

Ask HN: What is best laptop I can get for minimal money (under $300)? - jhacks

I am looking to get a laptop and am looking to spend as little as possible for something that can handle multiple internet tabs and code editor (once in a while I might use vector software Inkscape). What do you guys suggest? I prefer Intel (i3 probably fine) over AMD processor. I would also like a 13 - 14 inch screen with a nice (backlit perhaps) keyboard. I&#x27;m fine with refurbished &#x2F; used but just don&#x27;t wanna get screwed over that way. Any suggestions appreciated. If you live near NYC and wanna sell a laptop, then let me know!
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parfe
See if devonbarrett owns a laptop? Two birds with one stone.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5868881](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5868881)

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slinkyavenger
Check your local craigslist, check your local pawn shops. Make sure you know
what you want, and how to haggle. Everyone asks for too much, but there should
be a flood of used laptops on the market since it's in between semesters.

Otherwise, your best bet would be a chromebook running chrubuntu(not crouton),
however, there are some caveats:

1\. There won't be a backlit keyboard

2\. You won't be able to get a great processor, but it'll be able to handle
ubuntu just fine. You may want to consider a slimmer desktop manager than
unity.

3\. You'll be limited on browser tabs before your memory runs too low and
things slow to a crawl. Extensions like The Great Suspender for Chrome[1]
allow you to work around this somewhat. It requires some manual tab
management, but the alternative is maintaining a bookmarks folder so you can
close the tabs and come back to them later.

4\. I was able to get an IDE(PyCharm) running, and it worked pretty well,
except being slow in code completion.

5\. Inkscape runs, though not well. I'd suggest you running the app by itself
if you need to use it.

[1] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great-
suspende...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great-
suspender/klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg?hl=en)

(edited for formatting)

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revorad
Don't buy a new one. Get any old Thinkpad or Macbook on ebay.

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5555624
I'll second this. I've picked up a couple of Thinkpads like this. Just make
sure to read the description carefully. (Too many are sold without a HDD.)

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bochoh
I personally use an HP beater that I found on clearance at my local
RadioShack. In my opinion most people don't think of them as the first place
to buy a computer.

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zachlatta
Chromebook? You can run Ubuntu on it.

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shakeel_mohamed
+1 but I'd recommend a lighter Linux distro. In my experience Crunchbang runs
significantly better than Ubuntu on mine.

