Lifelong Mac user here, enjoyed the thread on what distros other hexbears use. I'm looking to preserve privacy a bit more by moving away from a walled garden. I'd like to move to using a linux distro at home, but am curious about the hardware to use. (Should add here that I'm a software engineer...my code isn't that hardware intensive but I mean I have to run an IDE so that can burn a lot of cycles.) Something I really like about AppleSi is the battery life + performance...it feels really unappealing to buy a clunky intel or amd laptop and get worse battery life. Any suggestions for hardware to look for? (I'd prefer to buy something second hand.)
Companies like RedHat buy Thinkpads (the professional ones like T-series and whatever the others are called, not the cheapo consumer ones) to run Linux on. So they're better supported because Linux devs also use them. And you can get used ones cheap because lots of companies buy these and sell them second hand after a couple of years. They're sturdy and usually in decent shape still.
Battery life is what it is. I'd get something with integrated graphics, that'll be better for battery life and out of the box support.
Do check on the internet if other people are having problems with the specific laptop you consider buying. There's always a chance that something is broken with any specific model.
If you don't mind the soldered hardware of apple silicon you can easily buy a second hand m1 macbook and install Asahi Linux on it for Linux ARM (the only thing it lacks rn is microphone support + usb-c displays).
Otherwise if you're willing to buy new you can find a laptop on Tuxedo Computers or System76 to buy (all amd64 unfortunately) which guarantees hardware support. The current laptop I'm using is a AMD Lenovo Yoga 6 13alc6 which has been surprisingly really good since it has a gigantic battery that regularly nets me 7-8 hour battery life.
Framework for sure, specifically the 13 with the new higher res screen. It’s a perfect 2x scale which is really nice.
The older screen is fine, but some older x11 programs will be scaled wrong.
There are other nice laptops of course: dell xps, thinkpad x1c, huawei matebooks, but imo the framework laptops are better in most regards and as a bonus you can upgrade the ram, cpu, and motherboard without needing to buy a new computer. You also can buy them without a windows license which usually makes them cheaper than the others for similar specs (unless you’re going for used of course).
Do matebooks have good Linux support? That is not what I heard, iirc.
Reasonably okay (but maybe don't get the absolute newest model), but not as good as the others which are all excellent. I mostly put them in the list because they've got excellent build quality, good keyboard, trackpad, etc, and a very nice screen. Basically if you want a macbook with linux (for cheaper than a macbook with linux https://asahilinux.org/) they're pretty reasonable. They also support openbsd which is neat https://jcs.org/2021/08/20/matebook
The laptops I listed are in order of preference imo. Framework is definitely in a class of itself, but if they don't ship to your country or something then getting an xps with linux pre-installed is great and then finally as a backup either a thinkpad or matebook.
I run the t470, it's an absolute unit. HD swap and ram upgrade and you're off to the races. Nothing beats enterprise grade hardware.
On the OS side I've been really happy with TuxedoOS
Thinkpads are pretty good either the older one's (bought a t540p recently cuss you can upgrade pretty much every aspect of it), but also used one's from the 2020s era run great (check to see if they have soldered ram or not, or at least one more expansion slot).
Thinkpads have a good balance been Linux support, price, and general hardware niceness, including battery life. They aren't as aesthetically pleasing as a Mac tho. I think the Z series is metal sometimes but I've never owned one.
Dell's XPS13 has often been Linux compatible. I don't know if that is the case anymore.
Regardless, I recommemd verifying Linux compatibility before purchase.
I'm running Fedora on a T14 an old job never arranged to collect. It took linux better than an older HP I put Mint on.
There are plenty of place online selling refurbed thinkpads, and plenty of smaller people on Facebook marketplace too. You could start with a cheap thinkpad and go from there.
The top of the line for Linux laptops is the Framework, but you'll probably be buying new unless you luck out and you'll be looking at Apple prices
