

Best Linux Laptops (2013) - garrettdreyfus

After searching using hnsearch I saw it had been a while since this topic had been explored.
note: It does not necessarily have to come preinstalled with a linux distro.
======
agwa
I (and many other Linux users I know) would strongly recommend Thinkpads. In
addition to generally working well with Linux they're pretty well-built
machines. Everything about my T420 just works out of the box with Debian
Wheezy (disclaimer: I don't have a fingerprint reader or camera so I don't
know how well they would work; but WIFI, Bluetooth, SD card reader, and
smartcard reader all work).

Also. [http://www.thinkwiki.org/](http://www.thinkwiki.org/) is a very good
resource for running Linux on Thinkpads (though everything worked so perfectly
with my T420 and Wheezy I actually never needed it!).

~~~
sounds
Please, could you test your camera? Almost all USB webcams use the "uvcvideo"
module (and built-in webcams use USB in most cases), so it would be noteworthy
if your camera _didn't_ work.

~~~
wting
T420 and X220 built-in cameras work on Ubuntu 12.04 for me.

Using the fingerprint reader requires adding a ppa and installing a package:

[http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_enable_integrated_finge...](http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_enable_integrated_fingerprint_reader_with_fprint)

------
SwellJoe
_Not_ an HP Envy. Worst laptop I've ever owned.

It works OK with Linux (sound is problematic, and it's not good under Windows,
either, despite...or maybe because of, wearing a "beats by Dre" logo). But,
the quality is simply awful. It has a high end laptop price tag, and all the
right features, but it's falling apart after barely a year of light use and
has had problems from almost day one.

~~~
kyyd
Just to provide an alternate opinion I've been using a HP envy 14 for school
(lugging it around on transit, to LAN parties etc...) and it's held up
absolutely fine.

~~~
SwellJoe
It may be specific to the model I own. I have an Envy 15, with i7 CPU, 1080p
display, ATI+Intel graphics, 8GB of RAM, etc. Cost about $1350, I think. I'm
happy yours is holding up OK, though. It was the highest end and highest
resolution laptop they had at Fry's when I needed a new laptop on short
notice, so I bought it with little research.

Problems I've had:

Dead pixels. New ones have sprung up just in the past couple months. I think
it has 7 now (in two clusters).

Heat. Damned thing runs hot enough to literally burn my legs. It has "Cool
Sense", which allows you to choose between "Slow enough to where you have to
take coffee breaks between opening or closing new tabs." and "Oh gods, why am
I on fire?" So, I disabled Cool Sense. It made the computer vastly slower than
the one it replaced (and the one before that one).

Keyboard is truly awful. I'm a great typist, but this keyboard slows me down,
and misses strokes if they aren't really firm. Also, if you type really fast,
it'll sometimes randomly insert the number "6". Why 6? I don't know. It's just
this thing it does.

The faux metal coating began discoloring within a couple of weeks or purchase.
I'm an obsessive hand washer, and I've never had this problem with any other
lappy. This one just sucks at looking good. I've never put stickers on a
laptop before, because I like a shiny new looking laptop...this laptop looked
like crap so quickly, that I put stickers all over it to cover the crappiness.

Fans makes a horrible racket for a few minutes when returning from sleep or
booting. I have no pets, and I don't smoke, so my house is not very dusty or
plagued by particulates. I've opened it up to try to clean it and blown it out
with compressed air, but no apparent dust was present. The fans are just
crappy and noisy.

The headphone jacks are janky. I can mostly only get one channel out of them.
I use this laptop for movie screenings (my audiovisual company does outdoor
screenings on a pretty large scale; sometimes for 1000+ people), and had to
buy a new USB audio interface to get reliable sound output. The USB interface
is a minor expense in a $25,000 setup, but it's a nuisance to not have a
decent audio output on a high end laptop that claims to be good for audio.
Also, the Dre Beats filter is awful; I recommend disabling it on any device
that has it.

The trackpad (a fancy multitouch thing) has been really...umm...touchy. For
most of it's life with me. It's gotten solid under Linux (or I've gotten used
to it, when others use my machine they are startled by the jumpiness of the
touchpad; I've mostly acclimated to treating it with kid gloves). Under
Windows it is still really bad. Typing on the keyboard can make the pointer
jump and trigger a click, so focus can shift without warning while typing.
I've never been able to adjust this away, and it is infuriating and makes
working under Windows on this machine a serious burden.

It has begun to die. Every few days the caps lock light will flash ominously,
which, according to the documentation means it needs to be serviced. I haven't
figured out what, specifically, is wrong with it, but since it's my primary
computer, I'm loathe to be without it. Sometimes it goes away after sleeping
or rebooting, sometimes it stays on for days. Again, I've had it for a little
over a year. Every other lappy I've owned has lasted 4 years or more. This
laptop is a sad story.

Maybe I got a lemon. I wish I'd taken it back during the return period, but I
needed a machine to work on...so, it ended up staying with me. I won't make
the mistake of buying another HP.

As for Linux compatibility, it's actually really good, except for sound (only
one set of speakers works, so it is _really_ quiet under Linux, and since head
phone jacks are janky, I can't really even use headphones effectively). It's
got a lot of Intel components with Open Source drivers. The ATI drivers, both
Open Source and proprietary work OK, though I prefer the seamless experience
of the Intel drivers.

------
adrusi
I'm definitely replacing it with a Thinkpad soon, but I'm currently running
Fedora 20 on my half-dead early-2011 Macbook pro and everything worked out of
the box besides the wireless driver, which was an easy fix. Everything else
works, including camera and keyboard brightness.

I wouldn't recommend buying a Macbook just to run Linux on it, but if you have
one (which actually works properly) and want to run Linux, realize that you
can have a great experience without buying a new machine.

A while ago I had a lot of problems installing Linux on my machine, but Fedora
20 installed without problems for me.

~~~
nimrody
Do you get the same battery life with Linux as you had with OS X?

~~~
adrusi
I suppose this is an important point that I forgot to mention, but I don't
have a functioning battery, I have to keep it plugged in all the time. I know
that you have to install a new power system before you have reasonable battery
performance, and I know its available, but I haven't tried it so I don't know
how good it is.

------
hamgra
I'm currently using an HP ProBook 4530s. I've had it about 2 years now, but
there are similar models with newer parts. I cannot think of any problems I've
had running a linux distro, and I've used several. The only bit of hardware
that doesn't work is the fingerprint scanner, but I don't think that worked
under Windows either. Audio in and out works fine. The keyboard works with no
hacks. The touchpad supports 3 finger usage. You can get ProBooks with either
an Intel or AMD components; mine has Intel. Additionally, this laptop is
pretty easy to take apart. Pop out the battery, slide the bottom panel off,
and you have access to the ram and hard drive. With tools you can access /
remove the optical drive and keyboard. I was even able to replace the display.
It came with a 1366x768 and I upgraded it to a 1920x1080. HP does have a
fairly extensive disassembly manual for it, if that's important to you. I
would definitely look at this line again when I need to get a new laptop.

------
rubiquity
I've had two laptops that I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 on and both have worked
great. One was a Dell Vostro V131. Literally everything worked and it had such
an amazing keyboard layout. It was so hard for me to give it up. I upgraded
earlier this month to an ASUS Zenbook UX302LA. The only things that didn't
work out of the box was WiFi and the brightness keyboard buttons, these were
quickly fixed with using a back port module. I put an extra 8GB of RAM and a
256gb SSD and the things flys. It also has a Haswell CPU so it gets about 9
hours of battery life.

------
Deejahll
In the end of 2012 I purchased a Lenovo x230, which ran Debian very well for
the past year:

deliberation:
[https://plus.google.com/106336989542410513415/posts/avV5eL1P...](https://plus.google.com/106336989542410513415/posts/avV5eL1P6BH)

follow-up:
[https://plus.google.com/u/0/106336989542410513415/posts/PR4e...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/106336989542410513415/posts/PR4efB7D4ev)

debian wiki:
[https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/X230/whe...](https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/X230/wheezy)

A couple weeks ago I upgraded to a Fujitsu Lifebook u904, for the 14" QHD
(3200x1800) display. I was surprised at how very well it works with Linux,
given how little information I could find about compatibility.

debian wiki:
[https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Fujitsu/LifebookU...](https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Fujitsu/LifebookU904/jessie)

Gnome hasn't got their act together yet around high-resolution displays so
font configuration is a bit wonky but that's not a hardware incompatibility
deal-breaker. Even the touch-screen works.

------
vivekajayshah
I have had the following laptops - on which I've installed Linux:

\- Thinkpad X1 Carbon (works perfectly - ubuntu 12.10) \- Thinkpad T540p
(works perfectly - ubuntu 13.10) \- HP Envy 15 (terrible - ubuntu 12.04)

All worked out of the box - except for the HP.

My two cents - get the X1 Carbon on lenovo outlet ($1K for 8GB ram, i7, etc.)

Everything worked on it \- webcam \- suspend, resume \- wireless \- sound \-
UEFI settings (for dual boot)

------
sandGorgon
Dell Latitude - unbelievably good. Built like a tank - I believe these are
built to Mil-Spec. I have been running Linux on my laptop for the last 6 years
(commuting through South East Asia and India), so I believe it has stood the
test of time and kernel upgrades in hot & dusty New Delhi.

I run Ubuntu 12.04 on a 6 year old E6410 and everything works - including
suspend/resume, smart card reader, bluetooth, etc. I also have a second hard
drive and am able to boot off either using UEFI. I'm also able to connect my
HDTV using a displayport-HDMI adapter and watch movies. Wifi works out of the
box, but even if it didnt, you could swap out the mini-pcie card for a few
bucks.

And unbelievably upgradable - couple of days back I replaced my keyboard,
while the laptop is still running, in under 2 minutes. A couple of days before
that I replaced my laptop fan - bought easily off ebay because of the latitude
platform's popularity.

Dell's after sales support is legendary - in India, it is called CompleteCover
and covers next business day onsite replacement and accidental damage
warranty.

~~~
zapman449
+1

I'm typing now on a u6430 running ubuntu 13.04, and it runs great.

Three challenges:

1) On a busy wifi, I have some challenges with connection drops, but I haven't
determined if that's a driver issue, or a chip issue. The connection drops are
mostly after several minutes of idle network connections. (Now that I think
about it, its probably driver, since rmmod/modprobe the wireless modules fixes
things)

2) The thumbprint reader doesn't work out of the box, but honestly, I'd rather
type a password.

3) When I try to use a usb3 'docking station', it works. However I find that I
need to rmmod the usb3 module, and then modprobe it again to get it back to
life after ~10 undock/redock operations. After about ~20-30 undock/redocks I
find I need to reboot.

------
beggerss
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (comes with Ubuntu pre-installed). The best
part, though, is that Dell wrote a bunch of drivers for the hardware that got
integrated into the main Linux kernel--I've installed over 10 distros on it
(not all at once!) and on every one of them brightness, multitouch gestures,
etc, worked out of the box.

~~~
de_dave
I've got the XPS 13 standard edition (max-specced refurb was half-price of the
dev edition!) and it's been nearly smooth sailing.

One difference between the dev and std editions is the wifi chipset - 6235 in
std, 6230 in dev (and some reports of the AR9462 in others). The wifi was
practically unusable for me until I manually disabled power-saving on the wifi
interface.

Also had a couple of instances where the machine has dropped into a coma (even
on full battery). Usually after rebooting or suspending. Quite scary when it
happens, since the long-hold power button trick doesn't always revive it. It
usually comes back to life later but I wish I knew what was causing this.

Also have to run the battery all the way down to 0% (the point at which the HW
forces a shutdown) and charge back up to 100% every couple of months else the
calibration goes wonky.

Lovely machine though.

~~~
beggerss
Wow, really? I've never had any hanging/reboot/battery issues with the Dev
Edition.

------
roblopes
Asus N550JV (non touch) All but the Subwoofer works with Ubuntu 13.10 with
minimal configurations. Samsung EVO SSD a must have. Only issue seems to be
with a 7 port USB 3.0 HUB plugged into one of the USB laptop ports. This
screams and replaced my homegrown AMD/ATI desktop. Heavy on Photography, games
with Steam and video editing. External SATA 3.0 dock with OEM drives swapped
out. ~150+ MB/sec. Best laptop I could find. Clevo is fast, but..... I
returned the System 76 / clevo due to mSATA overheating. 3 Months, zero
complaints with Linux running on this. It comes with Windows 8 and a slow
drive. Never booted it. Went straight to SSD and Secure boot Ubuntu on a new
install.

------
ivanbrussik
I've had Feisty on my Toshiba Satellite P955 for over 3 years now. I think I
bought it for $800 but you can probably get one for $300ish now. Ripped out
the HDD and put in an SSD. Ripped out the DVD and put in an SSD with custom
mount I bought from somewhere.

Had issues with wifi initially but found workaround after a while. I have to
say, this box runs extremely well, I never ever have problems but then again I
don't use a webcam or many other external devices. Mainly internet browsing,
Virtualbox, shell, etc.

------
tokenrove
HP Elitebook 820 works pretty well. Asus Zenbook UX21 works acceptably. But
tellingly, after the news about the X60 last week or so, I decided to ebay an
X61 and stuff as much RAM and SSD in it as possible. The X31 remains the
greatest Linux laptop, the greatest laptop period, I've ever owned, modulo
some graphics driver problems. I would like to see something with the build
quality of these Thinkpads, coming with Linux pre-installed.

~~~
wting
T420's / X220's are the last generation to have 7-row keyboards and also
available with IPS screens. The newer generations have 6-row chiclet keyboards
with neutered TrackPad buttons. Despite using a rMBP daily for work, the old
ThinkPad keyboard is home for me.

In their quest to become MBP replicas, ThinkPads lost their distinguishing
features. Now that I've resigned myself to carrying a mechanical keyboard at
all times (HHKB), I no longer choose a laptop based on one. I am now exploring
alternative laptops after being a loyal ThinkPad customer for 7 years.

~~~
rll
I am desperately trying to extend the life of my X220 exactly for this reason.
It is the last laptop with a usable keyboard. But this thing has been around
the world at least a dozen times and has cracks and bruises to show for it. No
idea what I will do when it finally dies on me.

------
ghc
My 2013 VAIO Pro 13" works astonishingly well with Debian. I don't think I've
ever had a laptop work so well right out of the box with Linux. The PCIe SSD
it comes with is much faster than past SSDs I've had, too.

Note: I got this laptop in late November. If you look online, you'll find a
lot of problems people had with distros featuring older kernels. Rest assured,
3.12 enables all features right out of the box.

~~~
diadara
Is that the one which comes with a touch screen ? Have you tried using the
touch screen ? And I have heard that the whole thing is very flimsy due to the
carbon fibre build, what's your take on this ?

~~~
ghc
Yes, I got the one with the touch screen, but if I had to do it over I'd have
gotten the non-touch version with a matte screen. Touch screens are just too
reflective. The touch screen actually works fine, but gnome treats it like a
mouse. It doesn't bother me, but might bother people who expect all the
gestures you get with Windows.

Carbon fiber only seems flimsy when you've never had a notebook made of it
before. It does have a little flex in the screen, but not much. The flex isn't
a bad thing, mind you. I've had several carbon fiber laptops and the flex
helps them bounce when they're dropped and can help prevent damage if
something stupid happens like someone reclining their airline seat into your
screen in just the wrong way.

The other benefit is that the laptop is seriously light. The 13" Air feels
pretty heavy in comparison.

------
bsimpson
The Chromebook Pixel is a fantastic piece of hardware and it comes running a
Linux variant (ChromeOS) out-of-the-box, so all the drivers should be well-
supported.

------
aeroevan
Does anyone have a System76 Galago UltraPro? I'm planning on upgrading my T410
(which was/is great) but I now need something with more than 8GB of RAM.

[https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1](https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1)

~~~
phaus
Its terrible. If you want good Linux compatibility, get another Thinkpad.

System 76 sells rebranded Clevos. The best Clevo laptops are mediocre, the
worst are unusable. The Ultrapro falls into the latter category. Quite a few
models of Clevo laptops have keyboards that randomly drop keystrokes. The
Galago keyboard is by all accounts particularly horrible. More than one
reviewer listed this as the sole reason for returning the machine. The company
"fixed" the issue by sending out new keyboards with metal strips attached to
the back of them. This did absolutely nothing to address the fact that the
keyboards don't work.

Because they don't actually make their own systems, there is little that
System 76 can do to change the fact that some of their systems are defective.
System 76 by all accounts has pretty decent support, but when all they can do
is continue to send you more defective parts and / or defective replacement
systems, it doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot.

After repeatedly trying to fix these issues, one of their favorite sayings is
"most of our customers like our keyboards."

Another great quote from a System 76 rep is that the Galago Ultrapro's
touchpad is hands-down better than a Macbook's. Which I found particularly
amusing because some of the reviews of this machine specifically mention that
the touchpad doesn't work correctly.

The other downside of Clevo laptops is that the company absolutely sucks at
making motherboards. They are inefficient, and it ends up contributing to the
Galago's poor battery life. This is a machine that should probably get at
least 6-8 hours, yet it only gets 3.5-4.

I really love the idea of a vendor dedicated to selling Linux machines, but
until System 76 pulls off a miracle and convinces Clevo to stop making
defective keyboards, people should stop giving them their money.

If it weren't for the defective keyboard and the terrible battery life, my
comment would be completely different and it would probably be getting typed
on a Galago Ultrapro. Instead, I have a T430 that I snagged off of Lenovo's
outlet with 8GB Ram, an i5, and a 256GB SSD for less than $500. Its the best
computer I've ever owned.

~~~
2bluesc
I second everything phaus said above. This post was typed on a Galago Ultra
Pro. The 3rd generation keyboard is "ok" and doesn't bother me, but many other
things do (touchpad drivers, battery life, stability, etc).

For comparison I used Linux (Gentoo & Ubuntu) for years on a Lenovo T61p and
didn't realize how well I had it. For work I use a rMBP (not by choice). Both
blow the Galago Ultra Pro out of the water.

The single redeeming quality of the Galago Ultra Pro is the horsepower of
i7-4750HQ combined with mSATA + 2.5" SSD. I do alot of big builds for embedded
devices and the space and horsepower help alot. Unfortunately, everything else
is "meh" and the battery life and touchpad are down right disappointing.

And System76 does little to support Linux as far as I can tell. The Intel
Wireless 7620 had firmware problems System76 up until several weeks ago they
weren't even aware of[1], just to gauge their QA process. And what power user
machines don't fully support UEFI[2] these days?

I've had the machine for less then a month and seriously considering sending
it back. :(

[1]
[http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2194000](http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2194000)
[2]
[http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2191909](http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2191909)

------
mcx
Thinkpad X or T series.

~~~
misframer
I'm using a Thinkpad X230 from 2012. I have absolutely no compatibility issues
on GNU/Linux.

Mine has Intel WiFi, which I think is recommended.

------
shaunw321
I got a Lenovo Y510p. Amazing machine. Running Ubuntu 13.04. The most common
problem with any linux machine is FLASH VIDEO! They don't support DRM content
(HBOGO, Amazon, xfinitytv, etc...). It's been a pain trying to find a work
around. Also, video drivers can be a pain.

~~~
hardikj
Great!! I heard about this machine and is planning to buy one soon :)

Though I am confused between Y510p and MBP I love the freedom linux give and
don't want to sacrifice it :(

How's the Wifi running on Y510p? Have you tried installing Arch linux?

~~~
perryh2
Don't. The Y510p has a really cheap screen. I know its price sounds enticing.
I compared its screen with my Macbook Pro and it looks very "washed out".

------
grannyg00se
Thinkpad T530 works very well. I've got it running Arch Linux with no features
unusable. Hardware brightness and volume controls, webcam, integrated graphics
and networking all without issue.

My only regret is that I paid for Windows.

------
andrewcooke
the asus 1015 that comes with ubuntu installed works just fine, although the
trackpad is pretty bad (i use an external mouse). opensuse 13.1 runs with no
issues that i've noticed.

10 inch screen, looks like a netbook, 2GB memory, celeron - sounds useless for
development work, but after replacing the disk with a cheap 60GB kingston ssd
i can run virtualbox and have a workable vm, so it's surprisingly capable.

my x220 died and i am happy using this until the x240 with a better screen is
released next quarter (i bought it as a clunker for travel).

------
sayanchowdhury
I just bought a Thinkpad X230 a week back. Looking forward to have a great
experience with it.

My laptop HP Pavillion dv4 performs out of box with major linux variants. No
issues!

------
Intimatik
Intel "Harris Beach" developer's ultra book is not the best Linux laptop
because of various components that are not supported in Linux :(

------
ecaron
Lenovo X1 Carbon or Lenovo X240 (particularly if you routinely use your laptop
at the same location - then their dock is worth its weight in gold.)

~~~
daflip
I second the Carbon X1 .. Great laptop. It's small, light has an awesome
keyboard and touchpad. I run Debian Jessie on mine.. Everything works 100%
except for the fingerprint reader (I don't use it.. Maybe it does work thou!).
Currently travelling on the road and using the built in UTMS/3g modem- works
like a charm!

------
nitai
Most laptops come with 8GB RAM. Anyone know of a light laptop which can be
upgraded to more then 8GB?

~~~
andrewcooke
i think the x230 (still available) could, but the x240 can't for some reason.
but check before buying...

------
madisonmay
Dell XPS13 Developer's Edition would be a solid choice.

------
OafTobark
Get a Macbook Air, install Linux.

------
davidsmith8900
\- ChromeBook.

~~~
CyberFonic
I have a Samsung ChromeBook and I tend to prefer it for on the road use to the
MacBook Pro. Much lighter and better battery life. With WiFi both public and
via smartphone tethering, it is fine for most tasks that I need on the road.

Crouton is fine if you need a full fledged Linux. Using a 32GB SDHC card for
extra file space.

------
chowdary9
toshiba alinware is good linux

