I'm thinking about replacing my wife's Chromebook with a refurbished laptop (from Amazon or eBay) that I plan on putting a Linux distro on. Are some brands better for Linux than others? I know from experience that Dell and Asus desktops are good for Linux. Does the same hold true for laptops?
Laptop brands that are good for Linux
- Thread starter ron.alan
- Start date
AlphaObeisance
Well-Known Member
I bought an ASUS G14 some years ago and it's never had a problem with Linux. Could probably pick one up cheap used on ebay. Mine's like a 2022 model I believe. Solid little laptop.
Thunderpants
Active Member
Refurbished Lenovo or Dell laptops generally play well with Linux.
HP ProBooks works perfectly too.
General rules what to avoid:
Everything else, in general, should work fine. Buying used is a great idea, too.
General rules what to avoid:
- Nvidia GPU
- Dual GPU like integrated Intel+ dedicated Nvidia GeForce on gaming laptops
- Laptops released within last year, or two to be on a safe side
Everything else, in general, should work fine. Buying used is a great idea, too.
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Rocketing-warp9
Well-Known Member
Some older Mac's might be alright too (M1/M2 or pre butterfly intel) but dell is the safest choice, as they usually offer Linux on some of there pro laptops from what I see on their site the last time I checked. Don't forget, Framework if you want the ultimate repairable laptop that would probably last you the longest. I'd say dell or framework.
My experience with Lenovo Thinkpads has been great. The T480 is a good choice, because everything in it can be replaced/upgraded easily. Nothing is soldered in place. I don't plan to buy anything else in the future.
The refurbished laptops are all going to have been 'business' editions. Some companies bought 10,000 of them for their mobile sales force. After a few years, three to seven, they then replace them with new devices. The older laptops get sold to a reseller/recycler.
The recycler goes through them to make sure that they all work well enough to be sold as a working unit. Some of them will be scavenged for parts. Sometimes, they'll use these scavenged parts to make some versions have more RAM. They'll do things like that. If one needs a new keyboard, they'll find one in the 'broken' pile that has a working keyboard, fix it, and send it on to be sold.
So, what you're going to get is a mediocre laptop that has potentially seen some neglect.
That's fine. It'll certainly be fit for purpose. You can use the CPU's specs to find out when those were being sold. They'll almost always be Intel, which is trivial to look up online. They're pretty good at deliniations.
At the end of the day, just pick the one with the right RAM and storage. Alternatively, be prepared to upgrade those two things. I'd lean strongly toward the former than I would the latter. Laptops are getting more finicky to work on these days.
As long as it's from a major brand, you'll be getting a similar device. Dell, Lenovo, or HP are all fine choices. Dell is an extremely popular brand with businesses. When you're buying 10,000 of them, they give you a pretty sweet discount.
The recycler goes through them to make sure that they all work well enough to be sold as a working unit. Some of them will be scavenged for parts. Sometimes, they'll use these scavenged parts to make some versions have more RAM. They'll do things like that. If one needs a new keyboard, they'll find one in the 'broken' pile that has a working keyboard, fix it, and send it on to be sold.
So, what you're going to get is a mediocre laptop that has potentially seen some neglect.
That's fine. It'll certainly be fit for purpose. You can use the CPU's specs to find out when those were being sold. They'll almost always be Intel, which is trivial to look up online. They're pretty good at deliniations.
At the end of the day, just pick the one with the right RAM and storage. Alternatively, be prepared to upgrade those two things. I'd lean strongly toward the former than I would the latter. Laptops are getting more finicky to work on these days.
As long as it's from a major brand, you'll be getting a similar device. Dell, Lenovo, or HP are all fine choices. Dell is an extremely popular brand with businesses. When you're buying 10,000 of them, they give you a pretty sweet discount.
Yep - can't speak for the Asus, but I have been using Dell for nearly all the time I've been using Linux (2010) with next to no issues.
Wiz
When Dell has you in their files as a "business" customer, their service is stellar. I've heard their service is (or at least used to be) less than stellar for their consumer customers.
I've had good luck with Linux on Toshiba, HP and Acer laptops. I only have one Dell laptop and it's pretty old (*) and it, too, runs Linux decently. I've never bought a refurb laptop - mine are all freebies, mostly handed down when Windows became too fubar for the original owner to bother with it any more (the original owners invariably just went out and bought new Windows machines, of course). Now that I think of it, the Dell (a "Vostro") actually -was- a business laptop that was retired when Windows XP went out of style. The owner gave it to me because he knew I collect such things (and it was cluttering up the "Diaster Recovery Center").
*) by "pretty old", I mean older than the rest of my laptops, the youngest of which is ten years old.
Can't speak to that. Since 2005, I've had one desktop and 3 laptops with them, and never had to make a service call.
One of the reasons they may be Linux-friendly is Todd C Miller.
Todd was, perhaps still is, highly placed in Dell Security for years, but relevantly, has also been the maintainer of sudo for over 30 years.
I have had good experience with dell customer service as a consumer, their products are less so. Every one of my dell laptops have issues currently. Most seem to be similar. Issues starting, graphics issues and other PITA issues like that.
In my work for a good many years, I used only Dell servers, "business" PCs and laptops because the owner of the company I worked for was a former Dell manager and that's all he would buy. We never had any issues with their products. In my personal dealings with Dell, they mistakenly classified me as a "business" customer because I bought a pair of servers from them, so I've never dealt with them as a "consumer". I had heard more than one person complaining about Dell's service at the consumer level (though these were not people I knew well) - this was around 2008.
Dell fan here as well, most of the product line from servers to laptops since 2000. My experience has been most excellent.
We used Dell for quite a few things back in the day. Their server line was well-priced and their support was great.
Also, you didn't technically need to be a business. If your Dell computer was still supported/under warranty, they'd often send out a repair tech to work on it on-site. They'd come into your private residence if you wanted them to. They had Dell support techs scattered strategically around the country.
Though I didn't live there at the time, I know of one person who had a Dell tech in their home several times. I don't recall the order, but I believe they replaced a power supply, HDD, and motherboard. One of them was fairly late at night. The person who shared the story with me lived in Auburn, Maine. They (and Lewiston) are a fairly urban area.
I have no idea if they'd have shown up where I currently live, but they did show up in the office when needed.
We didn't like to have all of our eggs in one basket. We used some HP and Sun gear. Well, we used a bunch of DEC stuff for a while.
During a call to Customer service when I first received my two servers, it became clear that one of them needed hands on repair. They offered to have a tech come to my house withing three hours - which would have made it about one o'clock in the morning. I asked them to defer that for twelve hours lest my wife kill us all.
The tech showed up prepared to replace just about everything except the tower case - and that's pretty much what he did. CPU, MOBO, PSU, RAM - he had a new HDD with him but determined that the original was OK.
In my experience, Thinkpads work great but it's better to check the model out on the Ubuntu Certified page, in case there's any surprise with communications modules or fingerprint readers.
Framework works great (current laptop) and I have had success preparing Linux laptops with Dells and HP.
In general, "business" models (no discrete cards, reliability over fancyness) give great results and can be found plenty of them on eBay or in auction sites, where companies send whole pallets when they renovate the device fleets.
Framework works great (current laptop) and I have had success preparing Linux laptops with Dells and HP.
In general, "business" models (no discrete cards, reliability over fancyness) give great results and can be found plenty of them on eBay or in auction sites, where companies send whole pallets when they renovate the device fleets.
During a call to Customer service when I first received my two servers, it became clear that one of them needed hands on repair. They offered to have a tech come to my house withing three hours - which would have made it about one o'clock in the morning. I asked them to defer that for twelve hours lest my wife kill us all.
They were awesome back in the day.
This talk of servers and my fairly new throughput makes me think about setting up a business-class account with my ISP. I could then buy a couple of servers. As my house is configured, the odds of my losing power are very low. Even if the grid goes out, I'll have power.
The problem would still be that my ISP is fiber -- but it's flung through the air and attached to utility poles. If the grid power goes out, I'll be fine. I have enough stored energy to go about a week without generating any electricity at all. The way it is set up is pretty much like a house-wide UPS. My lights don't even flicker. When the mains power comes back on, it syncs automatically -- and, again, without so much as a flicker.
If I had reliable redundancy, I'd consider it. It's a great hobby.
Anyhow, I have no idea how good Dell is today. I know they were truly 24/7 back in the day (at least for business clients). Plus, I've heard stories of them stopping by to work on personal computers at odd hours.
Something tells me that this is no longer true. Call it a hunch...
Huh... Google says that I'm at least partially wrong. I didn't dig too deep into the search results, but it looks like they'll still send people to your house. They may also send you a pre-paid box to send the computer off to be repaired. It looks like it may vary based on your level of support. Of course, it must also be within the warranty stage.
