"Many newer Dell laptops have good Linux support."
I've been buying higher-end Dells for a while. If you get something based on an Intel chipset, Linux support is generally quite solid, even if it isn't explicitly claimed. Based on my experience with my last three laptops and what I hear from everyone else, I often think there's really two Dells, the "cheap at all costs" consumer end and the business/"prosumer" end that makes, if not gear that gets as much love as old-school IBM, perfectly serviceable stuff. I'm typing this on an at-least-three-year-old Studio 17, and it barely even shows wear. Battery's croaking, of course, but that's hardly Dell's fault (and it's not like it instantly died or anything). Also the fact you can get full service manuals is really nice... even if you're comfortable with hardware, trying to blunder your way through dissassembling a modern laptop if you need to, say, clean out the fan, is no fun.
Yep, and you can find used Latitudes or whatever their current equivalent is, usually with some half-way decent dedicated Quadro or FirePro GPU, for really good prices on used markets. I can usually find corporate liquidators who have tons of them for $300-600 for something recent and decent. The older Latitudes like the D830 are tanks too; user (or IT-department)-serviceable everything, parts cheap on eBay if you need, module bay batteries, magnesium chassis, metal hinges, good keyboard, no stupid clicky trackpad...they got a lot right.
Swap in an SSD and max out the RAM and they're awesome linux workhorses.
> I often think there's really two Dells, the "cheap at all costs" consumer end and the business/"prosumer" end
When you install Windows drivers, Thinkpads say something about Lenovo Japan, while others (like Ideapads) say Lenovo Shenzhen. HP Elitebooks are well made while consumer HPs are really poorly designed/constructed.
I've been buying higher-end Dells for a while. If you get something based on an Intel chipset, Linux support is generally quite solid, even if it isn't explicitly claimed. Based on my experience with my last three laptops and what I hear from everyone else, I often think there's really two Dells, the "cheap at all costs" consumer end and the business/"prosumer" end that makes, if not gear that gets as much love as old-school IBM, perfectly serviceable stuff. I'm typing this on an at-least-three-year-old Studio 17, and it barely even shows wear. Battery's croaking, of course, but that's hardly Dell's fault (and it's not like it instantly died or anything). Also the fact you can get full service manuals is really nice... even if you're comfortable with hardware, trying to blunder your way through dissassembling a modern laptop if you need to, say, clean out the fan, is no fun.