
Ask HN: The best Linux laptop - Nib
I&#x27;ve been thinking since quite a while to replace my current laptop. It&#x27;s a 2011 VAIO which I modified to run Ubuntu 14.04 . But, it seems to be giving up on me since a few days, and with the thanksgiving discounts going, I might actually get myself one :P<p>So, what is the best laptop that runs Linux natively, or after modifying. Plus, try to make it a little more affordable($200 - $850).<p>P.S. Nobody mention the Mac, it&#x27;s a beauty in itself, and I won&#x27;t be able to replace OS X by Linux emotionally.
======
josephkern
Stick with thinkpads and checkout ThinkWiki[1] to make sure that there are no
oddities you are not willing to work through on the model you want to buy.

The Dell XPS Developer Edition[2] comes with Linux installed, and has
supported binary drivers from Dell. Just a little outside your price range.

[1]:
[http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki](http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki)
[2]:
[http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd](http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd)

~~~
rwmj
While I love my X230 running Fedora, I hear really bad things about the newer
X line-up, mainly about the touchpad which is apparently unusable (even under
Windows), but also that they've _reduced_ the max RAM from 16GB (X230) to 8GB.
Maybe the lesson in that is to buy a second hand X230 ...

~~~
tacoman
This is a good summary of the problems with the x240.

[http://senk9.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/lenovox220/](http://senk9.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/lenovox220/)

------
tdicola
I'm not sure why you're ruling out Mac laptops, perhaps you think they're too
expensive? I was a long time Thinkpad user but converted to a MacBook Air a
few years ago and haven't looked back at all since. You can run Linux in a VM
perfectly, and OSX itself has some nice Unix features.

Right now you can get a 13" MacBook Air with good specs for $800:
[http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-macbook-air-latest-
model-1...](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-macbook-air-latest-
model-13-3-display-intel-core-i5-4gb-memory-128gb-flash-
storage/2712009.p?acampID=0&ref=8575135&loc=0&id=1219076158205&skuId=2712009)
IMHO this is the way to go. No $800 Windows laptop is going to come close to
the build quality of the MacBook Air.

~~~
Nib
Well, I haven't been including a Mac here because most of us already know how
cool they are. I mean, my dad has one, and I know a VMWARE machine running
Ubuntu is great, but then it feels kinda like a dis-respect to OS X(and sj).
Moreover, most of the good Mac's start from over my price range(atleast they
do in India, they do).

------
CraigJPerry
I've always gone thinkpad for Linux and never really been let down.

I got an M$ Surface Pro 3 last month (don't laugh) but its actually first
rate, hardware wise.

Fedora doesn't quite work perfectly yet but its pretty close.

High DPI touch screens rock!

~~~
LeoNatan25
Can't take seriously anyone that types "M$". I know this kind of juvenile
potshots are rampant in the Linux community, but it is time to grow up.

~~~
jessaustin
GP was _complimenting_ M$. As for "growing up", it seems that the younger
fanbois are more sensitive to a fairly innocuous shorthand than those of us
who remember computing in the '90s.

~~~
yzzxy
I think this is probably because hackers in younger generations never
experienced the beast that was Microsoft in the 90s and have seen the
progression of MS as one from "company that makes boring and/or bad OS" to the
embrace of FOSS that's been happening recently.

I'm personally super interested in tech and hacking history, so I've read all
the war stories, the pleas on FOSS homepages, the rants on sites like jwz's,
books like Microserfs, etc. But even the most talented hackers who are 16-24
right now probably see Microsoft as "the Xbox company."

~~~
silverfox17
Not true - 21 here, was only born in 1993. I'm aware of the disputes that have
happened over time, especially arguments with Netscape / Jobs / etc. Microsoft
has a pretty interesting and rich history, and I was extremely surprised about
the recent open source announcements. I read somewhere they actually have an
open source branch, it's just not widely talked about, mainly because Windows
overshadows it.

~~~
yzzxy
I'm not trying to make an ultimatum - there will definitely be exceptions, as
I pointed out myself. But if you ask around, most people in that demographic
won't know about the story of MS, won't have seen stuff like the Gates
deposition video, etc. The most you'll get is a vague notion of Microsoft
being called evil by greybeards.

------
CoffeeDregs
EDIT: oops. I just noticed your price range. The X1 Carbon doesn't fit with
that.

I would strongly recommend the last generation Lenovo X1 Carbon, but I would
strongly recommend _against_ the current X1 Carbon for a few reasons:

\- They merged the trackpoint's buttons into the trackpad's and now it's very
difficult find the middle chord or to select text using the trackpoint.

\- They merged the function keys with the utility keys (e.g. volume control)
into a single, dynamic row, so closing a window (Alt-F4) often requires you to
toggle from utility to function key. If this sounds confusing and useless, it
is.

\- Worst, because of the doubled-up row (fn, utility), Esc and ~ wound up
overlaid. So they moved the ~ next to the LOWER RIGHT Alt key. I hit Esc every
time I try to reference my home directory...

Other than that, it's a lovely laptop.

Oh and don't get a HighDPI display unless you want to deal with funky
application layout issues...

~~~
zem
agreed, i have a last-gen carbon as my work laptop, and it's wonderful. fairly
crappy battery life, but the rest works beautifully and is very pleasant both
to carry around and to use.

------
wanda
Lenovo Thinkpads have always made for good Linux machines, and even now
nothing seems like it will ever beat old Thinkpad keyboards. New Thinkpads are
still good but I've never been a big fan of the chiclet keyboards and the
resolutions sometimes seem to be worse than in the past.

Of course, there is always: [https://system76.com](https://system76.com)

but I've yet to give any of their gear a spin.

~~~
webmaven
I bought my SO a Gazelle Pro from System76 two years ago. We've been pleased
enough with it that I just bought one myself (with updated specs, of course)
instead of a new desktop.

Ubuntu out of the box, all hardware is supported, good performance and battery
life, a matte-screen option, etc.

In another couple of years, they will likely be my first choice again.

------
keybits
Dell Latitude's work well. I'm currently on an E6320 with Xubuntu 14.04. I've
removed the DVD drive and replaced it with a 2nd SSD so I have dual SSD's in a
13" laptop. Everything works perfectly including the docking bay which allows
me to plug in a 27" monitor at 2560x1440 via Display Port. Multi monitor
switching works better than Windows 8.1 for me since it's hot swap and the
windows retain sensible sizes for when the larger display is plugged back in
(they all instantly resize in Windows).

The new E7440 is very nice and can be had for great prices on eBay. I tried
one of these with the Full HD IPS screen. Unfortunately I couldn't get HiDPI
to work to my satisfaction (even with latest Gnome and KDE). Having said that,
I couldn't get Windows 8.1 to work to my satisfaction either.

------
larzang
A lot of people haven't heard of them, but Clevo is a major laptop OEM that
makes both rock-solid business platforms and gaming platforms. Sager,
System76, FalconNW, and most other boutique laptop builders use
rebadged/modified Clevo systems. Clevo doesn't sell direct to customers, but
there are plenty of sites where you can buy customized or barebones systems
for very reasonable prices.

This summer I bought a W670SZQ from AVADirect, with an i5 and SSD it was just
under $900. For a full size 17" laptop the weight is very reasonable, and it's
a great system that Xubuntu and Mint worked fine on with zero tweaking.

------
sampo
HP EliteBook Folio 1040, 14" 1920x1080 screen:

Pros: Thinner (1.59 cm vs 2.06 cm) and lighter (1.49 kg vs 1.58 kg) than
ThinkPad T440s. Everything in Ubuntu works.

Cons: The keys are flat (like in Macs), I'd prefer some contour like in
ThinkPads. Touchpad has no mouse buttons: 2-finger tap on the touchpad (for
right-click) is quite easy, but 3-finger taps (for middle-click) is a little
tricky. Also selecting text by pressing on the pressure-sensitive touchpad
while moving the cursor is a little tricky. Personally, I always use external
mouse, so I don't care.

------
loudmax
I bought an X230 Thinkpad a year ago, and I'm quite pleased with it.

I wanted an SSD, but I found it was cheaper to select the cheapest hard drive
they had and then buy an SSD from Newegg than to get the SSD from Lenovo.
Replacing the drive was quite easy, not like a tablet or cell phone. It goes
without saying, but you should do the same for RAM.

A month or so after I bought it, the fan stopped working. Their customer
service was quite good. They sent me a box so I could return my laptop, and
they fixed the fan and shipped it back at no cost to me.

~~~
rwmj
The X230 takes an mSATA drive (that's in addition to the regular hard drive).
I fitted one in mine. It's somewhat fiddly to install because you have to
completely remove the keyboard, but possible with basic tools and a bit of
patience. Now I have:

    
    
        NAME                                       MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE
        sda                                          8:0    0 298.1G  0 disk
        ├─sda1                                       8:1    0   500M  0 part
        └─sda2                                       8:2    0 297.6G  0 part
        [...]
        sdb                                          8:16   0 119.2G  0 disk
        └─sdb1                                       8:17   0 119.2G  0 part

------
lsiebert
So you don't say what you consider best. Do you need a discrete GPU and a huge
screen? Do you want a lightweight ultraportable with great battery life?

Also after christmas sales are often good for tech, if you can wait. You can
often get refurbs from returns for great prices.

I'm on a thinkpad T530. added an aftermarket SSD and 16 gb of ram (You need a
W system to get 32GB, but it's possible). Note, get an intel wifi card that
supports 2.5 and 5.0 channels. a T540 is a substantially better machine, both
with haswell getting better power managment, and the ability to hotswap
batteries because of a smaller internal battery.

I also have an hp chromebook 14 running crouton lubuntu 14.04 I got for $236
on woot. It's fine as a secondary laptop, and seems to have good battery life.
I do occasionally miss having a meta key. I run xfce, not unity, and I'd
recommend a light-weight DE. It is notably slower compiling (things like
YouCompleteMe's C++ code for vim).

The other thing to consider is a cheap foreign made computer, like Sager or
Clevo. They are bare bones systems, but that's often better for linux support.
I'd also look at resources from reddit's r/SuggestALaptop like
[http://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop/comments/2448oy/guide...](http://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop/comments/2448oy/guide_1400_are_you_looking_for_a_programming/)

------
nickysielicki
I'm a fan of really cheap chromebooks.

The Toshiba CB35 that recently came out is my current laptop. Don't buy that
right now, though. We don't have the coreboot situation worked out, although
we're close. Currently hating myself by using crouton every day... But its
still a great machine for the price.

For me, and probably you too, nothing matters more than display quality,
keyboard quality, and battery life (in that order.) I do most everything
remotely, so power isn't even a part of the question.

------
dandelion_lover
I would suggest the 2014 Holiday Giving Guide by FSF [0].

[https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/2014/](https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/2014/)

------
simonblack
Lenovo Thinkpad T410S here. The only thing I've done to it in the 4 years I've
had it is to upgrade the 500gig hard drive to 2 TB. And when I bought it I
specified the larger battery rather than the standard one. It has an included
DVD drive which is surprisingly often used.

I have kept it as a Linux-Win7 dual-boot, but Windows is restricted to 50 gig
and I'd boot this maybe 4-5 times a year, while the other 1950 gig is in use
with Linux.

------
spectre256
I have a Lenovo Yoga 2 and really like it. nice form factor, 3200x1800 screen
(great DPI on a 12" screen), pretty good battery life, and the folding screen
lets me use a nice usb mechanical keyboard while on the go.

The wifi drivers are the only area that doesn't have perfect linux support,
but the 3.18 kernel is a drastic improvement, and more are coming.

Also, the price is right, mine was only $1000.

------
scalesolved
I own a Lenovo Thinkpad S540 and I just bought my second yesterday in the
black Friday deals. For me it's been the perfect Linux Laptop, practically
everything works straight out of the box, good performance and I use it for
home and professional programming. It's slim and light, I've used it for
travelling between Europe and the US and it's been fine on the move
(definitely not as petite as other ultrabooks though).

The specs are below:

\- Intel Core i7-4510U Processor \- 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) Anti-glare Display
Black \- AMD Radeon HD 8670M Graphics 2GB \- 16GB RAM \- Keyboard Backlit - UK
English \- 256GB Solid State Drive Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0

I managed to get it for just over $1000 dollars yesterday so I know it's a
little out of your price range but I find the keyboard solid, screen is pretty
good and I don't notice any performance issues. (I mainly do Java development
and that can be resource intensive).

Perhaps you could pick one up on ebay even cheaper, happy to answer any other
questions you've got about it!

------
gvb
I just ordered a Thinkpad T540p for $649 (plus tax, no s/h) from the Lenovo
site. "Web list price" is $1,413.00. I don't know how long the deal will last.
Obviously, I have not tried to run linux on it, but I don't expect problems.

Downsides: It is a heavier machine at 5.5lbs. Battery life is good but not
great. The display is decent resolution but not great.

[http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t540p...](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t540p/)

Make sure you pick the best deal. :-)

Processor: 4th Generation Intel Core i5-4300M Processor( 2.60GHz 1600MHz 3MB)

Operating system: Windows 7 Professional 64

Display: 15.6" FHD AntiGlare 1920x1080

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4600

Memory: 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz

Hard Drive: 500GB 7200 rpm

Optical Drive: Multi Recorder

Network Card: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

Bluetooth: Bluetooth Version 4.0

Warranty: Three year

Pointing device: Clickpad

Battery: 6 Cell Lithium-Cylindrical

~~~
4ad
> I don't know how long the deal will last.

Forever, really. Lenovo site _always_ has "deals" like that.

------
jqm
Agreed on Thinkpads.

I just picked up two oldies (core2 duo) for less than $100 apiece on ebay. No
hard drives, but I had some laying about. Although the tech is old, the
machines are in amazing shape (they are so well built). They do everything I
need with full Linux installs for less than the price of a chromebook.

------
bluedino
Intel-powered Chromebooks are great for running Linux and you can get them for
$150-$300

The best part is you don't have to run it inside ChromeOS, you can simply
remove ChromeOS, enable the legacy boot loader, and use a regular old Ubuntu
USB installer.

Of course, the models with more RAM are ideal, as well as being able to
upgrade the M.2 SSD, but even a 2GB RAM/16GB SSD model will run pretty good,
especially if most of your work is remote or on the cloud. Ubuntu 14.04 takes
up about 7GB of storage.

I love older Thinkpads but these are cheaper, slimmer, and have more battery
life.

~~~
aaw
After going through several Linux laptops over the past decade, including a
couple of Thinkpads, I agree. My current Chromebook running Ubuntu is by far
my favorite.

The whole setup comes in under $300: buy a certified refurbished Acer C720
from Acer with 4GB RAM and 16GB SSD
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L87JC80](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L87JC80))
and, separately, a 128GB MyDigitalSSD
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EZ2E8NO](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EZ2E8NO)).
Replace the SSD and install this custom-made Ubuntu distro that includes all
of the fixes for the C720:
[https://www.distroshare.com/distros/get/12/](https://www.distroshare.com/distros/get/12/).
And that's it!

~~~
Nelkins
Do you really feel like 4GB of RAM is enough? And do you happen to know if
there are any Chromebooks that have upgradeable RAM? What kind of development
do you primarily do on your Chromebook? I've been thinking about switching to
a Chromebook, but I don't know if it's right for me just yet.

~~~
bluedino
>> Do you really feel like 4GB of RAM is enough?

It depends on what you're doing. But there's a whole world out there of people
being very productive on 4GB MacBook Airs, and Ubuntu uses far less memory
than OS X.

~~~
aaw
Yeah, it's enough for me. It's my primary development machine by choice, and
it's enough to do anything I need at a terminal (running emacs, developing and
testing rails servers, docker builds, etc.) while keeping Chrome open with a
few dozen apps including a few gmail and chat windows open.

------
cjbprime
The ThinkPad series (T400s, X1 Carbon) has the best Linux support; kernel
developers often use them. But they're out of your price range. Maybe you can
find a deal on a T400, though?

~~~
rikkus
I bought a used T430s earlier this year for GBP £350 (~USD 550).

I've kept the SSD as the boot drive and replaced the optical drive with a 1TB
'SSHD' (Seagate's SSD/HD hybrid).

I've also upgraded the RAM to 16GB.

Disk/RAM upgrades are possible to do 'free' if you already have parts. I
'downgraded' from an X1 Carbon just so I could do this, in fact!

Keyboard: Great for most dev work, though I preferred the layout on the X300 I
had before.

Pointing device: I get on well with the Trackpoint and turn off the touchpad.

Screen: Okay. 1600x900 is acceptable as a resolution (though I'd like a high
DPI screen next time I buy a laptop). It's readable enough but isn't
beautiful.

Battery life: Awful. Probably not helped by the slightly used battery or the
16GB RAM. The second drive tends to be spun down (it's for occasionally-used /
bulk storage only) and I tend not to be working the CPU hard. I just plug in.

Linux support: About as good as you'll get, which means that it almost works
flawlessly, but will still annoy you.

I've tried Linux in a VM too. Still some problems there. I seem to remember I
couldn't just suspend/resume Windows, because Linux would lose its network
connection and not get it back without a reboot.

To be honest, I can run everything I want to in Windows, so it's actually
easier to do dev work in an OS where everything on the laptop works, and just
ssh to Linux elsewhere when necessary.

EDIT: Removed mentions of OS X and Macs!

~~~
ptx
I just got this model as well. It works perfectly with Debian Wheezy, as far
as I can tell, so I don't see how Linux "will still annoy you".

Anyway, there is one thing that bugs me: If I press the bottom edge of the
space bar (especially on the left side) it doesn't always register. Is this
just my machine that's defective, or is it a problem with the design? Does it
happen with yours as well?

(Usually when I'm typing I hit the spacebar more or less in its vertical
center and it works fine, but if I lean back and rest the hand below the
keyboard, this problem tends to occur.)

When it comes to the screen, the resolution is OK (holding off on high-DPI is
probably better until software support improves!) but viewing angles, colors
and black levels are pretty bad. That's apparently one of the things they
fixed on the T440s (with an IPS display).

~~~
rikkus
Yep the screen is awful for photos or having more than one person look at it.
Or for watching video. Well, anything but staring directly at it in low light
while reading text!

No problem with my spacebar. I suspect you have a dodgy keyboard. I haven't
looked to see how the spacebar is held together in this model, but it might
just be dirt so you may get away with pulling it off (don't say I told you to
do that!) and putting it back, but, well, at least a replacement keyboard is
cheap and easy to fit.

The 'will still annoy you' comment comes from my memory of stuff not quite
working 100%, but I really can't remember what was up now - perhaps it was
just when it was in a VM that there were problems. If there was something
broken, though, it was probably wifi. That seems the most common problem I
have with Linux on laptops these days.

Will give Debian Wheezy a try and see how it goes, thanks!

------
jebediah
I am going to break OPs rule: anybody here has linux running on a macbook air?
I really wanted to get a light laptop with a long battery and found no
alternative as good as MBA

~~~
phaemon
I do, running Ubuntu 14.04 on a 2013 model. It mostly works.

There was an issue with it waking up when the lid was closed that I fixed with
a simple service that just runs "echo XHC1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup" at startup.

Also, the webcam isn't a USB webcam: it's a PCI device made by Broadcom that
doesn't have any drivers. And the 128GB SSD is a bit small and 4GB RAM isn't
enough, as I use VMs sometimes.

On the plus side, the hardware is really nice and the trackpad is great.
Still, I might have to get something a little more high-powered for myself and
give this to my wife :)

------
jessaustin
Depending on what you intend to use Linux for, a fairly recent Chromebook (I
use the Acer C720) plus Crouton may be ideal. That won't be the case if your
main activity is Gimp/Inkscape/etc., but it definitely could be if you spend
most of your time coding in vim. While I do like Inkscape, I've personally
never fallen in love with the office-type Linux desktop apps, so using google
equivalents is fine.

------
nostromoa
Are you asking about the best laptop or the best laptop for Linux or what.
Seems like any Intel laptop will work with Linux (if wrong state which don't
would be useful from someone). Using Ubuntu 14.10 seems fine if you don't like
their wanna be for touch screens etc style, Google 'classic menu' and '14
things I did after installing Ubuntu 14 etc.' There is also Linux Mate which
you can install over Ubuntu 14.10 for traditional desktop. Also you can
install Linux in a Virtual Box Machine if you are running windows something or
other. Separate Video card would be nice but not necessary. Linux will
recognize your multiple processors in you Multi-Processor CPU unlike Windows
which in many cases comes from the store set to default of ONE!
<\--outrageous.

------
erkose
Consider a Think Penguin notebook
[https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/notebook-computers-
gnu-...](https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/notebook-computers-gnu-linux-2)

------
bufordsharkley
I've been running Ubuntu 14.04 on an ASUS i3-- a real bargain, and no
headaches (other than a weird thing where the hardware switch for wireless is
automatically disabled on reboot).

------
jhwhite
The Gazelle from System 76 is $799. It comes with Ubuntu.

------
clarry
What about the best laptop that's not tied to any particular OS? Also, is
there something that's fanless and doesn't break the bank?

~~~
CSDude
Unfortunately driver support for some proprietary hardware is not very well in
Linux so asking for advice is senseful. The most common problem is WiFi
problems. I do not have a problem with last 2 of my laptops but an older Dell
laptop needed manual care for its WiFi.

~~~
clarry
Yes, and the same is true with other OSen. So it'd be nice to know some
generally well supported laptops that aren't picky about the OS you want to
run. I might want to run more than one OS...

------
lucb1e
Someone in class and I both have an Asus N56-series. He runs Fedora, I use
Linux Mint. No problems.

------
pXMzR2A
Also check out system76.com offerings. (I am not affiliated, just a happy
customer.)

------
umrashrf
Asus ZenBooks are good.

~~~
ofcapl_
same here. I've bought this year i7 1.8GhZ four-core machine, 12GB RAM, 128GB
SSD and installed ElementaryOS on it. It works like a charm - especially for
someone who switched back from MacBook with OSX to Linux machine. The author
mentioned that he won't be able to replace OSX by linux emotionally - You
should check elementaryOS - some people think that it just a OSX rip-off (but
it's not)

~~~
veganjay
I'm very happy with Ubuntu 14.04 on my Asus UX31 laptop

------
foolinaround
one more nice to have is a backlit keyboard on the laptop. I find that it
makes a world of difference as I try to hack away in the dark...

~~~
silverfox17
Agreed - the only thing I have had issues with in the dark is my screen will
not go dark enough when I'm in a pitch black room. I use programs like
dimscreen, but they often take a lot away from the image when the laptop
screen is at its lowest darkness

------
hjwp3
I recently went through a bit of a comparison exercise myself, after my Sony
Vaio Z series packed in. I had a slightly higher budget than OP because I
wanted something reasonably high-end, able to run several VMs for example, but
nice and portable. So, in case anyone else finds it useful:

\- probably the most sensible choice would have been a fully specced-up Galago
from System 76: 16GB ram, core i7, space for two (!) SSDs, etc etc. On the
pure specs, it's the clear winner -- it's practically impossible to find an i7
in 13 inches with 16 gigs of RAM. And it's great to support a Linux-friendly
company. One minor problem was that I do occasionally need Windows (for
Powerpoint), but I guess I could have installed it. The real reason I didn't
go for it (and I'm about to betray a character weakness here) is that I saw it
in real life and... I thought it was too ugly. Didn't suit my vanity. And I
couldn't get on with that weird screen hinge. Still, my mate Hansel wrote an
excellent review of the Galago, check it out here:
[http://aychedee.com/2014/01/04/galago-ultrapro-
review/](http://aychedee.com/2014/01/04/galago-ultrapro-review/)

\- the other sane choice would have been a thinkpad. As this thread
overwhelmingly proves, they have an excellent reputation, and should work well
under Linux. My dad has one, and I can confirm that they feel really well
built, and are nice and light. Only real tech problem is the X240 is limited
to 8GB. That and the seriously weird touchpads, which depress down about 5mm
with a big ker-chunk, they feel like they were designed for use by children on
a button-bashing arcade machine to launch nukes or something. But I can
imagine getting used to them. Also briefly considered getting an X230 off
ebay, because 16GB, but screen resolution was seriously weak.

\- another option would have been a Dell. They have a good rep, and good linux
support, but the XPS13 suffers from the same problem of the 8GB limit, and the
XPS15 was too big -- a friend of mine tells me it feels a little heavy, and
that the lid feels a bit feeble -- so the build quality isn't as good as the
thinkpads. The 15 would be a good option for someone prepared to carry
something a little heavier tho, 16 gigs and excellent resolution.

\- at this point I started casting around for other solutions, and in the end
I did something completely irrational. I came across the Samsung Ativ Book 9
Plus, and despite its stupid name I kinda fell for it. So I've impulse-bought
one on ebay for about $1000 (new). And this despite the fact that Ubuntu is
absolutely not ready for HiDPI screens, and that all the info on getting Linux
installed on them sound like it's a nightmare, and that it's just never going
to work. But, heck, I feel like Linux on the Desktop is _meant_ to be hard,
and not quite work. And it's SO SHINY!
[http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Samsung-ATIV-
Book-...](http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Samsung-ATIV-
Book-9-Plus.htm)

