[SOLVED]Purchasing A Laptop Computer with Linux OS Installed

[FenderGuy]

Background:

My laptop, with Linux Mint 21.3 (Cinnamon) installed, died, several days ago. I purchased a new Lenovo laptop @ Staples, returning it within the 10-day grace period. I then purchased a new ASUS laptop @ Wal-Mart, having read that ASUS and Dell laptops are known to be "Linux-friendly"; unfortunately, for me, not so much.

We have a local computer repair guy, who services new/used laptop/desktop computers, and is familiar with Linux, so if I got jammed up, I'm sure he could help me.


Special Request:

I found lots of eBay vendors, selling new/used laptops, pre-installed with Linux Mint (Cinnamon), but I've been burned by eBay, in the past, so I would be very greatful if you could recommend reputable vendors, selling new/used laptops, pre-installed with Linux Mint (Cinnamon); this way, I could hit the ground running.


I cherish your knowledge, wisdom and insights, folks.

Thank you for your willingness to help.

Ray

[xenopeek]

Depending on where you are this may be of use: https://linuxpreloaded.com/

[JerryF]

Background:

My laptop, with Linux Mint 21.3 (Cinnamon) installed, died, several days ago. I purchased a new Lenovo laptop @ Staples, returning it within the 10-day grace period. I then purchased a new ASUS laptop @ Wal-Mart, having read that ASUS and Dell laptops are known to be "Linux-friendly"; unfortunately, for me, not so much.

We have a local computer repair guy, who services new/used laptop/desktop computers, and is familiar with Linux, so if I got jammed up, I'm sure he could help me.


Special Request:

I found lots of eBay vendors, selling new/used laptops, pre-installed with Linux Mint (Cinnamon), but I've been burned by eBay, in the past, so I would be very greatful if you could recommend reputable vendors, selling new/used laptops, pre-installed with Linux Mint (Cinnamon); this way, I could hit the ground running.


I cherish your knowledge, wisdom and insights, folks.

Thank you for your willingness to help.

Ray

There is this company:

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en

I only know about it because I follow The Linux Experiment YouTube channel. Nick, the host, has them as a sponsor.

[wwblm]

Not sure where you are are at but here in Minneapolis we have a thing called Fee Geek. That is one place that sells laptops with Linux installed. Another, perhaps better, way is to go through Craigslist. In our area there are several people that recondition corporate laptops. You may want something new or at least newer for a whole bunch of valid reasons. As has been noted, you can go with places like Dell, System 76, Tuxedo and probably some others for that matter.

Personally, I think that a high spec used machine will serve my needs better than most things sold at Staples or Wal Mart. A somewhat older machine also makes it easier to get Mint up and running with it. I have bought a couple of reconditioned laptops with Windows 10 Pro freshly installed from a re-conditioning person. The first time I didn't understand that even a mainstream business laptop can be built with a display that I would consider unacceptable. Even that was still a pretty good machine, Mint was an easy install, and within a couple of degree viewing angle in the right ambient lighting conditions even looked good. A mainstream business laptop that is a few years old with a high quality display can generally be found for roughly a similar budget to the Staples Wal Mart stuff and all you have to do is pull the Windows 10 drive and put your own new drive in then install Mint on that. FWIW, that is what I would recommend.

[FenderGuy]

Depending on where you are this may be of use: https://linuxpreloaded.com/

Wow! Great info, xenopeek. Thanks!

[FenderGuy]

Background:

My laptop, with Linux Mint 21.3 (Cinnamon) installed, died, several days ago. I purchased a new Lenovo laptop @ Staples, returning it within the 10-day grace period. I then purchased a new ASUS laptop @ Wal-Mart, having read that ASUS and Dell laptops are known to be "Linux-friendly"; unfortunately, for me, not so much.

We have a local computer repair guy, who services new/used laptop/desktop computers, and is familiar with Linux, so if I got jammed up, I'm sure he could help me.


Special Request:

I found lots of eBay vendors, selling new/used laptops, pre-installed with Linux Mint (Cinnamon), but I've been burned by eBay, in the past, so I would be very greatful if you could recommend reputable vendors, selling new/used laptops, pre-installed with Linux Mint (Cinnamon); this way, I could hit the ground running.


I cherish your knowledge, wisdom and insights, folks.

Thank you for your willingness to help.

Ray

There is this company:

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en

I only know about it because I follow The Linux Experiment YouTube channel. Nick, the host, has them as a sponsor.

Thanks, JerryF.

[FenderGuy]

Not sure where you are are at but here in Minneapolis we have a thing called Fee Geek. That is one place that sells laptops with Linux installed. Another, perhaps better, way is to go through Craigslist. In our area there are several people that recondition corporate laptops. You may want something new or at least newer for a whole bunch of valid reasons. As has been noted, you can go with places like Dell, System 76, Tuxedo and probably some others for that matter.

Personally, I think that a high spec used machine will serve my needs better than most things sold at Staples or Wal Mart. A somewhat older machine also makes it easier to get Mint up and running with it. I have bought a couple of reconditioned laptops with Windows 10 Pro freshly installed from a re-conditioning person. The first time I didn't understand that even a mainstream business laptop can be built with a display that I would consider unacceptable. Even that was still a pretty good machine, Mint was an easy install, and within a couple of degree viewing angle in the right ambient lighting conditions even looked good. A mainstream business laptop that is a few years old with a high quality display can generally be found for roughly a similar budget to the Staples Wal Mart stuff and all you have to do is pull the Windows 10 drive and put your own new drive in then install Mint on that. FWIW, that is what I would recommend.

I'm in NC, USA.

...and I love your suggestion to pull the stock HDD and replace it with an SSD. Perfect!

[MurphCID]

I have, or have had (one got given away) SIX System 76 Linux devices, five laptops and one desktop. Unless I can build it myself, I will continue to use System 76 equipment. Well one is an HP Dev One, but it might as well be a System 76.

https://system76.com/laptops

I have an earlier one of these: https://system76.com/laptops/lemur And you will pry that laptop from my cold dead fingers. Never had one I liked better. I have used it darn near daily on my morning coffee shop trips. Battery life is insanely good, with TLP installed I get well over 12 hours of use.

I also have have/had two of these: https://system76.com/laptops/darter The first one went to a buddy who desperately needed a laptop, and the second an 11th Gen Intel processor is here with me now. I am less fond of the 15.6" over the 14" screens. I also have a Galago Pro which is nice and has LOTS of ports.

[Human_63]

I went a little crazy last fall and bought two seller-refurbished Dell Latitude 7490 laptops on eBay about a month apart. Both have been quite satisfactory. The first one I bought, and am typing on now, has 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, on which Linux Mint was preloaded by the seller. It also came with a USB recovery drive and a five-year warranty. The seller, 'kyman1530' was excellent to deal with. I bought the second machine a month later from a seller called 'valacet'. Like the first machine, it has 16GB of RAM, but only a 256GB SSD, and cost less than half as much as the other one. The machine was advertised as having no OS, but it actually had Win10 installed. I used the recovery drive that came with the first machine to upgrade it to Linux Mint. Had it had a larger SSD, I would have made it a dual-boot machine, but I just did a clean install instead. Both sellers were great to work with and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either of them.

[FenderGuy]

Thanks all, for your suggestions, experiences and wisdom!

I know a bit more now, so I decided to "bite the bullet" and install Linux Mint 21.3 (Cinnamon) on my brand new, recently acquired, HP (Model 15-DY5035OD), equipped as follows:

Drive: 512 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
Processor: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235u
RAM: 8 GB DDR4-3200 MHz
Graphics: Intel Iris X

Hope to see y'all on the other side!

[Danbor]

I switched a laptop and two desktop computers to Mint cinnamon with very little trouble. However, when I decided I wanted a new desktop, it galled me to think that most any computer I purchased at any of the big box stores was going to come preloaded with software from either MS or Apple, and no doubt about it, big brother ( either MS or Apple ), was going to profit from that purchase even though I would not boot that software even once.
At the time, I had no idea I could purchase a computer with Linux preloaded. So, rather than purchase a computer, I bought components and assembled this computer myself. And I'm quite content knowing that the only OS to run on this computer is Linux.
If I ever need to replace the laptop however, I'll choose one that has Linux preinstalled.
I've had to replace the screen and keyboard both on my trusty Toshiba Satellite L55-C5272. And I learned that my arthritic old fingers aren't well suited to assembling laptops!