After searching using hnsearch I saw it had been a while since this topic had been explored.
note: It does not necessarily have to come preinstalled with a linux distro.
I (and many other Linux users I know) would strongly recommend Thinkpads. In addition to generally working well with Linux they're pretty well-built machines. Everything about my T420 just works out of the box with Debian Wheezy (disclaimer: I don't have a fingerprint reader or camera so I don't know how well they would work; but WIFI, Bluetooth, SD card reader, and smartcard reader all work).
Also. http://www.thinkwiki.org/ is a very good resource for running Linux on Thinkpads (though everything worked so perfectly with my T420 and Wheezy I actually never needed it!).
I have a T430S running Ubuntu 12.04, and it's easily the most enjoyable laptop to use that I've ever owned.
I replaced the HDD with an SSD, added RAM, and replaced the DVD drive with an extra bay battery. If you gave me a pile of cash to spend on hardware, the only thing I'd do is trade out for a bigger SSD.
Please, could you test your camera? Almost all USB webcams use the "uvcvideo" module (and built-in webcams use USB in most cases), so it would be noteworthy if your camera _didn't_ work.
I've had a succession of Thinkpad laptops, don't think I would pick any other for Linux. I have had various other laptops but none was comparable for Linux.
I installed Slackware 64bit on a ThinkPad T61 and it works out of the box, completely (though I haven't messed with the fingerprint reader). It also performs extremely well, much better than the Dell Inspiron it replaced, even though the hardware (processor, etc) isn't necessarily much faster on paper. It also doesn't get so hot. These things are just so good in so many ways. :)
I'm on my third or fourth generation of Thinkpad myself (T520i). Wireless has been a problem, but other than that, it's an excellent device. And Lenovo can have its TrackPoint when it pries it from my cold, dead fingers.
The distribution doesn't really matter here. I mean, the drivers (modules) are the same: If they work on Debian they will work under Gentoo, Arch, You-Name-It.. Since the kernel is ... the same :-)
It works OK with Linux (sound is problematic, and it's not good under Windows, either, despite...or maybe because of, wearing a "beats by Dre" logo). But, the quality is simply awful. It has a high end laptop price tag, and all the right features, but it's falling apart after barely a year of light use and has had problems from almost day one.
Just to provide an alternate opinion I've been using a HP envy 14 for school (lugging it around on transit, to LAN parties etc...) and it's held up absolutely fine.
I'm definitely replacing it with a Thinkpad soon, but I'm currently running Fedora 20 on my half-dead early-2011 Macbook pro and everything worked out of the box besides the wireless driver, which was an easy fix. Everything else works, including camera and keyboard brightness.
I wouldn't recommend buying a Macbook just to run Linux on it, but if you have one (which actually works properly) and want to run Linux, realize that you can have a great experience without buying a new machine.
A while ago I had a lot of problems installing Linux on my machine, but Fedora 20 installed without problems for me.
I'm currently using an HP ProBook 4530s. I've had it about 2 years now, but there are similar models with newer parts. I cannot think of any problems I've had running a linux distro, and I've used several. The only bit of hardware that doesn't work is the fingerprint scanner, but I don't think that worked under Windows either.
Audio in and out works fine. The keyboard works with no hacks. The touchpad supports 3 finger usage.
You can get ProBooks with either an Intel or AMD components; mine has Intel.
Additionally, this laptop is pretty easy to take apart. Pop out the battery, slide the bottom panel off, and you have access to the ram and hard drive. With tools you can access / remove the optical drive and keyboard. I was even able to replace the display. It came with a 1366x768 and I upgraded it to a 1920x1080. HP does have a fairly extensive disassembly manual for it, if that's important to you.
I would definitely look at this line again when I need to get a new laptop.
I've had two laptops that I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 on and both have worked great. One was a Dell Vostro V131. Literally everything worked and it had such an amazing keyboard layout. It was so hard for me to give it up. I upgraded earlier this month to an ASUS Zenbook UX302LA. The only things that didn't work out of the box was WiFi and the brightness keyboard buttons, these were quickly fixed with using a back port module. I put an extra 8GB of RAM and a 256gb SSD and the things flys. It also has a Haswell CPU so it gets about 9 hours of battery life.
A couple weeks ago I upgraded to a Fujitsu Lifebook u904, for the 14" QHD (3200x1800) display. I was surprised at how very well it works with Linux, given how little information I could find about compatibility.
Gnome hasn't got their act together yet around high-resolution displays so font configuration is a bit wonky but that's not a hardware incompatibility deal-breaker. Even the touch-screen works.
Dell Latitude - unbelievably good. Built like a tank - I believe these are built to Mil-Spec. I have been running Linux on my laptop for the last 6 years (commuting through South East Asia and India), so I believe it has stood the test of time and kernel upgrades in hot & dusty New Delhi.
I run Ubuntu 12.04 on a 6 year old E6410 and everything works - including suspend/resume, smart card reader, bluetooth, etc. I also have a second hard drive and am able to boot off either using UEFI. I'm also able to connect my HDTV using a displayport-HDMI adapter and watch movies. Wifi works out of the box, but even if it didnt, you could swap out the mini-pcie card for a few bucks.
And unbelievably upgradable - couple of days back I replaced my keyboard, while the laptop is still running, in under 2 minutes. A couple of days before that I replaced my laptop fan - bought easily off ebay because of the latitude platform's popularity.
Dell's after sales support is legendary - in India, it is called CompleteCover and covers next business day onsite replacement and accidental damage warranty.
I'm typing now on a u6430 running ubuntu 13.04, and it runs great.
Three challenges:
1) On a busy wifi, I have some challenges with connection drops, but I haven't determined if that's a driver issue, or a chip issue. The connection drops are mostly after several minutes of idle network connections. (Now that I think about it, its probably driver, since rmmod/modprobe the wireless modules fixes things)
2) The thumbprint reader doesn't work out of the box, but honestly, I'd rather type a password.
3) When I try to use a usb3 'docking station', it works. However I find that I need to rmmod the usb3 module, and then modprobe it again to get it back to life after ~10 undock/redock operations. After about ~20-30 undock/redocks I find I need to reboot.
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (comes with Ubuntu pre-installed). The best part, though, is that Dell wrote a bunch of drivers for the hardware that got integrated into the main Linux kernel--I've installed over 10 distros on it (not all at once!) and on every one of them brightness, multitouch gestures, etc, worked out of the box.
I've got the XPS 13 standard edition (max-specced refurb was half-price of the dev edition!) and it's been nearly smooth sailing.
One difference between the dev and std editions is the wifi chipset - 6235 in std, 6230 in dev (and some reports of the AR9462 in others). The wifi was practically unusable for me until I manually disabled power-saving on the wifi interface.
Also had a couple of instances where the machine has dropped into a coma (even on full battery). Usually after rebooting or suspending. Quite scary when it happens, since the long-hold power button trick doesn't always revive it. It usually comes back to life later but I wish I knew what was causing this.
Also have to run the battery all the way down to 0% (the point at which the HW forces a shutdown) and charge back up to 100% every couple of months else the calibration goes wonky.
From what I understand the XPS 13 standard is exactly the same as the standard model without Ubuntu preinstalled yes (except that it has a windows key as opposed to a linux labeled key)? The developer edition is not available in all countries.
So you don't have to obtain the Dell drivers separately? They are included in ubuntu 12 onward?
Asus N550JV (non touch)
All but the Subwoofer works with Ubuntu 13.10 with minimal configurations. Samsung EVO SSD a must have. Only issue seems to be with a 7 port USB 3.0 HUB plugged into one of the USB laptop ports. This screams and replaced my homegrown AMD/ATI desktop. Heavy on Photography, games with Steam and video editing. External SATA 3.0 dock with OEM drives swapped out. ~150+ MB/sec. Best laptop I could find. Clevo is fast, but..... I returned the System 76 / clevo due to mSATA overheating. 3 Months, zero complaints with Linux running on this. It comes with Windows 8 and a slow drive. Never booted it. Went straight to SSD and Secure boot Ubuntu on a new install.
I've had Feisty on my Toshiba Satellite P955 for over 3 years now. I think I bought it for $800 but you can probably get one for $300ish now. Ripped out the HDD and put in an SSD. Ripped out the DVD and put in an SSD with custom mount I bought from somewhere.
Had issues with wifi initially but found workaround after a while. I have to say, this box runs extremely well, I never ever have problems but then again I don't use a webcam or many other external devices. Mainly internet browsing, Virtualbox, shell, etc.
HP Elitebook 820 works pretty well. Asus Zenbook UX21 works acceptably. But tellingly, after the news about the X60 last week or so, I decided to ebay an X61 and stuff as much RAM and SSD in it as possible. The X31 remains the greatest Linux laptop, the greatest laptop period, I've ever owned, modulo some graphics driver problems. I would like to see something with the build quality of these Thinkpads, coming with Linux pre-installed.
T420's / X220's are the last generation to have 7-row keyboards and also available with IPS screens. The newer generations have 6-row chiclet keyboards with neutered TrackPad buttons. Despite using a rMBP daily for work, the old ThinkPad keyboard is home for me.
In their quest to become MBP replicas, ThinkPads lost their distinguishing features. Now that I've resigned myself to carrying a mechanical keyboard at all times (HHKB), I no longer choose a laptop based on one. I am now exploring alternative laptops after being a loyal ThinkPad customer for 7 years.
My 2013 VAIO Pro 13" works astonishingly well with Debian. I don't think I've ever had a laptop work so well right out of the box with Linux. The PCIe SSD it comes with is much faster than past SSDs I've had, too.
Note: I got this laptop in late November. If you look online, you'll find a lot of problems people had with distros featuring older kernels. Rest assured, 3.12 enables all features right out of the box.
Is that the one which comes with a touch screen ? Have you tried using the touch screen ? And I have heard that the whole thing is very flimsy due to the carbon fibre build, what's your take on this ?
The Chromebook Pixel is a fantastic piece of hardware and it comes running a Linux variant (ChromeOS) out-of-the-box, so all the drivers should be well-supported.
Does anyone have a System76 Galago UltraPro? I'm planning on upgrading my T410 (which was/is great) but I now need something with more than 8GB of RAM.
Its terrible. If you want good Linux compatibility, get another Thinkpad.
System 76 sells rebranded Clevos. The best Clevo laptops are mediocre, the worst are unusable. The Ultrapro falls into the latter category. Quite a few models of Clevo laptops have keyboards that randomly drop keystrokes. The Galago keyboard is by all accounts particularly horrible. More than one reviewer listed this as the sole reason for returning the machine. The company "fixed" the issue by sending out new keyboards with metal strips attached to the back of them. This did absolutely nothing to address the fact that the keyboards don't work.
Because they don't actually make their own systems, there is little that System 76 can do to change the fact that some of their systems are defective. System 76 by all accounts has pretty decent support, but when all they can do is continue to send you more defective parts and / or defective replacement systems, it doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot.
After repeatedly trying to fix these issues, one of their favorite sayings is "most of our customers like our keyboards."
Another great quote from a System 76 rep is that the Galago Ultrapro's touchpad is hands-down better than a Macbook's. Which I found particularly amusing because some of the reviews of this machine specifically mention that the touchpad doesn't work correctly.
The other downside of Clevo laptops is that the company absolutely sucks at making motherboards. They are inefficient, and it ends up contributing to the Galago's poor battery life. This is a machine that should probably get at least 6-8 hours, yet it only gets 3.5-4.
I really love the idea of a vendor dedicated to selling Linux machines, but until System 76 pulls off a miracle and convinces Clevo to stop making defective keyboards, people should stop giving them their money.
If it weren't for the defective keyboard and the terrible battery life, my comment would be completely different and it would probably be getting typed on a Galago Ultrapro. Instead, I have a T430 that I snagged off of Lenovo's outlet with 8GB Ram, an i5, and a 256GB SSD for less than $500. Its the best computer I've ever owned.
Do all System76's still have that massive PSU? I had a coworker who had one, and the machine was nice, but the unbelievable size & weight of the laptop's power supply was truly laughable.
I got a Lenovo Y510p. Amazing machine. Running Ubuntu 13.04. The most common problem with any linux machine is FLASH VIDEO! They don't support DRM content (HBOGO, Amazon, xfinitytv, etc...). It's been a pain trying to find a work around. Also, video drivers can be a pain.
Thinkpad T530 works very well.
I've got it running Arch Linux with no features unusable. Hardware brightness and volume controls, webcam, integrated graphics and networking all without issue.
the asus 1015 that comes with ubuntu installed works just fine, although the trackpad is pretty bad (i use an external mouse). opensuse 13.1 runs with no issues that i've noticed.
10 inch screen, looks like a netbook, 2GB memory, celeron - sounds useless for development work, but after replacing the disk with a cheap 60GB kingston ssd i can run virtualbox and have a workable vm, so it's surprisingly capable.
my x220 died and i am happy using this until the x240 with a better screen is released next quarter (i bought it as a clunker for travel).
[+] [-] agwa|12 years ago|reply
Also. http://www.thinkwiki.org/ is a very good resource for running Linux on Thinkpads (though everything worked so perfectly with my T420 and Wheezy I actually never needed it!).
[+] [-] srik|12 years ago|reply
http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/make/Lenovo/
[+] [-] japhyr|12 years ago|reply
I replaced the HDD with an SSD, added RAM, and replaced the DVD drive with an extra bay battery. If you gave me a pile of cash to spend on hardware, the only thing I'd do is trade out for a bigger SSD.
[+] [-] akulbe|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sounds|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobdvb|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cyphax|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dredmorbius|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atmosx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkuntz2|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SwellJoe|12 years ago|reply
It works OK with Linux (sound is problematic, and it's not good under Windows, either, despite...or maybe because of, wearing a "beats by Dre" logo). But, the quality is simply awful. It has a high end laptop price tag, and all the right features, but it's falling apart after barely a year of light use and has had problems from almost day one.
[+] [-] aniketpant|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyyd|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adrusi|12 years ago|reply
I wouldn't recommend buying a Macbook just to run Linux on it, but if you have one (which actually works properly) and want to run Linux, realize that you can have a great experience without buying a new machine.
A while ago I had a lot of problems installing Linux on my machine, but Fedora 20 installed without problems for me.
[+] [-] nimrody|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hamgra|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rubiquity|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Deejahll|12 years ago|reply
deliberation: https://plus.google.com/106336989542410513415/posts/avV5eL1P...
follow-up: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106336989542410513415/posts/PR4e...
debian wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/X230/whe...
A couple weeks ago I upgraded to a Fujitsu Lifebook u904, for the 14" QHD (3200x1800) display. I was surprised at how very well it works with Linux, given how little information I could find about compatibility.
debian wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Fujitsu/LifebookU...
Gnome hasn't got their act together yet around high-resolution displays so font configuration is a bit wonky but that's not a hardware incompatibility deal-breaker. Even the touch-screen works.
[+] [-] vivekajayshah|12 years ago|reply
- Thinkpad X1 Carbon (works perfectly - ubuntu 12.10) - Thinkpad T540p (works perfectly - ubuntu 13.10) - HP Envy 15 (terrible - ubuntu 12.04)
All worked out of the box - except for the HP.
My two cents - get the X1 Carbon on lenovo outlet ($1K for 8GB ram, i7, etc.)
Everything worked on it - webcam - suspend, resume - wireless - sound - UEFI settings (for dual boot)
[+] [-] sandGorgon|12 years ago|reply
I run Ubuntu 12.04 on a 6 year old E6410 and everything works - including suspend/resume, smart card reader, bluetooth, etc. I also have a second hard drive and am able to boot off either using UEFI. I'm also able to connect my HDTV using a displayport-HDMI adapter and watch movies. Wifi works out of the box, but even if it didnt, you could swap out the mini-pcie card for a few bucks.
And unbelievably upgradable - couple of days back I replaced my keyboard, while the laptop is still running, in under 2 minutes. A couple of days before that I replaced my laptop fan - bought easily off ebay because of the latitude platform's popularity.
Dell's after sales support is legendary - in India, it is called CompleteCover and covers next business day onsite replacement and accidental damage warranty.
[+] [-] zapman449|12 years ago|reply
I'm typing now on a u6430 running ubuntu 13.04, and it runs great.
Three challenges:
1) On a busy wifi, I have some challenges with connection drops, but I haven't determined if that's a driver issue, or a chip issue. The connection drops are mostly after several minutes of idle network connections. (Now that I think about it, its probably driver, since rmmod/modprobe the wireless modules fixes things)
2) The thumbprint reader doesn't work out of the box, but honestly, I'd rather type a password.
3) When I try to use a usb3 'docking station', it works. However I find that I need to rmmod the usb3 module, and then modprobe it again to get it back to life after ~10 undock/redock operations. After about ~20-30 undock/redocks I find I need to reboot.
[+] [-] beggerss|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] de_dave|12 years ago|reply
One difference between the dev and std editions is the wifi chipset - 6235 in std, 6230 in dev (and some reports of the AR9462 in others). The wifi was practically unusable for me until I manually disabled power-saving on the wifi interface.
Also had a couple of instances where the machine has dropped into a coma (even on full battery). Usually after rebooting or suspending. Quite scary when it happens, since the long-hold power button trick doesn't always revive it. It usually comes back to life later but I wish I knew what was causing this.
Also have to run the battery all the way down to 0% (the point at which the HW forces a shutdown) and charge back up to 100% every couple of months else the calibration goes wonky.
Lovely machine though.
[+] [-] WhiteFoxx|12 years ago|reply
So you don't have to obtain the Dell drivers separately? They are included in ubuntu 12 onward?
[+] [-] simonmales|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roblopes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ivanbrussik|12 years ago|reply
Had issues with wifi initially but found workaround after a while. I have to say, this box runs extremely well, I never ever have problems but then again I don't use a webcam or many other external devices. Mainly internet browsing, Virtualbox, shell, etc.
[+] [-] tokenrove|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wting|12 years ago|reply
In their quest to become MBP replicas, ThinkPads lost their distinguishing features. Now that I've resigned myself to carrying a mechanical keyboard at all times (HHKB), I no longer choose a laptop based on one. I am now exploring alternative laptops after being a loyal ThinkPad customer for 7 years.
[+] [-] ghc|12 years ago|reply
Note: I got this laptop in late November. If you look online, you'll find a lot of problems people had with distros featuring older kernels. Rest assured, 3.12 enables all features right out of the box.
[+] [-] diadara|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bsimpson|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aeroevan|12 years ago|reply
https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1
[+] [-] phaus|12 years ago|reply
System 76 sells rebranded Clevos. The best Clevo laptops are mediocre, the worst are unusable. The Ultrapro falls into the latter category. Quite a few models of Clevo laptops have keyboards that randomly drop keystrokes. The Galago keyboard is by all accounts particularly horrible. More than one reviewer listed this as the sole reason for returning the machine. The company "fixed" the issue by sending out new keyboards with metal strips attached to the back of them. This did absolutely nothing to address the fact that the keyboards don't work.
Because they don't actually make their own systems, there is little that System 76 can do to change the fact that some of their systems are defective. System 76 by all accounts has pretty decent support, but when all they can do is continue to send you more defective parts and / or defective replacement systems, it doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot.
After repeatedly trying to fix these issues, one of their favorite sayings is "most of our customers like our keyboards."
Another great quote from a System 76 rep is that the Galago Ultrapro's touchpad is hands-down better than a Macbook's. Which I found particularly amusing because some of the reviews of this machine specifically mention that the touchpad doesn't work correctly.
The other downside of Clevo laptops is that the company absolutely sucks at making motherboards. They are inefficient, and it ends up contributing to the Galago's poor battery life. This is a machine that should probably get at least 6-8 hours, yet it only gets 3.5-4.
I really love the idea of a vendor dedicated to selling Linux machines, but until System 76 pulls off a miracle and convinces Clevo to stop making defective keyboards, people should stop giving them their money.
If it weren't for the defective keyboard and the terrible battery life, my comment would be completely different and it would probably be getting typed on a Galago Ultrapro. Instead, I have a T430 that I snagged off of Lenovo's outlet with 8GB Ram, an i5, and a 256GB SSD for less than $500. Its the best computer I've ever owned.
[+] [-] ecaron|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] misframer|12 years ago|reply
Mine has Intel WiFi, which I think is recommended.
[+] [-] shaunw321|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hardikj|12 years ago|reply
Though I am confused between Y510p and MBP I love the freedom linux give and don't want to sacrifice it :(
How's the Wifi running on Y510p? Have you tried installing Arch linux?
[+] [-] grannyg00se|12 years ago|reply
My only regret is that I paid for Windows.
[+] [-] andrewcooke|12 years ago|reply
10 inch screen, looks like a netbook, 2GB memory, celeron - sounds useless for development work, but after replacing the disk with a cheap 60GB kingston ssd i can run virtualbox and have a workable vm, so it's surprisingly capable.
my x220 died and i am happy using this until the x240 with a better screen is released next quarter (i bought it as a clunker for travel).