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.)
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.