Shopping for a Linux laptop

[Eisenkrote]

Good day.

I'm relatively new to command line Linux. I picked up a MintBox a few months back and have dug into it with the help of a few books and Udemy courses. I'd like to expand my understanding of it going forward, which should open up a few job possibilities for me.

While the MintBox is a great little desktop, I'm hitting a portability issue. I'd like to attend my local Linux user group, and be able to take my projects into work with me. I have an ancient macbook, but I've been considering switching to a full Linux laptop.

Which opens up all sorts of possibilities. I'm not doing anything strenuous, so I don't necessarily need the Dell XPS line. But a large, readable screen would be nice, and common enough hardware specs that I can throw Ubuntu or some flavor of Red Hat without too much fuss.

Are there any specific specs you look for in a laptop, when considering a purchase for Linux use?

 

[atanere]

If your old macbook has an Intel CPU, you could possibly boot Linux on a USB flash drive on it. You'd want to use a Linux distro with "persistence" capability so it could save your projects too. That's the cheapest way to go, if it would work for you.

I'm cheap when I buy new too... on-sale items at a big box store in the $200-$300 range appeal far more to me than stuff in the $700-$1000 range. Linux will install on just about anything, but you can run into difficulties to work out whether you spend a little or a lot. Anything that is "latest-greatest" or systems with special-feature hardware may not have Linux drivers available. I'd avoid Chromebooks with plans for Linux unless you read up on that first... I've never owned one but it seems they are quite a different animal than standard laptops. I think plain old run-of-the-mill laptops/notebooks, even something used and a little older, are about the best for my uses.... 4GB or more of RAM, 500GB or more HDD/SSD, just basic stuff.

If you buy something new with Windows on it, you'll have to decide whether to keep it and dual boot with Linux, or just get rid of it and go Linux only. If you get rid of Windows, its a good idea to make a "System Recovery" USB or DVD set first in case you ever want to put Windows back on later.

Good luck! (But you'll be fine!)

Cheers

 

[Eisenkrote]

Thanks.

I looked into picking up a Litebook, which comes pre-installed with a customized version of Linux. But from what I've read of the hardware, its cheap and flimsy, and the trackpad and wifi don't play nice with other Linux distros. For the price (around $300), there are other budget laptops from more established hardware vendors with better build quality and components.

 

[Eisenkrote]

Are there any laptops with a 17" screen that are relatively troubke-free for Linux installs? I've been looking mostly at Dells (right now I have a surface book but it's problematic for Linux)? I was scoping out the Dell Inspiron 17R 7720, but I hear it has battery life troubles getting it to play nice with the onboard and discrete GPU.

 

[atanere]

Are there any laptops with a 17" screen that are relatively troubke-free for Linux installs? I've been looking mostly at Dells (right now I have a surface book but it's problematic for Linux)? I was scoping out the Dell Inspiron 17R 7720, but I hear it has battery life troubles getting it to play nice with the onboard and discrete GPU.

If compatibility is your greatest concern, you might prefer a laptop with Linux preloaded. Dell offers many models for developers with Ubuntu (here), including at least a couple with 17-in screens. A number of other companies also supply systems preloaded with various Linux distributions (here). Choices such as these are the most likely to be "trouble free" for you... everything should work out of the box, and if not, you should have some amount of warranty customer support from them.

But if future job opportunities in the Linux world are on your horizon, I'd also suggest that you be bold and not worry too much about "trouble free" installations. Trouble is the best teacher.

 

[Lazydog]

Are there any laptops with a 17" screen that are relatively troubke-free for Linux installs? I've been looking mostly at Dells (right now I have a surface book but it's problematic for Linux)? I was scoping out the Dell Inspiron 17R 7720, but I hear it has battery life troubles getting it to play nice with the onboard and discrete GPU.

I run linux on a Asus laptop ROG G75VW. It's a few years old but I have had no issues. One thing you have to be sure of is that the graphic card is supported.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Hello @Eisenkrote & welcome to linux.org

If you Google up "laptop spanish linux", you can also read about the Slimbook Excalibur, they came into the Linux side of things a little under 12 months ago, as I recollect.

Not sure if they have anything larger than 15.6" but that might still suit?

@Lazydog - you might want to qualify that bit about the graphics card, Robert. I have been using the generic Nouveau in place of the shipped nVidia for 3 years without problems, and there is generic for AMD &c. But if I am reading you wrongly, my bad

Cheers all

Wizard

 

[Lazydog]

@Lazydog - you might want to qualify that bit about the graphics card, Robert. I have been using the generic Nouveau in place of the shipped nVidia for 3 years without problems, and there is generic for AMD &c. But if I am reading you wrongly, my bad

Cheers all

Wizard

Sure no problem. If you use the drivers from the manufacture then you need to be aware that sooner or later they are going to stop supporting older cards. I had a system that was 10+ years old that stopped displaying because the card was no longer supported in their latest version of the driver. I guess I could have masked the driver not to update or used the nouveau driver. The question then becomes aty what point does the nouveau driver stop supportig the card? I use only nVivdia drivers on my system to ensure I get full use of the card.

 

[Bayou Bengal]

I'm running Mint Cinnamon on an Asus 19 inch laptop (WP90 I think without flipping it over). It works great, including the bluetooth. I purchased this back around 2010 ( I think). The draw back to this laptop is it is a DESKTOP REPLACEMENT machine! It weighs 19 freaking pounds!
So I purchased a 17 inch Gigabyte laptop, I7 and 16 gigs of ram, which only weighs 7 lbs, (easier on the back). Both are dual booting Windows 7 and Mint Cinnamon with no problems.

 

[thr]

I know it's a bit of an old thread, but I'm sure someone will still find it. I actually just wrote an article on the best Linux laptops (with a pre-loaded Linux distro), and featured about laptops and a dozen more companies that exclusively sell and support Linux hardware.

If you're looking for a cheaper option, then you should go with a laptop without an OS at all. Usually those with a Linux distro pre-installed are more expensive because they provide support for the distro, optimized/tweaked it etc. So check the official lists and wikis I mentioned here.

Most ThinkPads work great with Linux. They need a bit of tweaking, but it shouldn't be a problem for you if you're already familiar with Linux. The ThinkPad P70 is a pretty good 17" laptop for Linux, though it's more expensive. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_P70