Prices as of March 22nd based off my own observations.

System76 (base prices, not including addons)

  • Lemur Pro: $1400
  • Pangolin: $1300

Purism (base prices, not including shipping and that Purism is a shady company)

  • Librem 11: $1000 (a literal tablet)
  • Librem 14: $1370
  • Librem Key: $60 (A USB)

Tuxedo (base prices, not including shipping costs to burgerland) (based in Germany)

  • TUXEDO Aura 14 - Gen3: 840 EUR
  • TUXEDO Pulse 14 - Gen3: 1238 EUR
  • TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 - Gen8: 1419 EUR

Slimbook (Based in Spain, base prices no shipping or taxes)

  • Elemental 14 Intel i5 1235U: 600 EUR
  • Excalibur 16 AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS: 1200 EUR
  • Executive 14 Intel i7 13700H Black: 1400 EUR

Framework (base prices, but addons usually add $90-150)

  • Framework 13 (AMD and Intel): $850

Minifree Ltd (Run by a trans fem in the UK, very cool brand)

  • Libreboot 820 (1920x1080 IPS Screen Intel Core i5-5200U, 1 TB SSD): £378.00.
  • Libreboot T440p (1920x1080, 4 core, 1 TB SSD): £558.00.
  • Libreboot W541, (15.6″, 4-core Intel i7-4800MQ, 1920x1080, 1 TB SSD): £698.00.

Asahi Linux (from Refurbished Apple Store)

  • 13.3-inch MacBook Air Apple M1 8gb RAM 256 GB SSD: $760

My current laptop

Note that these are just retail prices, obviously the best way to score good tech is to always buy refurbished laptops from reputable resell sites (used thinkpads rock). I just wanted to point out the absolute state of Linux (TM) laptops. It's pretty disheartening that a lot of Linux laptops are clearly geared towards software engineers who have the money to splurge online.

Until this changes, your best bet is to hunt for windows laptops that are reported to have a good track record with Linux and perform the sorcery there. But that also makes Linux an obscure option for a lot of people. monke-beepboop since hardware support is either hit or miss (or distro specific).

  • SwitchyWitchyandBitchy [she/her]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Those minifree laptops look quite affordable. Sure it's more than buying a used ThinkPad but the t440p comes pre-upgraded and with an open source bios. System76 is on the expensive side but it's a low volume niche product with a lot of software engineering going into it (esp the firmware with both open source EFI and Embedded Controller. A lemur pro was my daily driver for a long time and even reclaimed that title after I got a framework since I preferred the lemur for a number of reasons (until it died :( I have a pre-order for the framework 16 but I may end up switching to a slimbook.

    The reality is that buying nice laptops is expensive. Especially if they're niche.