
Ask HN: Which developer laptop should I buy? - tapan_pandita
Hey HN,<p>I am looking to buy a new laptop. My primary OS will be ubuntu. Which laptop would you guys recommend? My main criteria is that it should be light and work without any hiccups with ubuntu.<p>I've been looking around and it seems a lot of developers prefer Lenovo X220. The new carbon X1 looks good too. Does anyone have any experience with them?<p>Has anyone tried running Ubuntu (dual boot or otherwise) on a Macbook Air? Does it work without any issues?<p>Any of the new touchscreen laptops worth checking out?<p>My budget is around a 1000$ but I wouldn't mind spending some more if it means getting the best machine.<p>Thanks for your suggestions!
======
enduser
ThinkPad T530 or W530 with the 1920x1080 screen upgrade. The W530 is
marginally heavier but cheaper in some configurations and takes 32GB instead
vs the T's 16GB. Install an aftermarket Samsung 830 (not 840) SSD if you have
the money. The 840 uses cheaper flash chips than the 830, which is a top
quality SSD.

ThinkPad build quality is unrivaled. The keyboard is almost as nice as my
HHKB. The hinges are rock solid. The keyboard has drainage ducts. Everything
is designed to be serviced.

~~~
Inversechi
The W530 looks like an absolutely lovely machine... I am tempted to get one
myself as I am planning on moving state side and wanting something to replace
my desktop for development.

~~~
enduser
I have had my W530 for a few months and it is the best laptop experience I
have ever had. The power brick is a beast, the only downside. I use the NVidia
card in dedicated mode (Optimus disabled) and would recommend the T530 for
someone wanting to use integrated Intel graphics. I use it as a desktop
replacement, with a Samsung 830 (which is rock solid) in the main drive slot
and the original 320GB 7200RPM drive in a media bay HDD adapter.

I haven't upgraded from 16GB to 32GB yet, but I like having the option!

------
shrughes
Good powerful and light developer laptops include:

The Lenovo X230. Downside: Only a 1366x768 screen.

The 13" Vaio S. Upside: Pretty much the lightest full-power 13.3" laptop,
1600x900 screen, a comfortable keyboard, $880. Downside: None? The screen is
only pretty good, instead of being a high end, high color gamut screen? It
lacks a Thinkpad keyboard. It has HDMI instead of DisplayPort. This is a good
general purpose laptop.

The Lenovo T430s: The downsides relative to the 13" Vaio S is that it has a
worse quality screen, it's slightly bigger at the same resolution, and has
worse GPU, as if that even works on Ubuntu. The upside is that it has a
Thinkpad keyboard and the DVD player can be replaced with a hard drive bay or
battery, and it has a mini-DisplayPort port.

The 15" Vaio S: The lightest 15" laptop option in your price range, at 4.45
lbs. You can get a quad core processor (without VT-d support, though, and I'm
not sure about staying under $1000), and it has a 1920x1080 IPS screen (with
orange tint problems).

I'm told the Vaio S's work fine with Ubuntu. However, you should carefully
check forums online to make sure of their hardware support.

If you want to consider ultrabooks, the X1 Carbon is worth checking out, but a
version with 8 GB of RAM is expensive with marginal benefit compared to, say,
the 13" Vaio S, or the ASUS UX31A for that matter.

I'm a fan of Thinkpad keyboards but if I had to own only one computer, it
would be the 13" Vaio S, because of the GPU and better screen, and (to my
subjective opinion) better size. If you don't care about GPU at all, and if
you don't care about screen color or viewing angles that much, a T430s is a
good bet. Both are below the threshold for me where descreasing the weight
further doesn't matter.

------
tehwalrus
I would suggest the new Retina MBPs, but apparently it is ["a sod to get
working"]([http://www.hackermusings.com/2012/08/booting-linux-on-a-
reti...](http://www.hackermusings.com/2012/08/booting-linux-on-a-retina-
macbook-pro/))

When I ran ubuntu on my (relatively old, 2009) MBP earlier this ( _edit: last_
) year it was an OK experience, but the multitouch gestures weren't on a par
with OS X. Battery life was fine, hardware support other than multitouch was
also fine, sleep on lid close was great, etc. no problems.

I'd recommend an Air from your description, nice and light, and Apple make the
best hardware by far, especially if you do have the $1000 it costs.

~~~
chacham15
my MBP (Late 2011) is running Ubuntu under parallels perfectly.

~~~
Watabou
Sorry if this sounds ignorant, but it's not meant to be.

I was wondering why people choose to install Ubuntu when OS X is already a
great UNIX? I genuinely want to know since I consider myself as being close to
an intermidiate developer and find that OS X is great for all my UNIX needs
and if there is a tool I'm missing, more than likely, homebrew already has it.
So what am I really missing? Why do people install Ubuntu?

~~~
dlisboa
Ubuntu (and other Linuxes) has better package management, more UNIX tools by
default and better tooling for certain types of development. For people who
target Linux it's easier to build binaries for it.

It's also open and you're able to change it, tinker with it, mold it. You
actually know where everything is. It's generally a lot cleaner as well: Apple
litters the entire filesystem with stuff you don't know where it came from, or
what they affect.

I believe faster boot times are also a factor, some people can get their
Linuxes to boot nearly instantaneous. Perhaps battery life as well.

I use OS X and am happy with it because I don't demand any of that to be
productive/enjoy my system, but I can certainly enumerate things I don't like
about it and would rather have the "native" FreeBSD approach or a Linuxy one.

Some OS X tools try to make up the difference (homebrew, like you said it),
but like any race where you start behind you're not gonna win. Especially
since the other competitors have decades of experience.

OS X is basically a tradeoff. Some people aren't willing to trade away too
much, or have personal choices which are more important to them than to you or
me.

That said, I'd try to get Linux running natively on a Mac if I had that
inclination, not under Parallels or some other emulator. That just feels the
opposite of "clean" to me.

~~~
Watabou
Thank you, that was really helpful. Maybe I will give ArchLinux a try. I've
heard nothing but good reviews. Nothing better than first hand experience,
right?

I love OS X though. The thing I like about it is, yes it does have UNIX but it
is also user friendly and has a ton of awesome apps and access to the Mac App
Store.

------
Deejahll
After a lot of deliberation, I just picked up a Lenovo x230 for about $950
pre-tax. Running Linux flawlessly was one of my primary criteria for purchase.
It arrives tomorrow so I'll comment then when I know whether or not I've made
a terrible mistake.

I think the touchscreens are just gimmicky toys. Useless to me. But since
Intel soon won't let you call your thin laptop an "Ultrabook" unless you
include one (and Windows 8), and non-developer consumers are obsessed with
tablets and consuming Internet with their fingers, it's getting difficult to
find new hardware without one.

I wrote about how I arrived at my choice, among others including the $1500
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (Includes Ubuntu), the $350 Asus Q201e (Includes
Ubunutu), the $500 Asus Q200, the Samsung Chromebooks ($250/$550), and a $150
used Asus 1015PX Netbook:
[https://plus.google.com/106336989542410513415/posts/avV5eL1P...](https://plus.google.com/106336989542410513415/posts/avV5eL1P6BH)

I also considered momentarily the $900 ZaReason Ultralap 430 and the $670
System76 Lemur Ultra. I would have liked to support Linux-only vendors, but
both at 14" were too big for my preferences. I tried an Asus 1025CE but the
recent Atom CPUs require crappy proprietary video drivers from a Linux-
unfriendly vendor, it was a mountain of pain to try to make it work.

One comment: If you buy a custom machine from Lenovo.com, ignore the lies they
tell you about shipping dates and just assume it will take 30-45 days at
least.

~~~
harel
Lenovo always shipped well before the delivery date for me (around 3-5
business days) for custom laptops. Then again, I'm in the UK...

~~~
shrughes
Lenovo's been having problems with that for the past 6 months.

------
harel
I just got a Thinkpad T530 though without the full HD display. It goes to
1600x900 which is the minimum acceptable resolution in my opinion and on the
15" screen that gives you quite a bit of real estate. I've been a Thinkpad
user for many years now and they never fail (almost, the T61p had a limited
life span due to a faulty Nvidia chip but that problem wasn't limited to
Thinkpads).

My criteria when I buy a laptop is (in that order): 1\. Does it reach the min
acceptable resolution of 1600x900? 2\. Does it have a Matte screen (non
reflective)? 3\. Will it run my editor, a web server, two databases, a few
other server apps and daemons and Chrome with many tabs open including some
heavy Javascript apps.

I've had the T530 for over a week now, and it doesn't disappoint. My only
complaint at the moment is that the power supply is a 135W one and its very
big. I'm looking into using my T61p power supply which is 90W (but same
voltage), so that might solve it.

Having said all that, I was very much tempted by the new Ultrabooks, in
particular the X1 Carbon and the Asus Zenbook but in the end resolution, matte
and screen size won.

------
w1ntermute
I would highly recommend the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. I'm typing on it right now
and the keyboard is a joy. See my first impressions of it here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4848375>

~~~
cjh_
I'm also on a X1 Carbon right now, got it only a month ago. Works great with
Debian linux, although I compiled my own 3.7 kernel as the default 3.2 in
debian had occasional lockups.

I wanted an ultrabook-style machine, i5, 4gb of ram, no cd/dvd drive, ssd only
(no hybrid), decent screen res (1080p s a bit too big, 1600x900 is spot on),
and most importantly a great keyboard. The x1 carbon was the only machine I
could find that matched my specs, it has the best laptop keyboard I have ever
had the pleasure of typing on. Highly recommend.

EDIT: The X1C has the first trackpad that I actually enjoy using, I usually
have trouble due to sweaty hands, but so far this trackpad hasn't had a single
problem and I have been able to get multitouch gestures working via synaptics.

If I had to think of negatives it would be the lack of ethernet/vga/hdmi
without adapters, but at least they use 'standard' adapters (display
port->hdmi, usb->ethernet).

~~~
cgag
It feels weird when I see people mention the trackpads on thinkpads. I feel
totally locked in to thinkpads because I can't see myself ever buying another
laptop that didn't have a trackpoint.

~~~
cjh_
The trackpoint is also amazing, and I know exactly what you mean. I have never
really been able to use trackpads so have always stayed near laptops that have
trackpoints.

The X1 carbon is the first laptop where I enjoy using the trackpad. It is odd
for me too. I still often use the trackpoint, but for scrolling around web
pages I often end up using the trackpad (sometimes with the trackpoint buttons
which are right above it).

Toshiba and Thinkpad seem to be the only vendors that seem to still include
trackpoints.

------
d0m
Just wanted to point out that I had a macbook for a couple years on Linux.
When it died, I decided to try other ones. I was _very_ disappointed for lots
of different small reasons - but can be summarized as "it felt cheap". Cheap
trackpad, not great touch on keyboard, no backlight on keys. Anyhow, 3 weeks
ago I bought an air.. formatted everything and put back Arch on it and loving
it. It's a few hundred bucks more than your 1000$ but I think it's worth every
penny. Some like to say (and I believed them) that you can have something as
great for half the price.. but that's just not true. It may be cheaper, but
they've screwed on parts that are not necessarily obvious.

------
AngryParsley
Why limit yourself to a $1,000 budget? If you're writing code, that's a small
percentage of your yearly income. If a more expensive laptop makes you 5% more
productive, it's worth buying purely for economic reasons.

~~~
walshemj
What the OP doesn't say is this going to be a desktop replacement or not which
makes a lot of difference.

Remember most professional code writing is going to be done on a full sized
desktop with 2 or 3 screens - a laptop is a second machine is for when you are
out and about.

~~~
AngryParsley
Good point, but I'm not sure I agree with your second sentence. At every place
I've worked at since 2008, most devs used laptops and plugged them into
monitors and keyboards. I'm sure other places are different, but it makes a
lot of sense to go laptop-only.

Except for GPU performance, modern laptops are pretty much on-par with
desktops. Laptops cost more, but people with desktops usually own laptops.
Having two machines creates the annoyance of switching between them. It's
small, but it's there. For most devs, it makes more sense to buy one really
nice laptop instead of a nice desktop and a mid-range laptop.

My current set-up is an 11" Air that I connect to a 27" screen. If I want more
real estate, I could buy another 27" display and chain it. It's stupidly fast:
2Ghz Core i7, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD.

Oh and while I enjoy using big screens, I find my most productive times are
when I'm on a plane. The lack of distractions and the knowledge that I won't
be interrupted for hours helps me stay focused.

I don't want to come across as insulting the intelligence of everyone who
doesn't buy expensive laptops. The right combination of environment, mindset,
and knowledge are worth more than any fancy hardware. When it comes to tools,
use what you love and don't pay much attention to cost.

~~~
walshemj
Well different strokes. The problem with desk top replacement laptops is that
you need to spend more on the laptop and all the docking station kit takes up
desk space where as a midi tower can go under the desk.

And whilst Mac airs and displays are nice "hand on heart" I could not justify
the extra expense to an employer or the share holders (whose money it is) when
compared to an equivalent PC and a cheapo laptop (shared between the team) for
the times when I need to be mobile.

And the problem for going mac air only is that people will stereotype you as
hipster wannabe if you not careful.

------
kami8845
I picked a new machine for my job a couple of days ago, so this is still fresh
on my mind. Keep in mind that this is from the perspective of the UK (US is
generally MUCH cheaper, oftentimes machines cost 50% of what they do here).

\---------------

First, my criteria for the new machine are:

\- Portable, screen size between 12" - 14", preferably as thin & light as
possible

\- SSD (No weird HDD/SDD hybrids)

\- Reasonable resolution. 1080p here is overkill, 1366x768 leaves something to
be desired

\- No graphics card, I don't have a use for it, excess power usage & heat,
another part that takes up space, adds weight, can break and needs driver
support

\- No optical drive (same reasons)

\- Battery life 5+ hours

\- Reliable brand. Good ones are Apple, ASUS, Samsung, Toshiba, Lenovo. Sony
maybe but only with expensive models. Acer & HP are immediately disqualified.
I really like Dell for some stuff (monitors, towers) but they seem to have a
bad reputation for making reliable laptops.

\- Good value for money. I really dislike over-spending even if it's not my
own money

\- Good Linux support

\- Solid build quality

I don't care that much about performance. Sandy/Ivy Bridge is generally fine
for me, and for the stuff that I care about (mainly reading/writing text) raw
CPU power doesn't matter that much.

This filters things down quite a bit and brings us to the following models:

\- Macbook Air 2011 (including this as it's a very similar machine to the 2012
but with apparently better Linux support)

\- Macbook Air 2012

\- ASUS Zenbook

\- ASUS Zenbook Prime

\- Lenovo X1 Carbon

\- Samsung Series 9 900X3D

\- Samsung Series 9 900X3C

\- Lenovo X220

\- Lenovo X230

Another requirement is dual external monitor support. Doing this on a laptop
and under Linux turned out to be quite the tricky problem and the issue that
probably consumed most of my time spent. For laptops with only 1 display out,
there are 2 ways of working around this:

1\. USB to HDMI adapter. Basically an external graphics card. This requires
USB 3.0 for bandwidth reasons (USB 2.0 gives 35 MB/s. 1080p @ 32bpp is 8 MB /
frame, meaning single-digit FPS rates at most) which disqualifies the MBA 2011
since it only has USB 2.0. Even with USB 3.0 from most of what I could find,
these things are not really supported under Linux and probably best to avoid.

2\. Matrox DualHead2Go. This is a cool invention that pretends it's a
3840x1080 display to the OS and then splits the signal digitally into 2. Costs
about 120 GBP, but with not letting the OS know that it's actually 2 displays,
also comes the OS not knowing that it's actually 2 displays: Fullscreen
doesn't work properly for a lot of applications. And even though this could be
made better through some window manager trickery, that feels like hacks, piled
on top of more hacks. I also don't want to carry around this box just to drive
2 external monitors.

So, that means all laptops with only 1 display-out are out! (The X1 Carbon
actually has a USB 3.0 Port thing with 2 DVI outputs but it seems to depend
heavily on drivers (they only support Windows and are "working on" Mac
support) so I've excluded it) Leaving us with:

\- ASUS Zenbook

\- ASUS Zenbook Prime

\- Samsung Series 9 900X3D

\- Samsung Series 9 900X3C

\- Lenovo X220

\- Lenovo X230

I used the Zenbook Prime and Samsung 900X3D in-store and initially liked the
Zenbook Prime keyboard more than the Samsung. However more research reveals
that ASUS seems to have big quality control issues with these (endless stories
about shipping and re-shipping faulty units). This seems to be an especially
big problem with the touchpads & SSDs of the original Zenbook. Also in the UK,
they only carry one almost maxed-out Zenbook Prime configuration with SSD,
which costs about 1500 GBP (linked above). A more sensible (albeit still
expensive) configuration is also available, however only from Germany. Going
through the order flow, the delivery time from Germany is listed as 3-18 days.
Ordering an item like this where lots of people have complained about quality
issues from another country seems to be asking for trouble. In addition to
that, support under Linux seems to be non-straightforward
<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AsusZenbookPrime>, and I'm not thrilled
about 1080p on a 13" screen.

The Samsung Series 9 looked great from everything I could see. It's super
light and yet solid. However since it is so thin the keys lacked notably in
pitch. It's uncomfortable to type on (and I went multiple times over multiple
days). In comparison I enjoyed typing on the Macbook Air much more even though
it's similarly thin. The keyboard seems like an afterthought on the laptop.
Since typing is really what I care about the most and I've gone through the
pains of having a laptop with a keyboard I don't enjoy typing on with the
model I'm currently writing this email on, this also seems like a sub-par
choice.

So the Lenovo X220 / X230 is the last laptop standing! There are 2 choices
here (or really 4 with the tablet versions), they are all pretty much twice as
thick as any other model, though similar in terms of weight (others 1.1-1.5kg,
X220 / X230 1.3-1.7kg depending on configuration). I think the X220 is the
better choice here even though technically "discontinued". They're both
standard voltage CPUs (compared to some of the ULV CPUs on other units) so
performance is easily enough for my needs. In addition to that the X220 seems
to be the laptop of choice for Ubuntu kernel developers
[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=x220+uds](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=x220+uds)
, while I've read about a lot of people having problems with the X230 and the
Linux 3.2 kernel (Ubuntu 12.04 and Debian Wheezy). Also with the X230 they've
switched from their traditional ThinkPad keyboard design to a chiclet-style
keyboard for reasons that are not ultimately known to me, though probably some
combination of standardisation (every other major vendor has been using them
for years), cost-reduction, ability to add back-light, size reduction and
other factors. In terms of typing experience there isn't a lot of data online,
with some people saying it's "good" on both and others decrying the typing
experience on the X230. I think the X220 is slightly preferable, especially
considering how much cheaper it is now. The standard X220 goes for 600 GBP and
825 GBP for the tablet version while the X230 goes for 1100 GBP and the tablet
version for 1700 GBP. All of these with HDD and thus requiring adding about
200 GBP extra for a SSD. So it seems that the X220 wins in almost all regards.
The X230 does have slightly less weight (I think about 100-200g), and faster
CPU/GPU performance but those factors are negligible to me. I think I like the
tablet version on the X220 more as comes with an IPS screen and I can see
myself use the laptop in "tablet mode" a lot.

\--------------

In the end I picked the X220 and ordered it off ebay (new). The gist seems to
be that unless you want to run a bleeding-edge Linux kernel I would recommend
staying away from new (3rd gen Ivy Bridge e.g. i5-3xxx) laptops such as the
ASUS Zenbook Prime / Lenovo X230 / Macbook Air 2012 as there's frequently
issues w/ them.

~~~
fencepost
I think my one quibble would be with your advice to stay away from the 3rd-
generation processors - I suspect that the HD4000 graphics in most of them
will be significantly better over time, and any kernel issues are likely to be
ironed out in fairly short order.

The discussion I've seen on the keyboard difference seemed to be along the
lines of the new keyboards still being best-in-class, but they are different
so if you're shifting from one of the older ThinkPad keyboards you might
object but nobody else should have problems.

Also of note is that the X230 (and all of the xx30 models, I believe) have
mini-DisplayPort rather than whichever HDMI connection. I know the T430 also
has a standard VGA adapter so it should be possible to drive at least 2
external displays; it's not clear whether the mini DisplayPort on them is
DisplayPort++ which would in theory allow you to drive dual monitors fairly
easily if they supported DisplayPort as well as HDMI.

UPDATE: For running multiple external monitors it's probably going to be at a
fixed location where a dock is a possibility. In that case, Lenovo's Series 3
docking stations are worth looking at
([http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-
parts/detail.pag...](http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-
parts/detail.page?&DocID=PD024298)). The smallest has VGA only, the Mini Dock
has VGA+DVI+DisplayPort but only runs 2 at a time, the Mini Dock Plus has
VGA+2xDVI+2xDisplayPort and "many systems, including those with NVIDIA
Optimus, allow for up to three ports on the dock to be used simultaneously."

~~~
slashclee
I'm typing this reply on an X230 right now. There were some really annoying
issues with Fedora 17 and Ubuntu 12.04; the iwlwifi driver would lock up and
bring the machine down with it randomly under Fedora, and the Linux 3.2 kernel
from Ubuntu would just randomly hard-lock for no discernible reason. After
upgrading to Ubuntu 12.10, though, everything seems to be really solid. I
haven't had any random kernel crashes or lockups since the upgrade.

The keyboard, though, is flawless. I like it a LOT better than the Apple
keyboards - I'd been using various different MacBooks for the past few years,
including pretty much every model of Air, 13" and 15" Pro. The X230 keyboard
is way better. I can't compare with the keyboard on the X220 since I don't
have one, but I certainly have no complaints. (I wish there were a laptop with
Cherry keyswitches, or buckling springs, but apparently nobody else thinks it
would be worth the massive cost increase.)

~~~
fencepost
Hm. Mechanically would it be possible that the vibration of those nifty clicky
keys could cause problems in a device with an integrated HD?

~~~
slashclee
It's probably possible. But if they only used SSDs...

------
rlpb
Remember to check <http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/desktop/> for laptops
certified to work with Ubuntu. This is an easy way to ensure compatibility.

------
klapinat0r
> _Has anyone tried running Ubuntu (dual boot or otherwise) on a Macbook Air_

There's a very good resource here: <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBook>

I've recently installed freebsd (as the only OS, no dual boot) without any
hickups what so ever. Full disclosure: It was an older macbook, about 4-5
years old, and I can't tell if it works for or against its chances of running
Ubuntu.

I was surprised that it went about so easily, I must admit.

If wanted, I could write a blog post on my exact instructions, but all in all,
you may need a tiny bit of OSX at hand to get the install going (seeing as a
MacBook Air does not have a bootable device, such as a CD/DVD drive).

So in conclusion, Ubuntu on a MacBook Air should be very possible:
<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir4-2> with the only exception of
_Thunderbolt_

~~~
squidsoup
I run Ubuntu on my 11" 2012 Air and have pretty much given up on it. Sleep is
a major issue - closing the lid will _most_ of the time have the machine
sleep, but it will also inexplicably come out of sleep without the lid having
opened. It's not much fun to find your machine has halted in your bag due to a
drained battery. There are other issues too - the trackpad sensitivity is
wonky (can be fixed but like all things linux will require some digging), and
Ubuntu can't detect the resolution of my external Dell display (potentially a
monitor issue rather than the laptop, I don't know. It works flawlessly in
OSX). The Air seems to run hotter in Ubuntu and the battery life is also
shorter, although not significantly.

The only thing I miss from Ubuntu in OSX is apt, but homebrew is functional if
not as elegant.

~~~
yesbabyyes
I use a 13" Air (3,2) - 2010 model - and I have been running Ubuntu since
getting it in 2010 (OS X is still installed, but very seldom used). Much the
same story as squidsoup, apart from the sleep issues (it's been acting up
_very_ occasionally for me, one or two times since I got it).

My trackpad is very sensitive, prior to 12.10 I used the "multitouch" driver,
which doesn't seem to be maintained (I got it from the mactel ppa [1]), so now
I use the "synaptics" driver which seems to me more configurable but I haven't
experimented much.

That said, I've gotten used to it and it's still a better trackpad than any
non-Apple laptop I've used. I would like to find a good config for this
laptop, though!

It tends to run quite hot. The battery still lasts over five hours, after more
than two years daily, heavy use. That's impressive.

Edit: The only thing that was _really_ cumbersome with Ubuntu on this was
installation: I installed from USB and Apple makes that really difficult, as
you can't boot off USB unless you're Apple. Instead, you have to partition the
disk and flash the installation image to the disk (and you have to write it to
one of the first few partitions, which I didn't at first).

[1]: <https://launchpad.net/~mactel-support/+archive/ppa>

------
imperialWicket
If you're going to run ubuntu as a primary OS, the Bonobo Extreme is worth
investigating from system76.

I have a high-end Latitude E65* without any issues, and a Thinkpad W530 that
is also working well - both are running CrunchBang. I didn't encounter any
software/Linux-specific issues on the Dell that weren't on the Thinkpad. The
Thinkpad feels nicer, but it cost a lot more.

The system76 machine costs less than both (spec for spec), but I haven't used
one. That said, they only build ubuntu machines - which might be right up your
alley. If you want to save a little money, they have cheaper models in the
15.6" size too.

------
napolux
I will go for a good linux-supported ultrabook with a lot of RAM and a decent
SSD. Look at the ASUS ones.

Look here, BTW <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3719720>

------
EyeballKid
I'm running Ubuntu on a Thinkpad X230 (with the IPS screen), and loving it.
The windows 7 install it came with was the usual crapware trainwreck, but not
really my problem - the Ubuntu install was quick, smooth and trivial.

It's a lot zippier than I was expecting, and even the intel 3D was
surprisingly quick.

My only real niggle is the trackpad - it seems to jump multiple pixels at a
time under ubuntu, and feels very rough. I suspect pointer acceleration is
being applied more than once, although I never use the trackpad so I've not
investigated in any depth.

------
azarias
The Asus Zenbook is great, and fits within your budget (a number of options
starting from $700-$1200). One of the first ultrabooks to support Ubuntu well.
We use these at work.

~~~
calpaterson
It's pretty great, but the clickpad is a love it of hate it affair

~~~
SanjayUttam
I don't know about the later generations, but 100% agree with you regarding
the first-gen. The click pad and keyboard are atrocious. I finally disabled
all the additional [dis]functionality of the click pad to make it a track pad,
it's somewhat tolerable. I'm waiting for the day the keyboard breaks so I can
remote into this machine and never physically interact with it again. I should
have purchased an Air.

------
drfritznunkie
I just went through this a couple of weeks ago, looking for a personal laptop
to do some independent work on. I'm a huge Thinkpad fan, and both of my
desktop keyboards are Thinkpad USB trackpoint-only keyboards, so that should
tell you something about my biases...

Anyhow, I wasn't looking for something particularly portable, my work laptop
is an X200 (pre-trackpad) which is the perfect travel companion. Unfortunately
as others have noted the X-series is plagued by minimal resolution, so I
wanted something with a much larger screen. We issue X230's and T430's at
work, so I am very familiar with them. I'm not a huge fan of the 430s, it's
size I want, but they don't offer it with a FHD IPS screen.

So I ended up buying a T61P with the 1920x1200 screen off ebay for $230, and
put 8G RAM in it (unofficially supported by the 965 chipset, check
thinkwiki.org for more information). It's in near perfect shape except for
loose hinges! Installed Xubuntu 12 on it and everything works wonderfully. All
the secondary channels are lousy with T6x's, spare parts are plentiful and
Thinkpads have the BEST factory repair manuals bar none.

So pretty damn happy for <$400 invested.

If you wanted to run dual/triple monitors, take a look at the Advanced Dock,
you can install a PCI-e? card in it. Right now my ghetto "triple" head setup
is my x200, t61p, and t60 ($50 with the 1400x1050 IPS!) all running synergy,
so I can at least have multiple reference sources open on the x200/t60 while
working on the t61p and copy/paste between them.

If you do get a Thinkpad, seriously consider looking at the used market,
they're usually crazy cheap used.

------
clebio
I have been running Precise Pangolin on a Samsung series 9 15" (NP900X4C) for
a while now (with Xmonad, too). It works wonderfully and all the external
hardware I've tested (Logitech HD webcam, USB headphones, ...) have worked
fine. Only recently, I've been hitting a hard wall trying to use WebGL (for
Acko.net's MathBox, specifically). Despite trying for the past two weeks, I
could not get this to work and have resorted to dual-booting to Windows 7
(where WebGL does ... just work). This seems to be an issue with Intel HD 4000
graphics under linux (which System 76 laptops and the Lenovo X1 Carbon have in
common). It was not obvious from the RedHat website whether RHEL suffers this,
so I've sent them an email (but no reply yet).

If anyone knows an actual fix (i.e. not just the various things suggested in
obvious search results), I would buy you a beer. But, yeah, replacing this
machine with a System 76, or re-partitioning and dual-booting, or buying
RedHat are all options I'm willing to consider, so there's that. Other than
WebGL, I heartily recommend the Series 9 laptops (I had a 13" series 9
previously, as well).

------
wheaties
Whatever you do, do NOT get anything with Windows 8 on it. I got a beautiful
Acer Aspire M which has a great screen, backlit keys, decent CPU, less than 5
pounds, 15" screen, ultra-thin, you name it. The pain of getting Linux to run
on it, I can't even begin to tell you.

Worst part is, I like it so much that I would buy one again (if I could get
Windows 7) without hesitation.

~~~
cjh_
I bought a Thinkpad X1 Carbon with Windows 8, had no issues getting Debian on
there (minus having to manually upgrade kernels as 3.2 was a bit old and was
causing issue).

Although the Carbon also support non-EUFI booting which made it easier, it
shouldn't be that hard to get linux running with EUFI. What caused you
trouble?

------
gazd
I've been using the Dell XPX 13 with Sputnik. Got the laptop off Ebay with
256gb SSD for about $800. Been pretty happy with it.

------
miga
As a user of X31, X41, X301, I expect that X220 or X1 will give you resistance
to direct spills on the keyboard, and accidental dropping to the floor and
convenient experience. But wouldn't try any GPU development there. If you want
fast compile times you may also want to move something with faster CPU - X
series always had slower ULV.

------
RobGR
I purchased a Dell XPS-13 through the Sputnik program (
<http://dell.com/sputnik> ) and Ubuntu was pre-loaded, it worked fine. I did
not like the mouse much, but I don't like any of the touchpads - I bought it
specifically for the Sputnik program, not the hardware - but I found it
overall to be very nice and useable. I am generally a ThinkPad fan.

It was fast, could run development environments in VirtualBox well, had a long
battery life, etc. Even the speakers and microphone where better than I was
used to for Skype and etc.

Unfortunately it was stolen before I ever had the chance to get involved the
Sputnik stuff. It was kind of expensive as laptops of that size go, and I have
to decide if I should get another one or not.

------
eccp
There's a database of desktops and laptops compatibility on
<https://friendly.ubuntu.com/> which helped me to decide which laptop to buy a
while ago. I ended up buying a Dell Inspiron N4050 at that time, zero regrets.

------
Adaptive
I have an x220 with both touchscreen and pen running Arch/xmonad. I almost
never use the touch capabilities, though I use the pen a fair amount for
screen annotation and photoshop. I like pens but if you are a serious
developer on a laptop you are in text/keyboard mode most of the time and just
don't need a touch screen, imo.

Also, love the keyboard. I use the extra slice battery for it and get about
10-11 hours per charge on that slice plus the standard battery (real world,
though I think they make a claim for more).

I have a great lenovo charger that includes usb ports, but sadly I think they
discontinued it. I use it constantly for charging my mobile devices even when
not charging the laptop.

------
voltagex_
I am currently looking for an ultrabook but for the last couple of years I
have used the following setup:

* (Acer) eMachines E732Z bought on clearance for $400

* Drive bay adapter + SSD to replace the DVD drive

* Upgraded to 8GB/RAM

Total is <$800AUD (even less because the SSD was a spare)

------
andrewcooke
x220 (8gb with samsung ssd, ips) running ubuntu. works fine, but i'm thinking
it's way over your budget. x220 has been around long enough that refurb or
second hand is probably a good deal...

[edit: huh, look it's now x230...]

~~~
countersixte
I got my x220 refurb last spring for under $700. I love it -- very portable
and the battery life is ~6-7 hours. I run Arch Linux [1] and haven't had any
issues, so you should be good to go with Ubuntu.

[1] <https://www.archlinux.org/>

~~~
marios
Actually the fact that you run Arch Linux _can_ have an effect. Arch being a
rolling release distro, you pretty much always have an up to date kernel. I've
experienced issues (broadcom wireless for instance) on ubuntu that were due to
the use of an older kernel. The issues magically disappeared once I compiled a
newer kernel. Not a difficult task, but since it took me some time to track
down a solution, I thought it was worth mentionning.

------
cpbotha
They are over your budget, but I would still consider the Asus UX31A (the A is
important) or the Asus UX32VD, both the models with full HD 1920x1080 IPS
displays. The UX31A comes with SSD, but the spindle HDD in the UX32VD (it also
has a small SSD soldered in) can be easily upgraded to SSD. Also, the UX32VD
has an NVIDIA GPU.

When you're programming, you don't want to be held back by a bad and low
resolution (anything below full HD) screen. Also, there are a number of
positive reports of getting Linux going on both these models.

~~~
Peaker
My Asus UX31A died after 2 months for no reason.

Lots of others with same issue on forums.

Asus refused to give it international warranty so I had to ship it back to the
states from Israel, and now awaiting repair.

------
rushone2009
System 76. Just Google it. They bare built specifically for Ubuntu and are
within your price range. Their laptops are actually Clevo/Sager remade to work
perfectly with Ubuntu.

------
pilsetnieks
Since you're planning to run Ubuntu and for $1000 the only thing you can get
from Apple is the low-end 11-inch Macbook Air (64 GB HDD), I'd suggest to go
for a Thinkpad. I've had nothing but great experiences with Thinkpads in my
company, even the low-end ones.

Then again, maybe it's worth to give OS X a try - you can run the same
software as you can on Linux but you can also run all the Mac software which
is just so much better than anything else out there with a GUI.

------
minimax
Several people commenting here have X220s. Anyone have one with the IPS panel?
Is it worth it? I hate how the colors on my laptop shift as my viewing angle
changes.

~~~
Auguste
Mine has an IPS panel. It looks great from any angle, but it suffers from a
mild ghosting effect when some colours are displayed [1] [2], mostly dark-blue
colours. I didn't notice it for the first time until I upgraded to Windows 8,
which uses this colour on the lock screen [3]. I have no idea whether this
problem is fixed in Lenovo's newer IPS displays, but I find it barely
noticeable and rarely a problem.

[1]: [http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-
Laptops/Faint-...](http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-
Laptops/Faint-Ghosting-on-X220-IPS-screen/td-p/435201)

[2]: <https://www.pcworld.com/article/237105/article.html>

[3]: [http://techtogeekz.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/03/windows_8_...](http://techtogeekz.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/03/windows_8_consumer_preview_wallpaper_by_wango9.jpg)

------
nordsieck
IMHO, for non-compute bound developers the single most important thing on a
development machine is high resolution.

Both the Dell Latitude e6500 and the Lenovo Thinkpad T500/W500 are 15", high-
end Core 2 Duo machines with WUXGA (1920x1200) screens. You can probably snag
one on Ebay for $300-$400. Add in an SSD and max out the ram for another
couple hundred dollars would be my suggestion.

That's the best developer machine short of a Retina MBP.

edit: updated Thinkpad models, added header.

------
mstefff
I just got the System 76 Lemur Ultra a few weeks ago. Intel i5, 128GB SSD, 8GB
RAM. It's amazing. Ubuntu works perfectly. All hardware works perfectly. Their
support is top-notch and almost instant. With shipping, total was like $860.

Peace of mind going forward with new Ubuntu releases is priceless.

------
kxxoling
No Lenovo, it just sucks. Some friend of mine and I have Lenovo devices, most
of them got problems in short. Maybe it just happens in China, but all I want
to say is "lenovo sucks"! Seems ASUS Ubuntu Netbook fits you most, but I
prefer Macbook Air+Mint Cinnomon.

------
merinid
Any machine can be made adequate for programming. Hack at it. So the only
concerns I have left are: design, portability, durability. This thing is
moving bits from space to space! It goes on subway adventures and inter
continental. Macbook Air with Fedora Linux.

------
grimborg
X220 here (with SSD), happy with it.

------
lampe
I'am on a Asus Zenbook Prime ux31a with ElementaryOS Luna(Cool Ubuntu Distro).
It's a 13,3 Ultrabook with a 1920x1200 Resolution. I'am a webdeveloper and
always on the go. Somepeople say it is a Macbook Air Clone but it is not ;)

i payed about 1050 euro for my version

~~~
nordsieck
It's 1920x1080 (Full HD).

------
gregors
Asus N56VJ-DH71 15.6-Inch - not an ultralight but not a monster either.
Personally I want the fastest cpu I can get even at the expense of battery
time. Less than a $1000 with a proper cpu. Just swap in an ssd and go.

------
Benferhat
Wait for the upcoming WQHD Samsung Series 9. [0]

[0] [http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/samsung-
series%209-wqhd-u...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/31/samsung-
series%209-wqhd-ultrabook-matte-display/)

------
mguijarr
Hi,

I recently bought a Toshiba Portege Z930, running Linux Mint 13. I just had to
upgrade kernel to have it working without any problem (before I experienced
some random freezes). I am very happy with it.

Cheers, Mat'.

~~~
blacksmith_tb
I have Ubuntu 12.10 on my Portege Z935, it works well, if not perfectly. I
have mixed feelings about the hw itself, however - the trackpad isn't too
great, esp. the buttons. A good machine to use the mouse of you choice with,
if it isn't in your lap.

------
singingfish
I just got a macbook air (13" 8GB). It's very nice and fast and well designed.
I probably won't run Linux on it, but if I do I'd just do it in VirtualBox.

------
DanBlake
Get last years Vaio Z. It trumps everything in this thread and can be had for
about 1k if you scrounge eBay. It has every single thing you want and beyond.

------
monksy
I really like my Sager laptop with a OWC Mercury Pro SSD in it. I've had
really good Linux support with it. [Baring NVidia Optima].

------
fencepost
I know that some of the Mac crowd love the small-screen options and my
previous laptop was a 12" 1280x800, but I can't imagine working routinely on a
screen that small in either inches or resolution these days.

The biggest question is how are you going to be using it? Mostly at a desk
with an external monitor as well? On airplanes in coach? Any client
presentations?

What I ordered earlier this year is a Lenovo T430 with the resolution bumped
to 1600x900 ($+50) on a 14" screen; they now also have the T430s (slim) and
T430u (ultrabook) which are both thinner and lighter. If you want larger, the
T530 lets you go up to FHD (1920x1080) but at a significantly higher cost.

Looking briefly now, the T430u drawbacks include a limit of 8GB (probably a
single slot), no mSATA or WWAN slot, and a display of 1366x768 with no
choices. That last would've disqualified it for me immediately.

The T430s weighs a bit more and has more options, but also starts around $950
and that extra money really only buys you about 12 ounces less weight. I was
looking hard at budget, so it also wasn't an option.

I'd recommend the T430 with a third-generation processor (specifically for
HD4000 graphics). There's a nvidia option using Optimus, but I'm not sure how
good it is under Linux (or whether it really buys you much performance). Bump
the screen to 1600x900, bump the Wifi up to the 3x3 option (both things you
can't really add later and which don't add that much to the cost). DO Add the
fingerprint reader; smart cards and color sensors only if they fit your needs.
Also add the backlit keyboard - you can't get it later, and when you need it
it's really kind of nice to have. Also add Bluetooth up front. If you're
ordering one, start with the lower model (not the "with Faster Processing"
one), you can upgrade the CPU during the selection process but not downgrade
it from the more expensive starting point. Starting from the lower model also
lets you get Windows 7 (Home or Pro) instead of Windows 8 if you're going to
keep Windows at all and don't like the Metro UI.

I stuck with the smallest HD and stock 4GB, adding another SODIMM to go to
12GB was dirt cheap, and I'm easily able to run KUbuntu in VMWare Player under
Windows 7 Pro. You can replace the optical drive with a HD caddy for under $20
and have a second SATA III drive; you can add either WWAN -or- a mSATA drive
(SATA II), there's some form of caching that can be set up with mSATA but I
didn't bother. If you're going the full disconnected user route, you can add
assorted battery options to get you up to (theoretically) 30 hours, 6-8 is
easily feasible by just upgrading the stock battery - I haven't seen the "up
to 9.7" with the 6-cell battery but I suspect that going to a SSD would be a
big part of that.

After you get it, set up a power-on and hard drive password in the BIOS and
configure the fingerprint reader under Windows to let you bypass those with a
swipe. Throw on TrueCrypt and encrypt the entire drive as well.

One caveat with the newer ThinkPads, they did fiddle with the keyboard but
it's still great. The big key I miss is the Menu key (right-click equivalent),
but you can emulate it with Shift-F10 on Windows.

Physical keys that aren't present and workarounds: Context Menu/right-click =
Shift-F10 Break = Fn-B SysRq = Fn-S ScrLk = Fn-C Pause = Fn-P

And finally the page/screen forward and back buttons were replaced and the
pageup/pagedown buttons moved to be with the cursor keys.

------
pessimizer
I've been loving my Zareason Ultralap. Ships with your choice of linux distro,
and is thin enough to impress the Macbook kids..

------
kennywinker
Linuxshopper.com is a pretty cool site for browsing compatible machines.

------
bbissoon
Lenovo Thinkpad - accept no exceptions.

------
wazdee
very happy with x1 carbon

~~~
ptio
I've got Ubuntu 12.04 on a W510 and am very happy. Thinking about upgrading to
X1 Carbon since the W510 is heavy.

Can you share more info about your experience setting up/using Ubuntu on the
X1 Carbon? Any issues?

------
MTWomg
15" Retina MacBook Pro.

