Advice for a Linux Laptop in 2025
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commenter was suggesting that framework allows you to “grow with your budget”
i don’t think this is exactly true in all situations
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the thinkpad E/L series are also kinda gnarly
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I have not. I'm not aware of them.
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Out of the box battery was not great for the 11th gen, but with the correct settings I get 0.4-0.5% drain/h in standby.
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You can also buy it second hand or get an older version for less money and upgrade later.
The upgradability and reparability is also a cost saving factor on the longer run. I broke the screen once and instead of buying a new laptop or have a costly repair, I just got a replacement for 200 bucks and fixed it easily myself.
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They have core boot, which is a big plus, but the hardware itself is not open source.
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Most of it seems to be
Eg https://github.com/system76/thelio-io-hardware/tree/a8e166cec9112d38d2bbe31a314689a8d7723ac8
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That is very likely to be my next laptop.
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I must say I'm not 100% happy with my InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen 9 AMD. The build quality has very much improved since the Gen 7 (which I daily-drove before), but it feels like Tuxedo's take on "Linux Laptop" is rather something like "Tuxedo-OS Laptop". On Fedora I had to tweak kernel params so my laptop doesn't wake up from sleep on its own and do the same to resolve an audio issue, and my RJ45 port just simply doesn't work even with their drivers.
And something inside the device makes a quiet but annoying beep-like noise when the fans don't spin.
Apart from that I love the device, but if you plan to use your own distro of choice and really want a high-quality build I'd not really recommend it.
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Mostly it boils down to three categories:
- Case build quality. This seems a be a frequent issue among System76 laptops; in my case (no pun intended), the laptop case was very badly made and easily broke. I carry my device around very much, always in my backpack, which has a padded laptop section, and in a fancy padded laptop case (or bag or whatever the word is—arg). I essentially have double padding, and I have had a good experience with this padding and previous laptops. This time, however, even simply putting the backpack down, was enough force to dent and eventually completely crush the empty corners next to the hinges. I had to manually repair the corners very often, but wasn't able to prevent damage to the hinges and stripping the threads holding the hinges in place. No other laptop, even ones much cheaper, has ever presented me with this problem, and it is extremely frustrating that the laptop isn't designed to be even mildly rugged.
- Faulty motherboard and bad quality-control. The laptop I bought had two M.2 NVMe slots, with only one occupied. I was planning to add one of my existing SSDs into the second slot. The second slot, however, did not work. This is such an easy thing to test before shipping it, that it really left a bad taste in my mouth.
- Faulty part and known issue. After about two weeks of using my laptop, the touchpad started malfunctioning. I looked the issue up, and, well and behold, this was a well known issue with this specific laptop. I contacted support and the problem remained unsolved. System76 released and continued selling a laptop with a known, unsolvable issue. This was the final blow, and I totally lost trust in the company after experiencing this.
Forgive the shitty writing, I'm doing this in my phone.
Hope I was able to help, kind regards.
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What were the interactions with support like each time?
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So that's why everyone recommends the T480 over the T580.
The T580 doesn't have a libreboot build.
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Thinkpad X1 Carbon if you're swimming in money and want the lightest possible laptop, Thinkpad T14 if not.
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Up until very recently the t480 didnt either
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Thinkpad t480 with libreboot from minifree
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Brb gonna go libreboot my sister's t580 when that comes out
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You would probrally have to wait a very long time, keep in mind not all features (ex: Thunderbolt 3) are working on the t480. In addition I dont think the t580 is even supported by coreboot yet.
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It was a few years ago so I can't really comment on newer versions. But I recall the plastic bottom coming away from the top more and more over time. They don't manufacture their own laptops, so they are kinda stuck relying on a third party. (Clevo, I think.)
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That's good, they might have improved. Mine didn't last a year, but I think it was an earlier version.
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Best is Framework in every regard. Works 100%, great Linux support, specify exactly what you want and it's fully repairable. (They're also by far the most satisfying machine to unbox, given you have to plug it all together yourself)
Lenovo and Dell are okay, in my experience. The odd thing but generally fair quality hardware and reasonably compatible. (Thinkpad quality isn't what it used to be, so don't pay a premium thinking it'll last, Lenovo are trading on its past glories)
Avoid HP - shoddy flimsy things now, and with a lot of bespoke drivers (graphics and audio, plus function buttons in particular)
There's quite a lot of random-branded Chinese laptops around now. I've no direct experience of them, but I imagine they're exactly how you'd expect them to be. Cheap, tailored for the OS they ship with, but will probably work to some degree. Linux is past its initial hardware problems (and to be fair, hardware is problematic now)
There's another thread that's a few years old, but still contains some useful info - such as "Check the Arch Wiki"
