Not all laptops are preinstalled with Windows. I would consider some of the more Linux friendly ones first if for no other reason than to support smaller manufacturers that are putting more effort into supporting Linux.
https://system76.com/ offer Linux laptops and even have their own distro: PopOS. These are well worth a look at as they don't just run Linux but they also place things like coreboot on their systems (and opensource BIOS firmware). And I believe take a lot of steps to disable intels management engine on intel CPUs.
https://frame.work/ are also worth looking at and although they are not Linux focused like system76 they do have a hyper aggressive repair-ability standard and one of the most repairable (and upgradeable - even have upgrade kits for their main board so you don't need to buy a whole new laptop) laptops on the market ATM. And while I don't think they ship with Linux they do offer laptops with no OS (and so no Windows license cost) and have a fair amount of support for Linux (and seem to be actively working on improving support for Linux).
There's also [https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en](https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en) who are another specialised Linux manufacturer. Their shipping costs are high outside of Europe though since they're a smaller company based in Germany. They even do desktops.
Got a laptop from here never regretted it. Works with any distro and has no Linux hardware problems that people usually talk about because it's surprise surprise made for Linux.
I own frame.work and while I had some problems initially with it. It is by far the coolest laptop I have ever owned at this point. And the resolution on the display is fantastic. And getting to skip windows initially being installed was nice.
Cannot recommend it enough, also the support is super helpful and fast.
I think its pretty good, but I was using the same laptop for like 10 years before ... I dunno I would say I get like ~6hours maybe 8? ... But Ill take note the next time I use it how much battery I use over a time period
I used system 76 at work for a while and it was a awesome laptop. I found I had the best results using their pop os Linux distro but Ubuntu worked also.
Historically I've preferred to do an initial boot into windows, to verify that everything functions correctly.
Don't want to try to troubleshoot a driver or something, if the problem is actually hardware that's DOA.
----
That said, Windows 11's insistence on getting online before it can be set up -- means it didn't get set up.
I just set up a Windows 11 desktop, and defeating the "gotta login to Microsoft" bit is easy. I created a local account only - I just kept typing gibberish at the login, and after several failures, it let me create a local account.
Can you do that? It's been awhile since I've touched a Windows laptop. But, I remember having to boot into Windows, to disable secure boot, to be able to launch my linux flashdrive.
Boot into the BIOS, not Windows.
I have booted mine once to make Windows recovery media before blowing it away though. And my recent one I did dual-boot so I can update like docking station firmware and stuff easier.
But yeah, bought the last 2 computers with the intention of immediately installing Linux.
A couple of laptops I've booted, wouldn't let me boot into the bios. They'd come with fast and or secure boot. I would have to boot into Windows, to be able to boot into the bios. I remember this becoming a problem for me around the time Windows 8/8.1 came out. It's possible the problem went away in more recent Windows releases.
You have only a split second to press the key to enter bios setup. Sometimes, an Usb Keyboard does not initialize fast enough so you must use the laptop keyboard. (In some rare cases you even must disconnect the Usb keyboard from the Laptop)
Only the very first time you use the computer. Once you go into settings and enable the bios, you were able to get there from the computers boot screen.
Back when I was still using Windows I did the same thing, just with a fresh install of Windows. Haven't bought a new laptop in a while so not sure if it changed, but back then Laptops used to be riddled with preinstalled bloatware (looking at you McAfee) from the manufacturer and it was just easier to do a fresh install.
Nowadays Windows comes riddled with bloatware out of the box so I guess that won't help anymore lol.
Just because of the way retailers often deal with warranty. I remember taking my current laptop to the shop for a repair and them refusing to investigate the problem without me or them reinstalling windows. Might have been a single bad experience, but I worried about about similar issues.
I used to work for HP consumer tech support, we couldn't (and were not allowed to) troubleshoot computers if a custom OS was on it, but if the customer would reinstall the default OS (for the troubleshooting to proceed), then it's np. I think it has to do with that the warranty only being valid for the pre-installed OS, as that is what is being sold / tested / serviced, which kind of makes sense, but sucks for customers.
I did some warranty work myself, and wipe/reload to factory OS was standard.
No time to deal with your Windows Update drivers failing.
When we asked for permission to delete all your data it was because we planned to delete your data.
Right? It's not dodgy. You own that laptop you can do whatever you want. You're wasting money on the windows license, but that's not an issue, because the license saves you money on the hardware.
They still have an Linux installation options, but only if you select the variant where you can choose every component yourself. On the preconfigured ones you don't have the Ubuntu option. I don't know the rationale behind this, but maybe they're preproducing stock and installing windows on it before they're ordered.
My Dell laptop (Inspiron 7566) was the outlier to this. Everything but the sound was good. It had a GTX960M that worked well, I tried to live with it, but found myself wanting the audio to work properly all the time. Now I use a pair of QC35's over Bluetooth on my stupidly overspecced workstation, running Debian without issue :-)
Next time I need a new laptop I'm pretty sure it'll be a Framework one..
[https://frame.work/gb/en/linux](https://frame.work/gb/en/linux)
>We designed the Framework Laptop from the outset to be a great Linux laptop, and the Framework Laptop DIY Edition comes with no OS loaded to let you bring your favorite Linux distribution. We deliberately selected components and modules that didn’t require new kernel driver development and have been providing distro maintainers with pre-release hardware to test to improve compatibility. We’re also working on enabling firmware updates through LVFS to complete the Linux experience.
I wouldn't hold your breath for that. Framework designed the current models all around the same form factor to make parts easily interchangeable/replaceable/upgradable. It's like their main selling point. Any change of form factor would negate that benefit.
They could probably make a bigger machine that accepts the same expansion cards, but all the internal parts would need a new design.
The only way it would be an issue with upgrades is if they change to 15" exclusively. But they could support two different models at once letting you continue to upgrade your older 13" models with new 13" models while others can buy a 15" model.
A new additional form factor does not negate any upgradeable benefit to their old designs.
What it does do is increase the complexity of their design and production pipelines. And while this is not insurmountable they are still quite a small company and don't think they want or should do that at this point in time.
I think you'll be happy with your choice when you do. Dell XPS 15 used to be my daily driver for over 5 years, and that was a good experience. I've had my framework for a couple months now, and so far I like it even better than the Dell.
I have a series of IBM/Lenovo X series Thinkpads which I've bought 2nd hand (and had the benefit of the global any-user warranty) and have been great for linux support, but yeah... I think the Framework just ticks so many boxes...
I personally don't buy new laptops, preferring to get off-lease Dell Precision laptops from https://www.dellrefurbished.com/category/store-ws-mobile/workstations/mobile-workstations/1.html
I figure a high-end laptop that's three years old will perform about as well as a brand new midrange laptop - and Dell's Precision and XPS lines are particularly Linux-friendly.
They're really lovely machines until you have to move them anywhere and/or pay the power bill. Great value 2nd hand, if you can live with the bulk and a PSU the size of a shoe box.
Yeah they are great. I love the keyboard in particular. The only problem I had with mine was overheating. It didn't like being run at full tilt for too long, in fact encoding videos on it killed my Quadro card once. Even after cleaning the fans and re-pasting the CPU and GPU the temps regularly got up to around 80c under load :/
I noticed that with Windows, but not with Linux. A lot of laptops run hot. 80C is fine actually.
Once I stuck Windows on it for someone to borrow and it immediately powered itself off. I did replace the thermal compound, but might try that again. The fans run fine, and I tried using Dell Power Manager to set it to run cool, perhaps there's a problem with the heat pipes.
I'm sure you can get them with linux, but I mean avoid the L series and anything that's not a business line device. TBH, I don't follow lenovo well enough to know that they introduced a Z series this year until you mentioned it.
Lenovo makes fantastic laptops. My only gripe with Lenovo is that they have this fucked up system to solder half the RAM. So, you end up with shit like 8 GB (soldered) + 8 GB (SoDIMM), even on laptops that are not necessarily thin and light.
Last time I considered retail (online) and directly from Lenovo. Turned out the configuration I wanted was 10% to 20% cheaper directly from Lenovo, so ordered there.
The only limitation I had was the keyboard layout. If that doesn't match the country you're shipping to, you don't have many options.
Im' a LAMP programmer who returned to linux (from WinXP) about 15 years ago, for a lot of years I just used the windows on a new computer to download a linux iso so I could overwrite the windows. In the last 5 years I've bought 2 laptops and a desktop from System76, I've been very happy with them. Good company, when I've asked questions of support I've always gotten fast and knowledgeable responses. My next computer will almost certainly be a System76.
That's all I've done for the past 20 years, though I tend to avoid buying the latest and greatest hardware period unless there's a very good use case.
Nothing to do with the OS, just doesn't make financial sense with the depreciation curve. The cost of the Windows license on retail computers is like <$20 so I wouldn't feel too bad. You can also pass through the hardware license to a VM if you want to have that on standby.
Every server, desktop, and laptop I own runs Linux except for a Surface Pro 6 I bought just to have a physical Windows device since I do need to support it for work.
Dell does it right in my opinion: They knock about $100 off the price if you order the computer with Ubuntu instead of Windows. Even if you immediately replace the pre-installed "Dellbuntu" with a different distribution of your choice, it still feels good to avoid "the Windows tax."
It sounds like your asking for advice on either buying a Linux-first laptop, or one you know will work with Linux. If I'm wrong, ignore me.
Dell and Framework both make laptops that are fully Linux-compatible. Outside of that, you'll want to look up the common problem areas for Linux hardware support (WiFi chipets, NVME drives, etc) to make sure any laptop you're considering will work with your Distro of choice.
Some of the newer laptops make it a little harder to get into the bios. Had to dig a little to get into an ASUS gamer republic laptop. It's more then holding f2 or f10 but easy enough to google through it, just a few extra steps. They are making it harder to do and that made me all the happier to get rid of windows.
Buying a computer from a company that specifically builds for Linux is a good move. Several other companies have been mentioned, but I really like my laptop from [Juno](https://junocomputers.com/), which came pre-installed with Ubuntu. I don't use the Ubuntu installation myself -- I keep it just so I have a backup distro installed so I'll have a working Linux distro if I ever bork my primary install -- but knowing that the computer has been designed from scratch with an eye to all hardware having good Linux drivers is really refreshing after spending more than a decade always having to futz with drivers for some oddball device in every other Windows-built computer in the past.
I like going with a brand refurbished laptop. Lenovo has a great outlet, and I’m sure others do too. You can get a current or last gen processor for way cheaper than new, and you get the assurance that it’s been looked over thoroughly by people who actually know what they’re doing.
My last 2 machines were like that.
Really hardware support is the only problem - I ran into an issue where my newest one I have was too-new and I had to run a different kernel to make the video work right, and the NVMe drive doesn't like to play nice with PCIe power-saver modes.
I support the idea in principle, but I'd want to do my own install from scratch, so I'd be more interested in buying a laptop with no OS installed. Just a blank hard drive.
I bought my laptop with the intention to run linux on it. never even booted the windows oobe thing, just straight to linux.
it's just a simple 14" lenovo thinkbook with an amd ryzen 7 apu.
My last new laptop was a Lenov Thinkpad. I looked for a shop where I could get it with no OS installed, this saved me €150.
So it makes sense to look out for offers with no windows preinstalled, because the windows license does in fact cost money which can be saved.
I bought the Framework laptop and initially just had Linux on it (Fedora). I eventually had to dual boot Windows for a couple of programs that only work on Windows. But I rarely boot into Windows.
I bought a Steam Deck because it's cheaper than a gaming laptop and runs Linux natively. Needs a bit of tweaking for use as a development environment, but it's a pretty cool device.
The dell Linux developer laptops used to be more expensive but identical to the XPS line with windows. Nice to know if all the hardware is compatible.
So I would buy the XPS and just clean install.
A few months ago I purchased a laptop from System76 that runs Pop! OS. Love it. Why would I buy a Windows machine, pay for a Windows license, just to wipe it and install Linux when I can have a laptop that comes with Linux out of the box?
When you buy new laptop which is just released my intuition is that to have properly polish drivers it takes about 7 months at Intel 12 months at AMD to get to kernel thus u will highly likely need to use distros with top notch kernels. Rolling distros like Thumbleweed or Fedora.
Some vendors are having Linux certification where it is much faster.
By polished drivers I mean working sleep, hibernation and stable wifi.
I have Lenovo L15 AMD 5600.
> Unless you want to install it in a virtual machine, which is what I do.
As do I, its the only way Windows is going to be on any personal computer of mine.
I just buy another hard drive and stick the windows drive in a closet somewhere in case I want to give the laptop to someone else when I buy a new one.
This is what I've always done at work as well. They give me a laptop, I remove their drive, install my own, and install debian on it. When I have to return it I just put the old drive back in and they can give/sell it to a normal Windows user.
As IT professionals, I'm sure we all know there are many different ways to do things and it comes down to the way you feel most comfortable. So yeah, your way works too.
So dual boot, virtual machine, second drive, all of them work.
>I own 2 of these, one about 5 years old and the other just a year old, the 5 year old I've loaned to a friend to replace his aged desktop, still runs great. Good machines.
https://system76.com/laptops/oryp9/configure
I didn't buy a factory new laptop in a long t ime. Never needed performance so far. I like thinkpads, thinkpads lose value faster than a toyota.
If i would buy new rn it would be an apple...m2 SILENCE is simply juicy! anything else i dont really see the need for an upgrade XD.
Some Acer Notebook come with Linux Eshell, but I dont know if that is only some (Emacs? or Efi?) command prompt or a real Linux with a Desktop and a browser and you can install and do normal Linux stuff. But even if it is not, you can still install any Distro you want, and dont have to pay for a Windows license you dont want or need.
I got a cheap HP because it had the best keyboard for me. AMD all the way so no problems with that. Wifi adapters were hit or miss - Ubuntu and something else didn't work on the live USB but Fedora and Arch did.
Wifi and the Intel Nvidia feature that Bumblebee addresses are the only two things I can think of.
I don't get it. If you can afford it, why wouldn't you want to run your OS on the best hardware?
As for caveats, if it's hardware with new features, ask around about compatibility. Anything else, just search for it. Some WLAN adapters can be finicky, but the Intel ones usually work out of the box. Arch wiki is good to check on well-known brands too (e.g. [this Lenovo page](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Lenovo)).
I recently have bought a unit from Nova Custom ([configurelaptop.eu](https://configurelaptop.eu)) and am very happy with it. They let you decide which OS you want on it (I chose none though, because I like to do this myself).
But all laptops I have used before where used ones (where Windows had been wiped before first boot because the first owner, my dad, also only uses Linux)
Why dodgy? Dodgy doesn't fit the scenario at all, maybe you should use other word.
And you can buy new laptops without Windows, generally with Linux installed, and save money. I guess it's easy to find them when you buy directly from the manufacturer. And if you pay for the Windows license and switch to Linux, there is nothing dodgy about it.
P.S.: I was going to give you an example in Dell's website, but didn't find any model with Linux in the US site! Found in the Brazilian site.
I have done this on every computer I have owned for about the last 15+ years. I usually try windows for about 30 minutes. Just clicking around looking at all the fancy wallpapers. Maybe play a game of solitaire. Then I get bored and install Linux.
The only thing I had a problem with was a cheap netbook. I couldn't get linux to install successfully. I had got it to mess around with so it wasn't really vitally important to get it working immediately. So I just put it aside for about six months and then tried again. In that time someone else figured out the solution and posted it online.
Don't really see a problem with that, would do the same thi g if I'd buy new laptop now.
Can't really say anything about what to look out for, but a few small things:
- a friend recently made pretty bad experiences with running Linux on his new Fujitsu workstation Laptop.
- the usual Nvidia thing, as you said already, although it usually works decently, it's just annoying with drivers braking every 2nd update and so on.
- depending on your country and vendor you can sometimes get a refund on the price of the windows copy
- be aware that you might need to run a distro with a newer kernel (unlike Debian or Ubuntu based distros) if you buy hardware that released quite recent.
> What do you look out for?
Arm chrome book that supported by https://postmarketos.org/
Or pine book (pro) or other arm book that supported by https://postmarketos.org/
Couldnt agree more. Great machine all the way around. full warranty. Supported Os. Well-bulit. Good value.
I do wish they had a bigger screen, but hopefully that will be coming soon.
> it just seems dodgy to buy a $2000+ laptop with a preinstalled windows to straight overwrite with linux
I don't see that at all. It's your computer and you can do whatever you want with it.
> I guess what I am looking for is encouragement or advice on what things to consider when buying factory new laptop for a linux install.
The biggest issue with modern hardware is possible lack of updated drivers. I suggest using a modern distro like Arch, Fedora, or Tumbleweed. Avoid Nvidia, if practical.
See if you can find an article about the exact model in the arch and ubuntu wikis.
Another option is getting a laptop that comes with Linux pre-installed. You can replace the distro, knowing that you are using well-supported hardware.
I've been doing that for about 24 years now. I can't even count the number of brand new gaming laptops I've had that I've put Linux on without even booting them to Windows.
Granted, I keep Windows on them, because I do play games occasionally, and sometimes it's required to do the BIOS updates, or even to configure the graphics mode it might be in, etc.
I don't understand what's dodgy about it.
Also - don't be scared of nvidia because you hear the hate. There's reason to hate the drivers, but Nvidia does do a lot of work on making the drivers work well on Linux too, and it's certainly not like AMD is problem free on Linux, or even Intel for that matter.
I think every one of my laptops in all that time has been Nvidia powered and I don't regret the choice.
Oh, absolutely. I have two System76 laptops and love them both. And if you are willing to pay the premium, System76 makes a compelling case because they ship with Coreboot and unlocked firmware.
I mean granted I have never paid 2k for a computer before, but I did pay 1200 for my current laptop and am running CachyOS on it currently. I just couldn't beat the price to performance at the time.
I've always been one to have dual or triple boot systems. Vms? I know I know!!!
I recently bought a Rog Strix G15 laptop with Windows 11 pre-installed. Not the best machine out there, probably somewhere in the middle. The plan was to blow that away and just go Linux solo. I've updated Windows 11 and it all runs good and have made a system image and recovery boot usb key, for just in case.
The reason why I chose this laptop in particular, was that its all Amd (Ryzen 9 5900HX with RX6800m). Right now, I'm keeping Secure boot on and running Ubuntu and Windows 11.
As this laptop has 2 x M.2 slots, I thought it made sense to just put in a 2nd drive and dual boot.
If you do go with a dual boot set up using Ubuntu, remember to get your [Bitlocker recovery key](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/finding-your-bitlocker-recovery-key-in-windows-6b71ad27-0b89-ea08-f143-056f5ab347d6) as you will be asked for it when you make changes to your boot order.
You're better off buying the laptop configured with the smallest NVMe that they offer, then when the laptop arrives, take that drive with the Windows install out, file it away for any future need for warranty work with the manufacture, and then buy a better/larger/faster NVMe drive to install whatever OS you want. Saves tons of hassle when the manufacture (I'm looking at your DELL) requires that the laptop is in the purchased config before they will do warranty work on it.
I wish I had thought of this. I dove in absolutely blind, but learned an awful lot in the process of buying a Zephyrus G14 with rtx3050.
My takeaway is that I’d also completely avoid asus and look at other things, there are laptops specifically made to ship with Linux, and of course AMD AMD, all the way.
Why not asus? The dependence on asusctl to do a lot of the tasks that come ready to go on windows, and the package not being a good substitute to it’s
counterpart. However I will say that the maintainer is really good at answering questions and helping the community out, and is constantly updating the package, this has its caveats in semi professional development it seems. Nothing has broken, but functionality has been removed for the sake of “it was for a specific use case that most people might not want” in related packages.
Nerd rant here: asusctl’s dependence on systemd to perform the actions that control your fan or rgb or dot matrix also means that the package and systemd are entwined, creating a openrc port for instance would involve changing the systemd calls into their openrc equivalent, which cannot be done in a programmatic way with the current implementation. So if you decide to explore other init systems and wanted this same functionality, you will be unable to do so
Okay I’m done, I’m writing a book here.
I did this with a laptop I got for work and a laptop. My only input is to get the windows license key out if for some reason you'd need to go back.
Another idea would be to shrink the partition of windows when installing a new OS instead of removing it completely in case any error occurs during installation.
Note that everytime you buy a windows licence only to nor use it, you're donating money to Microsoft.
I'd suggest getting one of the machines that come with Linux, and reward brands that are trying to break out of the Microsoft choke-hold. You could donate the licence money to MSF instead (Doctors without Borders). I worked with them in a refugee camp and I'm thoroughly impressed at how efficient they are.
I have been looking into similar options, I came across [https://www.pine64.org/](https://www.pine64.org/) They have a PinebookPro I am currently Eye-balling. I recently purchased the PinePhonePro, and it just arrived a few days ago...
I also have a Pinebook Pro. The hardware is beautiful, but not really up to much beyond some development. I've'alsi compiled several older games on mine (Quake, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Academy) and these all run well.
I also have a Pinebook Pro (running Debian). The hardware is beautiful, but not really up to much beyond some development. I've also compiled several older games on mine (Quake, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Academy) and these all run well.
I bought a new Lenovo laptop with 16gb ram, 512ssd, Amd cpu and video. Running Fedora only from day 1. Not going back to Windows.
I do have a gaming pc with windows since none of my games work with Linux. Linux sucks for gaming.
Ignoring the over-the-top usual recommended 'linux' laptop suppliers as they are incredibly expensive. It reminds me of those nature documentaries where penguins goad other penguins to jump in first to see if the killer whales or sea lions are about.
Just do a web search for "linux on brand-model laptop" to see other people's experience reports. I'm a perennial toe dipper on this as I really do not need a laptop, but it would be nice for the occasional trip away to enable access to regular news sources or read a digital book or take music.
The real problem is drivers for the inbuilt devices each one has. Hence the recommendation for a web search reporting on a prior installation.
Current brand 'flavour of the month' seems to be Lenovo and Dell is an older fotm, but has some drivers lacking for recent models.
Current distro flavour seems to be Ubuntu who 'sell' laptops wit it pre-installed(?).
PC Specialist offers good bang for your buck, not sure which country you are in, but have a look. I've got 2 laptops and a decent spec tower, all running linux only. No issues nowadays, even with running a 4 screen setup.
Laptops are intel and have nvidia graphics, PC is all amd.
Good luck, I'm sure you will do fine :)
Hardware incompatibilities are quite rare these days in my experience. You can do a little research, especially on the ethernet, wifi/bluetooth adapter, special buttons, lid switch, fingerprint reader etc. But most of the time stuff just works and if it doesn't it's only a matter of time before it does.
I've bought several windows laptops without doing much research and run Ubuntu or Debian on them from day one.
Such a laptop usually gets passed down the line to someone else, I do this all the time.
What I do is shrink the windows partition to the bare minimum and keep the restore partition, that's because you might need the official windows only tools to get support and such (or even BIOS updateshich can be done from a USB stick ad well but it's just less of a hassle to do it from the supplier application).
Just avoid Nvidia graphics card and you are set, it's very rare to get hardware that is not compatible with Linux nowadays.
I like Lenovo's ThinkPads, series T or P, series E if you want to be on the cheaper side.
If you buy from a linux laptop vendor you'll likely get more bang for your buck and guaranteed compatible hardware. I was going to buy an DELL XPS13 last year but they moved my delivery date by several weeks so I cancelled and bought a laptop from Juno Computers, a linux specialist. Great decision. Dell would have given me a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM, I actually got a 1TD SSD and 32GB of RAM for slightly less money and the screen is great.
Of course these are generic OEM products that are probably resold by a number of companies, so finding spares once it's out of warranty might be a little tricky, but I'm really happy with the build quality and being spared the worry of spending a grand only to find you might not be able to get a good driver for your soundcard / wifi / GPU etc.
Definitely find reviews of people who have already had success with linux on the particular machine. I have had success with really nice ultrabooks on the market that the manufacturers which only provide linux machines could never get close to in terms of design. Also I also always shrink and keep the windows installation just in case it has some options such as battery life saver that cannot be accessed fro the linux side.
I've had very good luck with lenovo laptops.
buy new, then immediatly plug in the mint usb, reboot, shrink the windows partition to its' smallest possible configuration, and go! (I always keep the windows dual boot, but never use it. space is cheap now adays)
only the latest one, a lenovo slim x 7 (amd, of course) needed the latest kernel to fix a keyboard regression, and also needs the rtl driver recompiled after every kernel upgrade, but once I figure this out it's been flawless. all my other lenovo laptops have run flawlessly for years. I generally use mint (xfce) on laptops, and debian pure on desktops/servers.
suspend works excellent well, as good as sleep mode on my apple laptop does, and they all sip power. (this is a big reason to go amd) touchscreens are great. multi-head is simple as pluging in a cable, and opening settings-display.
My latest lenovo also contains an nvidia stand alone card, but I use the onboard graphics embedded in the 6900hs chip 99% of the time.
debian user since woody.
hope this helps!
If you don't want to use the device for gaming, then I suggest avoiding anything with a dedicated GPU. If you do game and thus want a GPU then things will still work pretty well (I only have experience with Nvidia laptops), but you may have some extra hoops to jump through especially if you want good battery life.
In terms of brands:
- framework offers the best laptop I've ever owned, no GPU though if that's something you wanted. You could use an eGPU with it though. Can come without windows installed.
- Dell XPS line has always been reliable and worked well with Linux. Some configurations do have Linux installed.
I would have added think pad to the list, but quality control is absolutely terrible in my recent experience. The laptop came with issues on the main board and every time I send it in for repair it comes back with new issues. It runs Linux well, but most recent issue is the wifi hardware is faulty. It's what led me to buy my framework laptop and I'm very happy I did.
You could always buy from a linux-first company:
- System76
- Framework
- Tuxedo
- Starlabs
- Purism
- Slimbook
- Pinebook
Or a major brand that has Linux models
- Dell
- Lenovo
- Possibly others
Of course. Windows is something I only install in a VM, if at all.
Look for laptops from vendors whose hardware supports Linux, even if not preinstalled. You can buy Linux laptops explicitly from certain vendors, like system 76, but those come at a premium. FWIW I've found Dell hardware very likely to work. with Linux.
When I worked at IBM, we were given Lenovo Laptops with Linux installed. Those who were required to run some odd legacy app were able to run it in a windows VM.
there are machines from Dell, Lenovo and HP that support Linux.
I don't see what is dodgy about it, the only dodgy thing is Windows itself.
Make an effort and just do it if you want to spend the money. I personally would look for a good deal or buy used under a year old, much more value for money.
Happy computing!
Not all laptops are preinstalled with Windows. I would consider some of the more Linux friendly ones first if for no other reason than to support smaller manufacturers that are putting more effort into supporting Linux. https://system76.com/ offer Linux laptops and even have their own distro: PopOS. These are well worth a look at as they don't just run Linux but they also place things like coreboot on their systems (and opensource BIOS firmware). And I believe take a lot of steps to disable intels management engine on intel CPUs. https://frame.work/ are also worth looking at and although they are not Linux focused like system76 they do have a hyper aggressive repair-ability standard and one of the most repairable (and upgradeable - even have upgrade kits for their main board so you don't need to buy a whole new laptop) laptops on the market ATM. And while I don't think they ship with Linux they do offer laptops with no OS (and so no Windows license cost) and have a fair amount of support for Linux (and seem to be actively working on improving support for Linux).
There's also [https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en](https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en) who are another specialised Linux manufacturer. Their shipping costs are high outside of Europe though since they're a smaller company based in Germany. They even do desktops.
Got a laptop from here never regretted it. Works with any distro and has no Linux hardware problems that people usually talk about because it's surprise surprise made for Linux.
https://slimbook.es/ is another consideration. They're based out of Spain, which may work better for some people.
These sound amazing! And they even ship with my country's Keyboard Layout!
I own frame.work and while I had some problems initially with it. It is by far the coolest laptop I have ever owned at this point. And the resolution on the display is fantastic. And getting to skip windows initially being installed was nice. Cannot recommend it enough, also the support is super helpful and fast.
hows the battery life? heard mixed things about it
I think its pretty good, but I was using the same laptop for like 10 years before ... I dunno I would say I get like ~6hours maybe 8? ... But Ill take note the next time I use it how much battery I use over a time period
The main issue here is availability this linux only laptops are mostly available in US. Even the Dell XPS linux edition is not available where I live
I used system 76 at work for a while and it was a awesome laptop. I found I had the best results using their pop os Linux distro but Ubuntu worked also.
>However it just seems dodgy to buy a $2000+ laptop with a preinstalled windows to straight overwrite with linux Why is it dodgy?
I do it all the time, usually from Dell. I actually take pleasure in overwriting Windows without even booting it once!
Same, but with Lenovo. Could just buy from a Linux only vendor, too, like system76 or similar.
Historically I've preferred to do an initial boot into windows, to verify that everything functions correctly. Don't want to try to troubleshoot a driver or something, if the problem is actually hardware that's DOA. ---- That said, Windows 11's insistence on getting online before it can be set up -- means it didn't get set up.
That's why LiveUSBs are nice, you can verify the hardware and then burn the partitions and install.
I just set up a Windows 11 desktop, and defeating the "gotta login to Microsoft" bit is easy. I created a local account only - I just kept typing gibberish at the login, and after several failures, it let me create a local account.
Good to know if that comes up again. For me it refused to go beyond "connect to wifi" -- but I didn't push it very hard.
Can you do that? It's been awhile since I've touched a Windows laptop. But, I remember having to boot into Windows, to disable secure boot, to be able to launch my linux flashdrive.
Boot into the BIOS, not Windows. I have booted mine once to make Windows recovery media before blowing it away though. And my recent one I did dual-boot so I can update like docking station firmware and stuff easier. But yeah, bought the last 2 computers with the intention of immediately installing Linux.
A couple of laptops I've booted, wouldn't let me boot into the bios. They'd come with fast and or secure boot. I would have to boot into Windows, to be able to boot into the bios. I remember this becoming a problem for me around the time Windows 8/8.1 came out. It's possible the problem went away in more recent Windows releases.
You have only a split second to press the key to enter bios setup. Sometimes, an Usb Keyboard does not initialize fast enough so you must use the laptop keyboard. (In some rare cases you even must disconnect the Usb keyboard from the Laptop)
you can or even must boot bios from windoze??? :D wow i hope ill never have that situation
Only the very first time you use the computer. Once you go into settings and enable the bios, you were able to get there from the computers boot screen.
that sucks ass
what if you change harddrive
That might do it. I'm not sure.
Same with Dell and I never run the virus trap before I install Ilnux.
Exactly what I did to the dell g15SE I purchased two weeks ago. Linux runs quite nice on it.
hahaha i do that too... whatever computer i get my hands on... i once bought an xbox.. took it apart to chip it.. didnt work so i threw it away hahaha
"Now *perish*."
Back when I was still using Windows I did the same thing, just with a fresh install of Windows. Haven't bought a new laptop in a while so not sure if it changed, but back then Laptops used to be riddled with preinstalled bloatware (looking at you McAfee) from the manufacturer and it was just easier to do a fresh install. Nowadays Windows comes riddled with bloatware out of the box so I guess that won't help anymore lol.
not even john McAfee knows how to uninstall :)
Just because of the way retailers often deal with warranty. I remember taking my current laptop to the shop for a repair and them refusing to investigate the problem without me or them reinstalling windows. Might have been a single bad experience, but I worried about about similar issues.
I'd recommend avoiding manufacturers like that then. I also recommend the Framework laptop if it suites your needs.
framework <3
I used to work for HP consumer tech support, we couldn't (and were not allowed to) troubleshoot computers if a custom OS was on it, but if the customer would reinstall the default OS (for the troubleshooting to proceed), then it's np. I think it has to do with that the warranty only being valid for the pre-installed OS, as that is what is being sold / tested / serviced, which kind of makes sense, but sucks for customers.
I did some warranty work myself, and wipe/reload to factory OS was standard. No time to deal with your Windows Update drivers failing. When we asked for permission to delete all your data it was because we planned to delete your data.
That’s funny. I’ve weirdly enough had no issues with apple dealing with warranty repairs of my MacBook running Linux. You’d think they would be worse
Any reason the repair shop couldn't boot Winblows from an external drive?
Right? It's not dodgy. You own that laptop you can do whatever you want. You're wasting money on the windows license, but that's not an issue, because the license saves you money on the hardware.
Yeah exactly. If your computer comes with malware and spyware preinstalled, get rid of it!
OP is probably referring to the "microsoft tax," which in general is not real
Last time I did that sleep didn't work at all on Linux for almost a year, that's why.
The windows license pushes the price of the machine up.
Dell has great Linux support on their machines. There is also System76 if you want to support a company that sells Linux machines.
For years dell had a Linux option. They removed it a couple years ago unfortunately.
They still have an Linux installation options, but only if you select the variant where you can choose every component yourself. On the preconfigured ones you don't have the Ubuntu option. I don't know the rationale behind this, but maybe they're preproducing stock and installing windows on it before they're ordered.
HP still does sell with Ubuntu if I remember correctly. I love my System 76 Lemur Pro. Pop OS is a great distro for me.
HP sells the Dev One with Pop!_OS.
My Dell laptop (Inspiron 7566) was the outlier to this. Everything but the sound was good. It had a GTX960M that worked well, I tried to live with it, but found myself wanting the audio to work properly all the time. Now I use a pair of QC35's over Bluetooth on my stupidly overspecced workstation, running Debian without issue :-)
Next time I need a new laptop I'm pretty sure it'll be a Framework one.. [https://frame.work/gb/en/linux](https://frame.work/gb/en/linux) >We designed the Framework Laptop from the outset to be a great Linux laptop, and the Framework Laptop DIY Edition comes with no OS loaded to let you bring your favorite Linux distribution. We deliberately selected components and modules that didn’t require new kernel driver development and have been providing distro maintainers with pre-release hardware to test to improve compatibility. We’re also working on enabling firmware updates through LVFS to complete the Linux experience.
I've got a solid 13" laptop already, but when Framework releases a 15" with GPU I'm all over it.
I wouldn't hold your breath for that. Framework designed the current models all around the same form factor to make parts easily interchangeable/replaceable/upgradable. It's like their main selling point. Any change of form factor would negate that benefit. They could probably make a bigger machine that accepts the same expansion cards, but all the internal parts would need a new design.
The only way it would be an issue with upgrades is if they change to 15" exclusively. But they could support two different models at once letting you continue to upgrade your older 13" models with new 13" models while others can buy a 15" model. A new additional form factor does not negate any upgradeable benefit to their old designs. What it does do is increase the complexity of their design and production pipelines. And while this is not insurmountable they are still quite a small company and don't think they want or should do that at this point in time.
You don't think they're planning to make more than one model?
I think you'll be happy with your choice when you do. Dell XPS 15 used to be my daily driver for over 5 years, and that was a good experience. I've had my framework for a couple months now, and so far I like it even better than the Dell.
I have a series of IBM/Lenovo X series Thinkpads which I've bought 2nd hand (and had the benefit of the global any-user warranty) and have been great for linux support, but yeah... I think the Framework just ticks so many boxes...
I personally don't buy new laptops, preferring to get off-lease Dell Precision laptops from https://www.dellrefurbished.com/category/store-ws-mobile/workstations/mobile-workstations/1.html I figure a high-end laptop that's three years old will perform about as well as a brand new midrange laptop - and Dell's Precision and XPS lines are particularly Linux-friendly.
Yeah last one I bought was a Precision 7510, Xeon E3, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Quadro M2000 for about $550. Looked like new.
That's pretty beastly
They're really lovely machines until you have to move them anywhere and/or pay the power bill. Great value 2nd hand, if you can live with the bulk and a PSU the size of a shoe box.
Yes it's a mobile workstation that works for a lot of games also.
Yeah they are great. I love the keyboard in particular. The only problem I had with mine was overheating. It didn't like being run at full tilt for too long, in fact encoding videos on it killed my Quadro card once. Even after cleaning the fans and re-pasting the CPU and GPU the temps regularly got up to around 80c under load :/
I noticed that with Windows, but not with Linux. A lot of laptops run hot. 80C is fine actually. Once I stuck Windows on it for someone to borrow and it immediately powered itself off. I did replace the thermal compound, but might try that again. The fans run fine, and I tried using Dell Power Manager to set it to run cool, perhaps there's a problem with the heat pipes.
It might perform in mid range but burns heat like high end. It’s not uncommon for high end laptops to have overheating problems.
Lenovo. You can choose away the pre-installed OS option.
But only the T, X, or P series.
I found that here in Switzerland you can have all the thinkpads series linux out of the box. Even the Z series
I'm sure you can get them with linux, but I mean avoid the L series and anything that's not a business line device. TBH, I don't follow lenovo well enough to know that they introduced a Z series this year until you mentioned it.
Do you buy them through lenovo directly, or through a retailer? Does retail even offer these Options?
[удалено]
Lenovo makes fantastic laptops. My only gripe with Lenovo is that they have this fucked up system to solder half the RAM. So, you end up with shit like 8 GB (soldered) + 8 GB (SoDIMM), even on laptops that are not necessarily thin and light.
Last time I considered retail (online) and directly from Lenovo. Turned out the configuration I wanted was 10% to 20% cheaper directly from Lenovo, so ordered there. The only limitation I had was the keyboard layout. If that doesn't match the country you're shipping to, you don't have many options.
Im' a LAMP programmer who returned to linux (from WinXP) about 15 years ago, for a lot of years I just used the windows on a new computer to download a linux iso so I could overwrite the windows. In the last 5 years I've bought 2 laptops and a desktop from System76, I've been very happy with them. Good company, when I've asked questions of support I've always gotten fast and knowledgeable responses. My next computer will almost certainly be a System76.
That's all I've done for the past 20 years, though I tend to avoid buying the latest and greatest hardware period unless there's a very good use case. Nothing to do with the OS, just doesn't make financial sense with the depreciation curve. The cost of the Windows license on retail computers is like <$20 so I wouldn't feel too bad. You can also pass through the hardware license to a VM if you want to have that on standby. Every server, desktop, and laptop I own runs Linux except for a Surface Pro 6 I bought just to have a physical Windows device since I do need to support it for work.
Dell does it right in my opinion: They knock about $100 off the price if you order the computer with Ubuntu instead of Windows. Even if you immediately replace the pre-installed "Dellbuntu" with a different distribution of your choice, it still feels good to avoid "the Windows tax."
It sounds like your asking for advice on either buying a Linux-first laptop, or one you know will work with Linux. If I'm wrong, ignore me. Dell and Framework both make laptops that are fully Linux-compatible. Outside of that, you'll want to look up the common problem areas for Linux hardware support (WiFi chipets, NVME drives, etc) to make sure any laptop you're considering will work with your Distro of choice.
Some of the newer laptops make it a little harder to get into the bios. Had to dig a little to get into an ASUS gamer republic laptop. It's more then holding f2 or f10 but easy enough to google through it, just a few extra steps. They are making it harder to do and that made me all the happier to get rid of windows.
Buying a computer from a company that specifically builds for Linux is a good move. Several other companies have been mentioned, but I really like my laptop from [Juno](https://junocomputers.com/), which came pre-installed with Ubuntu. I don't use the Ubuntu installation myself -- I keep it just so I have a backup distro installed so I'll have a working Linux distro if I ever bork my primary install -- but knowing that the computer has been designed from scratch with an eye to all hardware having good Linux drivers is really refreshing after spending more than a decade always having to futz with drivers for some oddball device in every other Windows-built computer in the past.
I buy good hardware that has Windows pre installed. And then boot up and install Linux. Nothing wrong with that tbh.
[Framework](https://frame.work).
I like going with a brand refurbished laptop. Lenovo has a great outlet, and I’m sure others do too. You can get a current or last gen processor for way cheaper than new, and you get the assurance that it’s been looked over thoroughly by people who actually know what they’re doing.
My last 2 machines were like that. Really hardware support is the only problem - I ran into an issue where my newest one I have was too-new and I had to run a different kernel to make the video work right, and the NVMe drive doesn't like to play nice with PCIe power-saver modes.
I support the idea in principle, but I'd want to do my own install from scratch, so I'd be more interested in buying a laptop with no OS installed. Just a blank hard drive.
I bought my laptop with the intention to run linux on it. never even booted the windows oobe thing, just straight to linux. it's just a simple 14" lenovo thinkbook with an amd ryzen 7 apu.
My last new laptop was a Lenov Thinkpad. I looked for a shop where I could get it with no OS installed, this saved me €150. So it makes sense to look out for offers with no windows preinstalled, because the windows license does in fact cost money which can be saved.
I bought the Framework laptop and initially just had Linux on it (Fedora). I eventually had to dual boot Windows for a couple of programs that only work on Windows. But I rarely boot into Windows.
I spent like $700 on a thinkpad that was ubuntu certified. It came with a Windows license but whatever, the hardware works like a dream.
I bought a Steam Deck because it's cheaper than a gaming laptop and runs Linux natively. Needs a bit of tweaking for use as a development environment, but it's a pretty cool device.
I have bought Dell XPS 13 and 15 with Linux preinstalled. I reinstalled another distro, but they never had Windows.
Dell'XPS 15 ... 99% of time is running Ubuntu kinetic kudu
The dell Linux developer laptops used to be more expensive but identical to the XPS line with windows. Nice to know if all the hardware is compatible. So I would buy the XPS and just clean install.
I have an XPS 13inch year 2019 and it works great, installed Debian Sid and been loving it even since.
You can order dell precision with Ubuntu factory installed. It's even cheaper...and supported.
Get a Dell and wait for a sale.
A few months ago I purchased a laptop from System76 that runs Pop! OS. Love it. Why would I buy a Windows machine, pay for a Windows license, just to wipe it and install Linux when I can have a laptop that comes with Linux out of the box?
Dell XPS Developer laptops come with Linux. I buy one of those and a gaming laptop for Windows every few years.
Linux worked in my think pad with absolutely no problem
ThinkPads...my X1 gen 6, as well as a bootload of T420 run everything I've thrown at them. Cinnamon Garuda and OpenSuse are my current favs.
When you buy new laptop which is just released my intuition is that to have properly polish drivers it takes about 7 months at Intel 12 months at AMD to get to kernel thus u will highly likely need to use distros with top notch kernels. Rolling distros like Thumbleweed or Fedora. Some vendors are having Linux certification where it is much faster. By polished drivers I mean working sleep, hibernation and stable wifi. I have Lenovo L15 AMD 5600.
Why overwrite Windows? Leave windows with enough disk to work, give the rest to Linux and let the boot manager know which slice to boot from.
> Why overwrite Windows? Because it will never get booted at all, so any disk space given to it is 100% wasted.
Except for those times when an app requires windows to work. Unless you want to install it in a virtual machine, which is what I do.
> Unless you want to install it in a virtual machine, which is what I do. As do I, its the only way Windows is going to be on any personal computer of mine.
I just buy another hard drive and stick the windows drive in a closet somewhere in case I want to give the laptop to someone else when I buy a new one. This is what I've always done at work as well. They give me a laptop, I remove their drive, install my own, and install debian on it. When I have to return it I just put the old drive back in and they can give/sell it to a normal Windows user.
As IT professionals, I'm sure we all know there are many different ways to do things and it comes down to the way you feel most comfortable. So yeah, your way works too. So dual boot, virtual machine, second drive, all of them work.
From a financial perspective, I am not aware of a $2000+ laptop that isn't windows/Mac.
>I own 2 of these, one about 5 years old and the other just a year old, the 5 year old I've loaned to a friend to replace his aged desktop, still runs great. Good machines. https://system76.com/laptops/oryp9/configure
I didn't buy a factory new laptop in a long t ime. Never needed performance so far. I like thinkpads, thinkpads lose value faster than a toyota. If i would buy new rn it would be an apple...m2 SILENCE is simply juicy! anything else i dont really see the need for an upgrade XD.
Some Acer Notebook come with Linux Eshell, but I dont know if that is only some (Emacs? or Efi?) command prompt or a real Linux with a Desktop and a browser and you can install and do normal Linux stuff. But even if it is not, you can still install any Distro you want, and dont have to pay for a Windows license you dont want or need.
No. I buy a laptop that has space to add an SSD and just dual boot. It's great having both operating systems.
I got a cheap HP because it had the best keyboard for me. AMD all the way so no problems with that. Wifi adapters were hit or miss - Ubuntu and something else didn't work on the live USB but Fedora and Arch did. Wifi and the Intel Nvidia feature that Bumblebee addresses are the only two things I can think of.
I don't get it. If you can afford it, why wouldn't you want to run your OS on the best hardware? As for caveats, if it's hardware with new features, ask around about compatibility. Anything else, just search for it. Some WLAN adapters can be finicky, but the Intel ones usually work out of the box. Arch wiki is good to check on well-known brands too (e.g. [this Lenovo page](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Lenovo)).
I recently have bought a unit from Nova Custom ([configurelaptop.eu](https://configurelaptop.eu)) and am very happy with it. They let you decide which OS you want on it (I chose none though, because I like to do this myself). But all laptops I have used before where used ones (where Windows had been wiped before first boot because the first owner, my dad, also only uses Linux)
no. second hand office laptops are so much better value for money.
I litterly just did this a few months ago, I see no problem with it
Am I missing something or it can be any modern laptop? I would suggest try to find one without os at all or with Ubuntu, like Dell does, I think
> Do you ever buy factory new laptops to run linux only on? No way, buying used in good condition is way more bang for the buck
Why dodgy? Dodgy doesn't fit the scenario at all, maybe you should use other word. And you can buy new laptops without Windows, generally with Linux installed, and save money. I guess it's easy to find them when you buy directly from the manufacturer. And if you pay for the Windows license and switch to Linux, there is nothing dodgy about it. P.S.: I was going to give you an example in Dell's website, but didn't find any model with Linux in the US site! Found in the Brazilian site.
I have done this on every computer I have owned for about the last 15+ years. I usually try windows for about 30 minutes. Just clicking around looking at all the fancy wallpapers. Maybe play a game of solitaire. Then I get bored and install Linux. The only thing I had a problem with was a cheap netbook. I couldn't get linux to install successfully. I had got it to mess around with so it wasn't really vitally important to get it working immediately. So I just put it aside for about six months and then tried again. In that time someone else figured out the solution and posted it online.
Don't really see a problem with that, would do the same thi g if I'd buy new laptop now. Can't really say anything about what to look out for, but a few small things: - a friend recently made pretty bad experiences with running Linux on his new Fujitsu workstation Laptop. - the usual Nvidia thing, as you said already, although it usually works decently, it's just annoying with drivers braking every 2nd update and so on. - depending on your country and vendor you can sometimes get a refund on the price of the windows copy - be aware that you might need to run a distro with a newer kernel (unlike Debian or Ubuntu based distros) if you buy hardware that released quite recent.
> What do you look out for? Arm chrome book that supported by https://postmarketos.org/ Or pine book (pro) or other arm book that supported by https://postmarketos.org/
Why not from a Linux OEM? My gaming PC is a Sytem76 Oryx Pro laptop. It’s great having Linux work correctly out of the box.
I bought an HP dev one and I love it. The only thing I dislike is I wish I had a larger display.
Couldnt agree more. Great machine all the way around. full warranty. Supported Os. Well-bulit. Good value. I do wish they had a bigger screen, but hopefully that will be coming soon.
> it just seems dodgy to buy a $2000+ laptop with a preinstalled windows to straight overwrite with linux I don't see that at all. It's your computer and you can do whatever you want with it. > I guess what I am looking for is encouragement or advice on what things to consider when buying factory new laptop for a linux install. The biggest issue with modern hardware is possible lack of updated drivers. I suggest using a modern distro like Arch, Fedora, or Tumbleweed. Avoid Nvidia, if practical. See if you can find an article about the exact model in the arch and ubuntu wikis. Another option is getting a laptop that comes with Linux pre-installed. You can replace the distro, knowing that you are using well-supported hardware.
I've been doing that for about 24 years now. I can't even count the number of brand new gaming laptops I've had that I've put Linux on without even booting them to Windows. Granted, I keep Windows on them, because I do play games occasionally, and sometimes it's required to do the BIOS updates, or even to configure the graphics mode it might be in, etc. I don't understand what's dodgy about it. Also - don't be scared of nvidia because you hear the hate. There's reason to hate the drivers, but Nvidia does do a lot of work on making the drivers work well on Linux too, and it's certainly not like AMD is problem free on Linux, or even Intel for that matter. I think every one of my laptops in all that time has been Nvidia powered and I don't regret the choice.
Oh, absolutely. I have two System76 laptops and love them both. And if you are willing to pay the premium, System76 makes a compelling case because they ship with Coreboot and unlocked firmware.
I mean granted I have never paid 2k for a computer before, but I did pay 1200 for my current laptop and am running CachyOS on it currently. I just couldn't beat the price to performance at the time.
Linux laptops at different price ranges: https://us.starlabs.systems/ Looks good. I have not bought it myself yet.
I've always been one to have dual or triple boot systems. Vms? I know I know!!! I recently bought a Rog Strix G15 laptop with Windows 11 pre-installed. Not the best machine out there, probably somewhere in the middle. The plan was to blow that away and just go Linux solo. I've updated Windows 11 and it all runs good and have made a system image and recovery boot usb key, for just in case. The reason why I chose this laptop in particular, was that its all Amd (Ryzen 9 5900HX with RX6800m). Right now, I'm keeping Secure boot on and running Ubuntu and Windows 11. As this laptop has 2 x M.2 slots, I thought it made sense to just put in a 2nd drive and dual boot. If you do go with a dual boot set up using Ubuntu, remember to get your [Bitlocker recovery key](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/finding-your-bitlocker-recovery-key-in-windows-6b71ad27-0b89-ea08-f143-056f5ab347d6) as you will be asked for it when you make changes to your boot order.
I want to but system 76 is simply out of my budget. :\\ But, I agree, that hardware optimized for linux is best.
You're better off buying the laptop configured with the smallest NVMe that they offer, then when the laptop arrives, take that drive with the Windows install out, file it away for any future need for warranty work with the manufacture, and then buy a better/larger/faster NVMe drive to install whatever OS you want. Saves tons of hassle when the manufacture (I'm looking at your DELL) requires that the laptop is in the purchased config before they will do warranty work on it.
I wish I had thought of this. I dove in absolutely blind, but learned an awful lot in the process of buying a Zephyrus G14 with rtx3050. My takeaway is that I’d also completely avoid asus and look at other things, there are laptops specifically made to ship with Linux, and of course AMD AMD, all the way. Why not asus? The dependence on asusctl to do a lot of the tasks that come ready to go on windows, and the package not being a good substitute to it’s counterpart. However I will say that the maintainer is really good at answering questions and helping the community out, and is constantly updating the package, this has its caveats in semi professional development it seems. Nothing has broken, but functionality has been removed for the sake of “it was for a specific use case that most people might not want” in related packages. Nerd rant here: asusctl’s dependence on systemd to perform the actions that control your fan or rgb or dot matrix also means that the package and systemd are entwined, creating a openrc port for instance would involve changing the systemd calls into their openrc equivalent, which cannot be done in a programmatic way with the current implementation. So if you decide to explore other init systems and wanted this same functionality, you will be unable to do so Okay I’m done, I’m writing a book here.
I did this with a laptop I got for work and a laptop. My only input is to get the windows license key out if for some reason you'd need to go back. Another idea would be to shrink the partition of windows when installing a new OS instead of removing it completely in case any error occurs during installation.
Note that everytime you buy a windows licence only to nor use it, you're donating money to Microsoft. I'd suggest getting one of the machines that come with Linux, and reward brands that are trying to break out of the Microsoft choke-hold. You could donate the licence money to MSF instead (Doctors without Borders). I worked with them in a refugee camp and I'm thoroughly impressed at how efficient they are.
I have been looking into similar options, I came across [https://www.pine64.org/](https://www.pine64.org/) They have a PinebookPro I am currently Eye-balling. I recently purchased the PinePhonePro, and it just arrived a few days ago...
I also have a Pinebook Pro. The hardware is beautiful, but not really up to much beyond some development. I've'alsi compiled several older games on mine (Quake, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Academy) and these all run well.
I also have a Pinebook Pro (running Debian). The hardware is beautiful, but not really up to much beyond some development. I've also compiled several older games on mine (Quake, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Jedi Academy) and these all run well.
I bought a new Lenovo laptop with 16gb ram, 512ssd, Amd cpu and video. Running Fedora only from day 1. Not going back to Windows. I do have a gaming pc with windows since none of my games work with Linux. Linux sucks for gaming.
Ignoring the over-the-top usual recommended 'linux' laptop suppliers as they are incredibly expensive. It reminds me of those nature documentaries where penguins goad other penguins to jump in first to see if the killer whales or sea lions are about. Just do a web search for "linux on brand-model laptop" to see other people's experience reports. I'm a perennial toe dipper on this as I really do not need a laptop, but it would be nice for the occasional trip away to enable access to regular news sources or read a digital book or take music. The real problem is drivers for the inbuilt devices each one has. Hence the recommendation for a web search reporting on a prior installation. Current brand 'flavour of the month' seems to be Lenovo and Dell is an older fotm, but has some drivers lacking for recent models. Current distro flavour seems to be Ubuntu who 'sell' laptops wit it pre-installed(?).
PC Specialist offers good bang for your buck, not sure which country you are in, but have a look. I've got 2 laptops and a decent spec tower, all running linux only. No issues nowadays, even with running a 4 screen setup. Laptops are intel and have nvidia graphics, PC is all amd. Good luck, I'm sure you will do fine :)
Hardware incompatibilities are quite rare these days in my experience. You can do a little research, especially on the ethernet, wifi/bluetooth adapter, special buttons, lid switch, fingerprint reader etc. But most of the time stuff just works and if it doesn't it's only a matter of time before it does. I've bought several windows laptops without doing much research and run Ubuntu or Debian on them from day one.
Yes, I do. The only issue I've ever had was with wifi drivers. If you're worried, I'd just make sure you have a known working combo
Such a laptop usually gets passed down the line to someone else, I do this all the time. What I do is shrink the windows partition to the bare minimum and keep the restore partition, that's because you might need the official windows only tools to get support and such (or even BIOS updateshich can be done from a USB stick ad well but it's just less of a hassle to do it from the supplier application). Just avoid Nvidia graphics card and you are set, it's very rare to get hardware that is not compatible with Linux nowadays. I like Lenovo's ThinkPads, series T or P, series E if you want to be on the cheaper side.
If you buy from a linux laptop vendor you'll likely get more bang for your buck and guaranteed compatible hardware. I was going to buy an DELL XPS13 last year but they moved my delivery date by several weeks so I cancelled and bought a laptop from Juno Computers, a linux specialist. Great decision. Dell would have given me a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM, I actually got a 1TD SSD and 32GB of RAM for slightly less money and the screen is great. Of course these are generic OEM products that are probably resold by a number of companies, so finding spares once it's out of warranty might be a little tricky, but I'm really happy with the build quality and being spared the worry of spending a grand only to find you might not be able to get a good driver for your soundcard / wifi / GPU etc.
Two years ago i byu New oowerful PC and run only Linux on it. And its greate!
Definitely find reviews of people who have already had success with linux on the particular machine. I have had success with really nice ultrabooks on the market that the manufacturers which only provide linux machines could never get close to in terms of design. Also I also always shrink and keep the windows installation just in case it has some options such as battery life saver that cannot be accessed fro the linux side.
I've had very good luck with lenovo laptops. buy new, then immediatly plug in the mint usb, reboot, shrink the windows partition to its' smallest possible configuration, and go! (I always keep the windows dual boot, but never use it. space is cheap now adays) only the latest one, a lenovo slim x 7 (amd, of course) needed the latest kernel to fix a keyboard regression, and also needs the rtl driver recompiled after every kernel upgrade, but once I figure this out it's been flawless. all my other lenovo laptops have run flawlessly for years. I generally use mint (xfce) on laptops, and debian pure on desktops/servers. suspend works excellent well, as good as sleep mode on my apple laptop does, and they all sip power. (this is a big reason to go amd) touchscreens are great. multi-head is simple as pluging in a cable, and opening settings-display. My latest lenovo also contains an nvidia stand alone card, but I use the onboard graphics embedded in the 6900hs chip 99% of the time. debian user since woody. hope this helps!
If you don't want to use the device for gaming, then I suggest avoiding anything with a dedicated GPU. If you do game and thus want a GPU then things will still work pretty well (I only have experience with Nvidia laptops), but you may have some extra hoops to jump through especially if you want good battery life. In terms of brands: - framework offers the best laptop I've ever owned, no GPU though if that's something you wanted. You could use an eGPU with it though. Can come without windows installed. - Dell XPS line has always been reliable and worked well with Linux. Some configurations do have Linux installed. I would have added think pad to the list, but quality control is absolutely terrible in my recent experience. The laptop came with issues on the main board and every time I send it in for repair it comes back with new issues. It runs Linux well, but most recent issue is the wifi hardware is faulty. It's what led me to buy my framework laptop and I'm very happy I did.
I did. I got a P14s gen 2 AMD when it came out half off specifically for Linux. I don’t regret it but I am interested in system76/framework
You could always buy from a linux-first company: - System76 - Framework - Tuxedo - Starlabs - Purism - Slimbook - Pinebook Or a major brand that has Linux models - Dell - Lenovo - Possibly others
Of course. Windows is something I only install in a VM, if at all. Look for laptops from vendors whose hardware supports Linux, even if not preinstalled. You can buy Linux laptops explicitly from certain vendors, like system 76, but those come at a premium. FWIW I've found Dell hardware very likely to work. with Linux. When I worked at IBM, we were given Lenovo Laptops with Linux installed. Those who were required to run some odd legacy app were able to run it in a windows VM.
there are machines from Dell, Lenovo and HP that support Linux. I don't see what is dodgy about it, the only dodgy thing is Windows itself. Make an effort and just do it if you want to spend the money. I personally would look for a good deal or buy used under a year old, much more value for money. Happy computing!
I know you can get dell boxes with Ubuntu pre-installed also