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Ask Slashdot: Recommendations For a Reliable Linux Laptop?

Posted by timothy on from the narrow-it-down-a-bit dept.

An anonymous reader writes: I will be looking for a new laptop soon and I'm mostly interested in high reliability and Linux friendliness. I have been using an MSI laptop (with Windows 7) for the last five years as my main workhorse and did not have a single, even minor problem with the hardware nor the OS. It turned out to be a slam-dunk, although I didn't do any particular research before buying it, so I was just lucky. I would like to be more careful this time around, so this is a hardware question: What laptop do you recommend for high reliability with Linux? I will also appreciate any advice on what to avoid and any unfortunate horror stories; I guess we can all learn from those. Anti-recommendations are probably just as valuable, a lesson I learned when an HP laptop I bought (low-end, I admit) turned out to be notoriously fickle when it comes to Linux support. Since our anonymous submitter doesn't specify his budget, it would be good if you specify the price for any specific laptops you recommend.

3 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. System76 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just buy a System76 laptop. Everything will work, including suspend.

  2. System76 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    System76 has been selling Linux laptops for years now. I've never bought one, but they certainly have expertise in getting it to work.

  3. Re:MacBook Pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just not worth it...

    Had one for a couple of years up until last year.
    - Fan control was a problem, would get hot, then run fans on max.
    - Wifi drivers were a pain, and didn't always recover from suspend reliably (needed reboots).
    - Dealing with poorly documented Ubuntu PPAs to get drivers and docs for configuration is a chore.
    - There are enough differences between model years that what once worked now doesn't. User's writing 'works for me' without specify which MacBook pro vintage they use is not helpful.

    Replaced with an ASUS G550JK(https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/G550JK/) last year. Has same or better specs than a MacBook pro of the time, for a little over half the price, and the IPS display is beautiful. Everything just worked (Ubuntu 14.04). I almost miss messing about with drivers to make them work (not!).