

Ask HN: What is the best Linux Laptop in 2014? - KedarMhaswade

Is there anyone who&#x27;s worth giving a try against the Mac onslaught and mindshare? I believe that Apple&#x27;s hardware is simply superb. Is there any vendor that I can spend ~ USD 600 on a laptop and get a decent value for money? (Had pretty bad experience with Asus, Sony Vaio :-( )
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nostrademons
I replaced my Macbook Pro with a System 76 Pangolin, which has since been
replaced by the Gazelle but is roughly in your price range ($750 or so).

Pros:

Nice CPU stats - I could mine dogecoin effectively on the Pangolin, not so
much on the (albeit 5 year old) MBP. It seems to be roughly equivalent to an
AWS m3.xlarge instance. Trackpad is flush with the case, which prevents food
crumbs & dirt from getting stuck in it like it did with the MBP. Pretty rugged
construction. Haven't had any reliability issues and I've had it a year or so.
Good display. Has a numeric keypad and the cursor navigation keys, unlike the
Mac. Linux "just works", since Ubuntu comes pre-installed with auto updates.
Often a lot easier to get many UNIX programming packages working on
Ubuntu/apt-get than on MacPorts, and you don't face deployment issues because
of the OS being different from other UNIX systems

Cons:

Wireless sucks - it won't work with 5GHz at all and often has reception issues
with 2.4GHz in my crowded apartment complex. Keyboard and trackpad takes some
getting used to, because of the keypad your hands are over the left side a
lot. I miss the MagSafe power adaptor, I used to trip over my cord all the
time. Battery life isn't as good as on the Macs. Can't do iOS development, and
can't use Mac-only software like many games.

On the whole I'd say the Mac had slightly better quality, but the Pangolin (at
half the price) gave better value. If you're on a budget I'd definitely give
it a try.

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privong
I cannot speak to the $600 range, but I have had good luck with a Lenovo x201
– I have been using one exclusively with linux for the past ~4 years. Things
pretty much worked right out of the box (using both Ubuntu and Arch Linux).

~~~
Envec83
I second that. I had troubles when running Linux on a HP and on a Toshiba
laptop, but on a Lenovo one things have been working fine for 2+ years.

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deanfranks
It is not a high-end notebook construction-wise, but I have had very good luck
with a Toshiba S70 with a full-hd screen. $499 on woot and it has a 17.3"
screen, i7, a second sata bay and 2 open DIMM sockets. Battery life is good
and it uses a common power adapter. It has reasonable internal speakers
(better than average, not a gamer machine). Mint 17 runs like a clock and all
hardware is supported by a standard install.

I wouldn't want to drop it though...

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akulbe
Love my ThinkPad W530. It's not in your price range though.

I'd see if one of the ThinkPads is in your range, and look the model number
up, so you can see what experiences others have had with that model.

I know on my W530, everything works. But it's $$$$$$.

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tuzakey
I have an Asus ux31a zenbook prime (i5/4g/256g), running Ubuntu 13.10
currently, everything works fine except for the ambient light sensor. I had to
have the keyboard fixed under warranty about 4 months in, otherwise it has
been great. You can pick up a refurbished model in your price range.

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wglb
I bought my wife an ASUS laptop earlier this year for less than that. She gave
it back to me, largely because of not liking windows 8.1.

Good physical construction, but the touchpad is quite oversensitive. I use it
only occasionally, but it seems pretty solid.

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mindslight
recently:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8260733](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8260733)

I'm a Thinkpad fan myself (T61/X230), although that comment by 'zanny isn't
wrong. If you're going to go the Thinkpad route, make sure you read reviews of
the screen options for the specific model you're interested in.

~~~
KedarMhaswade
Thanks for the link!

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DanBC
which Asus did you have a bad experience with?

(I'm currently using Fedora20 on a 2009 MacBookPro amd ot feels like a real
kludge.)

~~~
KedarMhaswade
It was ASUS U56E-BAL7 (i5/8g/750g). The Wireless card is weird. Every time I
install Ubuntu/Linux on it, it works for a while and then it stops working.

~~~
KedarMhaswade
Some more update on my struggle to fix the wireless card on asus:
[http://askubuntu.com/questions/524088/is-this-a-bad-
wireless...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/524088/is-this-a-bad-wireless-
card)

