

Ask HN: MacBook Pro alternative for running GNU/Linux - dbla

Can anyone recommend a good macbook pro - like laptop for running Linux? I&#x27;m looking for something with comparable specs that won&#x27;t give me too much hassle when installing Ubuntu or Mint.<p>I found this old post:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=6714192<p>but I was hoping someone might have a more current recommendation (although the laptops from that post still look pretty good a year later).
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djanogo
I am typing this on a 3 year old Dell E6520 running Arch Linux, paid $900 for
i7-2720QM, 8GB RAM, and 240GB drive back in 2011, spent another $250 for two
128GB SSD's and 16GB RAM, total of $1150. It came with 3 year Dell business
warranty + 1 year extra warranty for using Amex/Discover card. The battery
life was about 7 hours initially with 9 cell battery, but I bet latest gen
haswell can give 8 hours with much smaller battery.

I would suggest to check out E6540 in Dell outlet, they have 20% to 30%
coupons frequently
[http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySea...](http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb&brandid=2801&fid=9333).

This is coming from somebody who also has a 2014 Retina Macbook Pro,
absolutely don't care for it, I keep it closed in the corner of the room and
do remote desktop when I need something Mac specific.

~~~
dbla
Thanks for the recommendation! I'm curious about your choice of Arch. Why did
you decide to go with it? Did it require a lot of customization to get up and
running or maintenance to keep running?

~~~
djanogo
Initially had XUbuntu (Ubuntu with XFCE), forgot what exactly happened, but
one of the major upgrades (12.10 to 13.10) broke my system, didn't trust those
major upgrades anymore, since then I read more about how Arch works and got
used to rolling updates. It does require more tweaking to get it running, it
forces to learn the "Arch way".

If you are just getting started with Linux then I would suggest to start off
with Ubuntu or read up on different distro's. (If you are coming from Windows
or Mac, all linux distro's will require some level of tinkering, they just
vary on degree.)

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rjbwork
I used a Sager (rebranded Clevo) during undergrad and shortly thereafter.
They're great machines, but the battery life is underwhelming. My brother
still games on it and it's >4 years old at this point.

I actually plan on buying another this year for both development and gaming,
but I'm rarely somewhere without a plug for more than a couple of hours at a
time.

~~~
dbla
Thanks for the recommendation. I'm taking a look at them now. What
distribution of linux were you running? Did you have any problems with
installing / hardware compatibility?

~~~
rjbwork
I was using stock Ubuntu...I think it was around V10 back then? I also ran
BackTrack on it for my security class. It was dual booted to win 7. The nVidia
graphics drivers were proprietary and had to be installed separately, but
otherwise everything seemed to work fine.

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hugogee
I was in similar shoes a couple weeks ago. After a few T??? lenovos crapping
out (It was always the dang video cards) I just could not buy another. My
first replacement was a behemoth of a dell xps 15. Unfortunately the quad core
could not make up for the size and poor build quality. The 2gb nvidia optimus
video incompatability with linux sealed the deal. It had to go! DO NOT buy a
laptop with optimus if you are planning on using linux. To make a long story
short i am running an elitebook 840 i7 which came with a 256gb samsung 840
pro. Archlinux installed without too much fuss. I could not be happier! Its
fantastic-well built, small, and powerful. You will love it even more if you
are acustomed to using a trackpoint. Im so glad i did not listen to those
marginal reviews re: this unit.

Re: Arch maintenance, a daily 'pacman -Syu' will usually keep your system
running healthy. Arch does not like to be ignored for too long. ^_^

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gprasanth
Oh, the perks of browsing usesthis.com!

Checkout zareason and system76.

[http://zareason.com/shop/Laptops/](http://zareason.com/shop/Laptops/)

[https://system76.com/laptops/](https://system76.com/laptops/)

~~~
dbla
Wow usesthis.com is fantastic! One of the issues I have with regular review
sites is that most of the time the context of the review is missing, so a
three star review on a laptop is meaningless because I have no idea what the
reviewers expectations are, and what the machine is being used for. usesthis
seems to solve that problem pretty well. Thanks for sharing.

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srpt
The Dell XPS 13 developer edition is an excellent little machine that ships
with Ubuntu:
[http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd](http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd)

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BorisMelnik
I run Ubuntu on the Toshiba Satelite P96X and man do I love this thing. Tore
out the DVD drive and stuck another SSD inside which lightened the load and
obviously added more storage. Also swapped the primary HDD with an SSD.

The rig is now 4-5 years old has 12GB RAM and a 2nd gen i5 in it and this
thing FLIES. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Skype, and tons of browser tabs it does
not miss a beat. You can prob pick this version up for $3-400 or a new one for
$7-800 I beleive they all come installed with Windows but this model very *nix
friendly.

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zengr
This is the best laptop I have used for Linux (ubuntu) - Lenovo ThinkPad X1
Carbon 14 :
[http://ebay.com/itm/361120686241](http://ebay.com/itm/361120686241)

Has a good deal on eBay right now for $799

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chris_j
I run Fedora 20 on a Thinkpad W530 at work and have few complaints. It's a
high speed machine, is well built and, aside from a few hassles running the
proprietary driver for the nvidia graphics card, it just worked from day 1.

~~~
jlgaddis
I'm running Arch Linux on the same machine (quad-core, 32 GB RAM, 480 GB SSD +
500 GB SATA) and it flies. It does have the Optimus graphics stuff but I
haven't bothered with it.

(I'd been using MBPs exclusively for several years when I bought the W530 (in
May 2013), hadn't touched my MBP in over a year and finally got rid of it a
few months ago.)

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netllama
Care to define "too much hassle"? I'm running Fedora on 5 different Macbooks
(ranging from 2010 through 2013 models) without any serious issues.

