and repair. Very often when a laptop fails it is very expensive to repair and very often it is not worth repairing. A desktop is easier to configure, change, repair, clean, etc. if one thing fails you can replace that one thing. You can have a better monitor, keyboard, etc.

For the last twenty years I have always had a "main" desktop computer and an older and less valuable laptop to take with me when I travel.

When the pandemic hit my wife's extended family wanted to buy laptops for the kids to do the remote school thing and I convinced them to get second hand desktops instead. They saved money, a lot of money, and got a better computer for their needs.

[AndyMH]

You will generally get more 'bangs per buck' out of a desktop compared to a laptop.

But with thinkpads (or at least the older ones):

• Built like brick sh*thouses.

• Linux installs 'out of the box'.

• Well supported - thinkpad forum, hardware reference manuals available online (tell you how to replace every part).

• Parts cheap and easy to get (ebay).

• Model dependent - up-gradable, replaced the i5 with an i7 in two of my T430. Same is true for the T440p, can't speak for later models.

It's why I'm a fan (and have been for 20 years).

You don't need a UPS with a laptop (but you should probably have one anyway for your internet connection/router).

It's swings and roundabouts.

[deepakdeshp]

About laptop and desktop prices. No doubt the laptops are costlier. But if you take 12 years as the average laptop life, the electric bill of a laptop over a desktop over 12 years will be considerably lesser

[GS3]

About laptop and desktop prices. No doubt the laptops are costlier. But if you take 12 years as the average laptop life, the electric bill of a laptop over a desktop over 12 years will be considerably lesser

Twelve years is the "average laptop life"? Really? Where? Because I would bet the average laptop life is not even half that.

Be that as it may, laptops generally use less power because they use processors and chips which consume less and are less powerful in their performance. If you want a powerful processor it is going to use more power than a mobile processor. Performance and energy consumption go hand in hand and the reason mobile processors use less energy is that they have lower performance.

I usually leave my computers running permanently (just out of laziness) and they do not consume much because they are idle. If I were mining bitcoins it would be different but, again, a mobile processor designed for low consumption is not going to provide the performance of a processor designed for a desktop. And if all you need is relatively low performance you can get an older desktop with older motherboard and processor for a fraction of the price of a similarly capable laptop.

If you keep the price constant you can get a much more powerful desktop than laptop. If you are comparing computers with similar performance then the laptop will be more expensive.

[AndyMH]

Twelve years is the "average laptop life"? Really? Where?

I think it came from which UK, vaguely remember reading it. All my thinkpad T430's date from around 2012 and still going strong.

I usually leave my computers running permanently (just out of laziness) and they do not consume much because they are idle.

Back in the day when I ran my own business I had the file server (running Xandros) running 24/7. I did notice it in the electricity bills. Used during normal office hours, outside that idle apart from a backup at 2am.