Switched to Thinkpad X250 recently from old HP netbook and so far very much happy. Running Ubuntu 15.04 with Gnome.
Everything works out of the box, no problems with hardware so far, no need to patch or edit any obscure config files or download weird drivers.
Solid hardware. Internal battery that allows you to switch drained battery to a full one (if you have it) at any moment without the need to turn notebook off.
Besides that, I really like how Thinkpads look. Sturdy build that feels great in your hands.
Good keyboard. Some people don't like that type of keyboards (chicklet), but I feel comfortable working on it.
Beware of the 2nd generation (2014) X1 Carbon. The HDMI port doesn't support audio (in either Windows or Linux), the click pad rattles and requires too much force/travel for something you're supposedly to do as effortlessly and frequently as clicking, the mouse buttons that correspond with the trackpoint are practically non-functional, and the "adaptive function row" is an endless source of frustration. And for reasons that I may or may not be able to fix eventually, wifi on Linux Mint with this laptop is so unreliable that I spend most of my time in Windows despite otherwise preferring Linux. I'm typing this on one right now, so I know from experience.
I've read that the 2014 T-series clickpads and trackpoints have similar issues too. Generally, when people recommend Thinkpads for their quality they're referring to the X and T series. The 2014 models are frequently showing up in the Lenovo outlet store with surprisingly low prices because of low sales and high returns. Not a good deal. I would have gotten a refund if it wasn't a refurbished purchase.
I have the 2014 T440s and it's the best laptop I've ever used, though I guess that's not a particularly large sample size. I definitely think the 2015 T450s should be much better because they brought back the buttons but the clickpad is not really that hard to get used to. I think this year's Thinkpads should be really awesome, and if I could justify it I'd easily get a 2015 X1C now that they fixed the keyboard and trackpad.
It does have a wifi issue, it seems to me that the Intel 7260 wifi chip has serious issues across multiple laptops from what I've read online. But I found that for my home network switching to 5ghz fixed all my issues so it might just be an interference thing.
> The HDMI port doesn't support audio (in either Windows or Linux)
Are you sure? This seems very odd, and I cant find a single mention of this in a review. Does the mini-DP port carry audio? My X240 works perfectly fine with audio over mini-DP in linux (there is no full size HDMI). I dont know about windows, I dont use it.
>click pad issue
The clickpad sucks on the X240 too -- but I never actually push-to-click it. Do people not tap to click on laptops in 2015? This complaint is a strawman IMO, the push-to-click sucks on Apple and every other laptop I've seen it on as well. As a standard trackpad, its fine.
>wifi
Zero issues since day 1 on the X240 with the default intel 7260 card. Not sure which card you have, but I've yet to see a laptop with an intel wifi card that has issues in linux. If you have a different vendor's card and its giving you issues preventing you from using linux, it might be worth the $30 to pick up an intel card.
I wish I had gotten an X240. The model of my X1C is 20A7/20A8 and all my complaints are legit, thank you.
I was also surprised about the HDMI audio issue. You're right about the reviews not mentioning it. I've read that the mini DisplayPort works properly. But the expected behavior of an HDMI port is to output audio and I'm just glad I wasn't entertaining guests or giving a presentation when I discovered the problem.
Read the whole thing, if that's what you're into. The Lenovo support specialist should have admitted that he only had general advice about computer troubleshooting and did not have a solution to the problem. Anyway, the only person claiming to have found a solution was the last post, who only offered an irreproducible solution. I actually tried everything everyone suggested in that thread and wasted far too much time for nothing. And even if any of those solutions worked, this is a thread about Linux laptops.
I don't like tapping, but sometimes I prefer it over clunking down the whole pad. The dedicated clicking buttons of older models worked perfectly well and Apple laptops have wonderful touchpads.
> This complaint is a strawman IMO
A strawman argument is actually when one side of a debate lies about what the other side's argument is so they'll have have an easier argument to refute. I don't think you were accusing me of that.
>wifi
Lots of issues since day one on this laptop with an Intel 7260 card.
I know HN typically discourages "me too" comments, but in this case: Me too. I previously owned one of the 2014 X1's and I will also attest that the mouse was so unbelievably bad that I continuously carried an external wireless mouse, even to meetings.
Other models from Lenovo remain excellent; I have a T530 from several years prior, and I love it.
I second the Thinkpad. I've been using a X1 Carbon w/ Archlinux and it's great, almost everything works straight out of the box - and the archwiki for Lenovo products is quite comprehensive (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Category:Lenovo).
The one thing to be wary off is some alterations they made to the keyboard/trackpad in a few of the models (I think they may have reversed the changes most recently, but make sure you are getting the classic one).
You're right about keyboard/trackpad. Previous Year models didn't have classic three buttons above the trackpad which are quite useful when you use trackpoint.
But at least with X250 they did bring those buttons back. I guess same is true for the rest of the newer models.
Ditto this. I've been using an X240 as my primary home/work computer with Arch Linux for 18 months or so, with 8-12 hours of use a day. I have no complaints. Everything worked day 1 with linux and all the hardware is supported. Lenovo is active with BIOS updates to fix things like the rowhammer exploit, as well as linux-specific issues, which is nice. There have been 10+ BIOS updates since I got the machine, and it doesnt require Windows to update.
If you have a need for multiple VMs or top or the line performance, you might want something a bit bigger (RAM is limited to 8GB on the current X250 and processors top out at 15W models). That being said, I have yet to feel even remotely limited by the capability of this laptop -- it is my primary machine.
edit: I should add my 2 batteries have 77% and 78% capacity after 18 months of extremely heavy use, which I consider to be excellent.
+1 on thinkpads. Been using a X230 for three years on Linux Mint. Used a T410 on Ubuntu before that. Aside from the very rare fail on wake from a suspend, it's been great.
IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad. Sturdy, replacements / repair kits available, often used by university students. Buy refurbished, max ram and swap for ssd. look for i5 / i7 models T420, x201T is a tablet pc (pen, but no touch) available in i5/i7 models. avoid the newer models / research linux compatibility first.
I've used the same approach for my last two laptops. Currently on a T430s. Only thing I'd add is to get a laptop with a integrated Intel Graphics card if you're not doing anything that's graphics intensive. You won't have to fight with proprietary drivers, and the built in display manager / keyboard shortcuts will work properly.
I have a W530 for work and it works very well with Linux Mint 17. There was a bit of trickiness with the dual graphics cards and getting it to work right on the dock to output to quad monitors, but if you're not using multiple monitors via a dock, I highly recommend the W530. Even with that little bit of work it's been an excellent performer.
I'll second the recommendation for the Thinkpad W530, with one additional suggestion: go for one of the "pre-configured" ones, skimp on RAM and HDD, and upgrade it yourself.
I purchased mine right about two years ago (brand new from a seller on Amazon in order to avoid delivery delays when purchasing direct) and went for one with only 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB SATA HDD. I paid (separately and, again, via Amazon) $300 for 32 GB of RAM and $385 for a 480 GB SSD (and spent 20 minutes installing them) but this was much, much cheaper than purchasing the W530 with those upgrades pre-installed. I ended up giving away the "original" 4 GB RAM to a friend who could use it and (since I very rarely need or use the optical drive) I usually keep the original 500 GB SATA HDD in the secondary bay in order to keep a fresh, up-to-date backup of my data for when the SSD inevitably fails without warning.
The NVIDIA Optimus graphics system is apparently a PITA for some people but since I don't use a dock or external monitor it's really not been an issue for me. I believe I have my BIOS set to the "Discrete Graphics" setting (to use the NVIDIA card) and Ubuntu has no problems with it (I previously ran Arch Linux on the W530 with the Intel card and also had no issues).
The W530 isn't nearly as light as many other laptops (about six pounds, if memory serves) but, then again, it's considered a "Mobile Workstation" -- and with the quad-core i7 @ 2.70 GHz, 32 GB RAM, the 480 GB SSD and 500 GB SATA spinning disk, and FHD 1920x1080 15" display, it truly is!
Side note: after using MacBooks and MacBook Pros exclusively for ~7 years, I said that I'd never again buy a "PC laptop" (i.e. a non-Mac), but I'm extremely happy with my W530 (running Linux, of course) and use it almost exclusively nowadays. About a year after purchasing the W530, I sold my MBP simply because I had only used it two or three times in that year and thought I might as well sell it and get something out of it instead of letting it sit around and eventually become obsolete.
Dell XPS 13 developer edition. It's a beautifully designed machine with excellent battery life, a good keyboard and a sensational screen, at a reasonable price. The fact that it comes pre-installed with Ubuntu is just the cherry on top of a very attractive cake.
I think I may have seen this a couple of times, but it's certainly not constant for me. It may just be my router.
I'm dual booting Ubuntu 15.04 and Windows 8.1 as I support software on both platforms. So I'm suffering from the "reboot twice to get working audio" issue and occasional touchpad problems.
I believe that both will be fixed with kernel 4.1.
I'm also a happy Thinkpad owner but have been considering a new one, although it's hard to find one that can compete with the two-year-old W530 I have now.
Would love to hear some thoughts on the System 76 laptops. I'm tempted by the 15" Gazelle Pro, but haven't heard any first-hand accounts from real users.
I have an older 2012 Gazelle Pro with a wide-gamut TN screen.
It's fast and quiet, the keyboard and touchpad are decent, and the screen is mostly good. I don't know about new ones, but that version is SUPER easy to clean out: remove one panel and the fan comes out letting you clean the heatsink. It doesn't collect dust really, but it was handy because replacing the thermal paste made it run quieter after the original stuff dried out.
The only issues I've ever had with it are that small amounts of dust got behind the display panel but in front of the backlight, leaving fuzzy outlines visible. It's probably not an issue for most people though because I've taken this laptop camping in the desert...
The other problem is the battery has degraded over time. Originally I got 5+ hours of battery life, but right now it lasts maybe 40 minutes. Replacements can be had relatively cheaply, but I just never got around to getting one.
I have been (and still am) using a Pangolin Performance for a few years.
I like:
- All versions of Debian and Ubuntu work flawlessly (no pre-purchase research necessary)
- Sturdy (knock on wood)
- Easy to take apart (for cleaning or upgrades)
- Nice screen
- Keyboard with numeric keypad
I dislike:
- Very rarely (once in a month[1]), the touchpad acquires consciousness.
I am neutral:
- It's not silent but I did not expect silence when I purchased it with the latest i7 at the time.
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The Gazelle looks very much like what I have. I like it :) The price is fair too. Btw, I didn't know it came with a Matte option.
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Disclaimer: I'm a happy (would-be repeat) customer and have no ties to system76.
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[1] I contacted system76 support and they told me that either they could send me a replacement touchpad (to replace it myself) or I could ship it back to them for repairs under warranty. I decided not to bother with either.
I wish I could remember where it was at, just within the last week I recall reading several unfavorable opinions about System 76. It was either here, on Reddit, or the FreeBSD forums.
I had been considering one of their laptops due to the apparent extensive Linux support and wonderful "unicorns and puppies" praise on some of the Jupiter Broadcasting podcasts (until it hit me that System 76 is a huge sponsor and so they wouldn't be saying anything negative about them) but the comments I just read caused me to strike them from my short list.
I heard of these issues too, on Reddit. After my experience with their support people, I decided that the issues were either an active social media PR campaign against them by one of the other vendors or regular mishaps of the support department or a combination of both.
The Lenovo T420 can't be beaten, to this day. You can sink three SSDs in the thing (one mSATA, one primary 2.5", one in place of the ODD), it survives a beating or two, it has the legendary classic ThinkPad keyboard (later models don't) and as late models have switched to U series CPUs, the full wattage Sandy Bridge CPU in there can keep up with many of the current models. Extensibility is not bad with an eSATAp port (or two if you dock). The dock has two DisplayPorts, the laptop has one. USB3 can be added via an ExpressCard.
The only other possibility I would entertain is the new Dell M3800 developer edition. The step up is significant: it has a quad core i7-4712HQ and Thunderbolt and 4K screen as an option. While even a well pimped out T420 is well below $1000 (starting at a few hundred, even), this one will run to $3K and more if you pile on everything. I'd get it if I needed Thunderbolt bandwidth but otherwise just go with the old.
I'm running Linux Mint 17.1 Mate on a Toshiba Satellite P55t B5340. i7, 16GB ram and 500GB SSD. Also has 4k screen, but I run in 1920 x 1080 since I can't get good scaling with Mate. I really like this notebook. Nice keyboard also. Has numeric keypad which is nice.
If you're on a budget, you could get a lenovo X200 Tablet, fit a new battery and 8GB of RAM. You get a nice touchscreen which you can orient as you please and 2 minipcie expansion slots.
That is, if you don't require modern OpenGL/gpgpu features, nor plan on doing massively parallel jobs on it (It sports a Core(TM)2 Duo CPU L9400 @ 1.86GHz)
Hypothetically, you _could_ solder a faster processor (not realistically for most of us tho).
Why the X200 and not a more recent one? They changed the keyboard / buttons afterwards, for the worst :(
NB: you might want to patch the bios to remove the mpcie whitelist ibm/lenovo put in. Misewell flash coreboot (requires in-circuit programming, due to flash block write protection)
The X201 Tablet has the same chassis but Nelham architecture Arrendale CPU's rather than the Core2 of the x200's. But the x200's are still good machines at a very steep discount.
Dell XPS 15. Awesome build quality, very very similar to the Macbook, but slightly cheaper, and still had an option for a hi red screen. And you won't have everyone assuming you're running OSX.
Personally, I use a Macbook Pro. I don't want to spend time messing with my configuration files. I want to focus on what gets money flowing into my pocket.
To answer your question, I've heard great things about the Dell M3800. You can get Linux preloaded and get a higher resolution screen. Dell has worked with Canonical to make sure the hardware support is there.
Before this machine, I had a Thinkpad and I really had trouble understanding what all the hype was. I don't think I'd buy one now after Superfish.
As already told before: Thinkpads or Dell developper edition. I will add HP's pro series: a bit Probooks but mainly Elitebook series which are really great too.
Run away (far!) from general use HPs. Only professional series are fine.
Plus excepted the XPS, you can at least here find other laptops pretty easily on refurbished/used market.
I know a guy who runs OSX and windows at the same time. He just swipes left to slide windows on and swipes right to get back to OSX. Since Linus uses a macbook for development I assume you can do the same thing with Linux.
I installed vmware fusion to run windows and linux vms on my MBP. It works great and the swiping feature is really slick, allowing me to jump between desktops as needed.
I do it, it works great. I don't run it as my primary OS only because of battery life and software support (e.g. Sketch). But those things are true of Linux in general, not the hardware.
When I got the laptop (back in September), it was pretty awful. No browser on Linux had proper Hi-DPI support, and very few of the desktop environments/toolkits/apps did.
Nowadays, things are much better. Chrome has native Hi-DPI support on Linux, as does Opera (which was actually the first browser to gain really good Hi-DPI support on Linux, fwiw). GNOME has flawless Hi-DPI support throughout GNOME Shell and almost all (if not all) of their apps. i3 does as well for the most part, but some aspects are limited by XOrg. Other desktops (elementary's Pantheon, KDE, et al) have decent to good support and it's improving all the time. Additionally some major apps are gaining solid Hi-DPI support, such as GitHub's Atom. I don't think LibreOffice or the major XUL apps (Firefox, Thunderbird) do yet.
Would echo several other comments herem. Am in the lucky position of owning a Dell XPS 13 with Linux pre-installed and then using a Lenovo X250 for my job, and they're both excellent laptops for development on. The work one isn't running Linux, so my comment is less fully tested but the hardware alone is just a joy with the solid feel to everything.
I'd definitely buy the XPS again as it's been brilliant (not Wi-Fi issues as other owner mentioned), although I might forgo the touch screen which adds nothing really on Linux and marginally increased weight and apparently causes slightly lower battery life.
Definitely pricey and a little off the beaten track but I absolutely love my Chromebook Pixel LS. Ubuntu was super easy to set up using Crouton. Everything worked out of the box, the only minor modification I made was replace the synaptic touchpad drivers with a ported version of Chromebook's. When I'm not developing I usually keep it in ChromeOS as it is extremely snappy and responsive. A quick keypress and I can drop into Ubuntu to get some work done.
I have a two year old Lenovo S431 running Linux Mint 17.1. For the most part it runs flawlessly. My only complaint is the wireless card. I can't connect to comcast wifi networks when xfinity wifi is turned on, and in general, the wifi range is horrible. I wanted a thinner, portable laptop, but from what I've read, a lot of the newer Lenovos that aren't part of the business line (like the T series) have wifi problems.
I have an 2 year old Asus N56V. With Debian not everything worked out of the box when I bought it. But after a couple of weeks the problems were solved.
If I were to buy a new one I'd be really tempted at this, which aims a being fully FOSS powered: https://puri.sm/
BTW, have you considered a mac and then installing Linux on top of it?
You may go with a Thinkpad or a Dell XPS if you need a well built machine or you could go with a less flashy, cheaper expendable machine that's slightly slower, slightly heavier and less durable. More memory is good, a good screen is good. I'd suggest avoiding any hardware with less than stellar Linux support.
While not a pure developer, I am extremely impressed with the Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 2 with I7 and an SSD. It has the perfect blend of speed, strength, lightness, battery life and quiet which I always thought was unattainable. I.E. at least one factor would have to go.
I just wrote a comment specifically warning people against buying this very model. I have the 20A7/20A8 model. Does your clickpad rattle and require more force than every other laptop? Does your function row take half a second every time you want to switch rows? Do your function row keys only respond when you press forcefully in specific locations that are near but not the same as their icons? Does your HDMI audio work? You obviously don't have the Linux wifi problems I do. What distro do you use?
I agree that the "speed, strength, lightness, battery life and quiet" is excellent by the way.
Along with lots of other people here. I recommend getting a ThinkPad that is Ubuntu certified. Even if you don't use Ubuntu, it will mean that there is good linux support for all of the hardware.
I use a T440s and it is fantastic. No issues whatsoever in Mint 17.1 Mate 64-bit.
A chromebook that has the 4 gigs of ram and a 32 gig ssd is large enough to handle the android sdk's, I was trying to do this on a 16 gig chromebook, but 16 gigs is only enough for web development, the android sdk is pretty huge.
I would actually recommend getting any Windows laptop and just use Hyper-V (or VirtualBox/VMware if you prefer Type-2 Hypervisors) to run Linux.
Most modern laptops can handle virtualization with no noticeable performance penalties even for heavy dev tasks, and the UX is essentially identical to running on bare metal if you use the full screen immersive mode that most virtualization software offers for interaction. The virtualization stack takes care of most hardware compatibility issues, and running Windows as your host OS means you won't have to restart to do Windows specific dev stuff and/or play games (Hyper-V allows full access to the GPU for the "host OS").
Getting a Macbook and running Linux with VirtualBox, VMware Fusion or Parallels is also a viable alternative if you don't need to game on the Windows VM but need OS X support instead.
Linux on the desktop is a mistake that's driving a lot of bad code into distributions. Get a macbook, which has, even now, a very solid desktop environment that'll always be more functional and easier to use than any desktop linux, and use vagrant to develop against linux virtual machines, and/or ssh into your linux environment.
This is how I've done it for the last several years with great success.
Switched to Thinkpad X250 recently from old HP netbook and so far very much happy. Running Ubuntu 15.04 with Gnome.
Everything works out of the box, no problems with hardware so far, no need to patch or edit any obscure config files or download weird drivers.
Solid hardware. Internal battery that allows you to switch drained battery to a full one (if you have it) at any moment without the need to turn notebook off.
Besides that, I really like how Thinkpads look. Sturdy build that feels great in your hands.
Good keyboard. Some people don't like that type of keyboards (chicklet), but I feel comfortable working on it.