What are good Linux laptops for 2019? | Hacker News Reader

What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

45 pointsgtt66 comments

I'm developer and after a year on a MacBook pro I'm still missing things like i3wm. Also, touchbar of MBP is just a nuisance. On the other hand I like screen, weight and battery life of MBP, best of all laptops I've ever had, but I still want to go back home to linux.

I'm currently considering 1) Dell XPS 15 (but the previous one I've had had only 2-3 hours of battery life) 2) Huawei Matebook X Pro, but I prefer 15" screen to 14"

View on HN

ThinkPad T480 (with a 1080ti in an external GPU enclosure for gaming at home / ML)

32 GB, 10+ hour battery life, 1Tb of flash storage with OPAL transparent self-encryption, WQHD main display, two USB C ports + two regular USB ports + an ethernet jack, automatic firmware updates through the package manager, and most importantly, no driver issues with the laptop and Linux whatsoever!

I replaced my workstation and gaming computer with this setup and am finally down to one-device nirvana.

Last month I knocked a full cup of coffee on the keyboard, and was relieved to discover the keyboard is completely separate and isolate from the rest of the device and is designed to be easily user replaceable -- I was able to replace the entire keyboard ($80 on Amazon) without even opening the case! The assembly is held in place by two screws on the bottom.

My previous laptop was a 2018 MBP, which I sold after two months due to my dislike (and distrust) of the keyboard. Couldn't be happier.

> I replaced my workstation and gaming computer with this setup and am finally down to one-device nirvana.

That's a tantalizing option, what kind of gaming do you do on it?

I'm at a point where I'm ready to have one computer, but while I don't do very much gaming any more I do like to pick up new games.

The external 1080Ti will run pretty much everything flawlessly.

I play Overwatch, Rocket League, GTA V, etc, and run everything with max settings and get consistent 60FPS with vsync and no tearing.

Of course, you can always upgrade the graphics card in your external GPU enclosure to keep up with future titles

Just got mine on the Presidents' Day sale. Not Linux rn but as a Hackintosh it's working pretty well apart from SD card reader, not reading fan sensors in iStat Menus / HWMonitor / Mac Fan Control and slow WiFi after sleep. iMessage, FaceTime, most Synaptics gestures working fine.

- 20L5

- WQHD

- larger extended battery

- Quad-core i7-5550U

- lighted keyboard

- 16 GiB (will upgrade later to 32 or 64 if unofficially-supported)

- Swapped WiFi to DW1830 and added a third antenna

- Samsung 970 Pro 1 TB + Lenovo SSD tray (took off the retail SSD label on one side for the heat-spreader thermal adhesive)

Looking on Amazon/eBay/AliExpress for vinyl art (Banksy perhaps) to cover up the ThinkPad logo or maybe having it vinyl wrapped with the stuff used on cars (heat-shrunk).

How much of an effort was it to get MacOS in there? Did you follow a tutorial?

Almost agree with everything, but not everything so smooth.

Please check my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19451272

How are you are dealing with all those HiRes problems on linux? Or it's ok now?

I haven't had any HiDPI issues -- the WQHD (2560x1440) display is quite usable at both 100% and 200% scaling.

I've tried laptops with 4K displays and this is a far better experience, basically on par with my rMBP.

It's also matte, my preference as I do a lot of work in coffee houses where I have limited control over lighting.

My external monitors are 4K, and I almost always run them at 200% scaling.

The only fix I had to make was to add a HiDPI flag for Spotify, but that might not even be necessary anymore

No complaints with this setup whatsoever!

You probably shouldn't use OPAL if you want device encryption.

There was an article published last year that showed that almost all OPAL drives had some security issue that let users bypass(yes I do mean bypass) the encryption. Several instances the PBKD was stored on disk, and a conditional if statement decided to use it

source: https://www.welivesecurity.com/2018/11/15/security-researche...

How is the touchpad in comparison to Mac?

Absolutely awful. I have to work on it, since it's part of standard hardware at Red Hat, and every time my dock stops working I immediately have to connect a mouse because the touchpad is unusable.

Compared to Mac, it doesn't support any gestures, doesn't mitigate the "oops" finger when you're moving your mouse, and altogether just doesn't feel comfortable. I'll try to edit my comment to be more descriptive once I get home because I don't remember in what ways is Mac better since its trackpad is like second nature to me now.

About the dock not working. I'm running RHEL7.6 and the issue is fixed in kernel 4.5+, otherwise Lenovo provides damn great job with their HW. It really has to do with that Red Hat adopted all of their HW for our development purposes.

I just wish they didn't make it so thin because the fan starts spinning every time I have to open some electron app...

Pro tip, whatever laptop you do get, look into TLP[1]. It'll make a significant difference with battery life.

[1]: https://www.tecmint.com/tlp-increase-and-optimize-linux-batt...

Or powertop, which works well too.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerTOP

I typically use my google pixelbook recently since it lets you run a containerized linux in a secure OS but I get it if that's not your thing.

- System76 laptops are generally well reviewed. The Oryx Pro looks nice

- I had a Dell XPS15 and hated everything about it for some reason, but

- I have a Dell XPS13 and I absolutely LOVE it, so that that for what its worth

I bought an 4K display Oryx Pro last fall and love it. The 1070 GPU let's me do ML locally.

But, it is large and heavy. I find myself grabbing my MacBook when I am on the move. I would like to replace the MacBook with a very light weight Linux laptop, sometime.

I have an Oryx Pro as well. When I don’t need the power, I find myself grabbing my iPad with “Pencil”. It’s probably a function of what I do. When I’m not coding or playing a game, I’m reading papers and writing math.

When I’m on the go, I’m not looking to do the kinds of things I do at work.

Likewise with me. The iPad is a great device for non-programming activities.

FWIW, Dell's XPSes are supposed to get an OLED screen shortly: https://www.engadget.com/2019/01/08/dell-4k-oled-xps-alienwa.... May not be valuable to everyone, but it's likely valuable to some people.

MBP refugee here.

Lenovo T480: real-life 11 hour battery w/ the second extended battery, lighted/water-resistant/good-feel keyboard, WQHD display, up to 32 (maybe 64 unofficially) GiB of RAM, Quad-core i7, MIL-SPEC rated, still user-servicable. It's not the latest in everything but it's awesome all-around. And, if you somehow find the right channel to order from, you maybe able to order it in a magnesium (!) top-case. There maybe a way to shoehorn in 3 SSDs of different types by using a dual SSD SATA tray that RAIDs them together and presents them as SATA and the WWAN bay with a properly-keyed right-angle NGFF extender.

Pretty happy on a Thinkpad X230 over here. Cheap as dirt and upgradable/repairable. Battery life is a few hours with a fresh battery. If I got another I'd probably pick up an X1 Carbon.

After my last ASUS laptop I will never buy a non-business laptop again.

If you stick with the Mac, it's not as good as a real tiling WM but I find Amethyst helps.

I have been using Linux on many higher end HP laptops without issue. At the moment I have HP Spectre x360 15in 2016,8th gen i7 16gb RAM, 512GB SSD and 2gb mx950 Nvidia. After installing Linux Mint 19 everything worked out of the box and i get about 6-hour of battery. I have a few older HP envy series and each of them work with out issue. The only issue i have had in the past 5years is laptops with more then 2 speakers. Linux just assumes 2 speakers and you get shit sound. This is fixable with jack-reset.

Also using hp here, i used 2 models (burnt the first one by connecting it to a cheap hdmi adapter while on battery). They're not the best but you get a great laptop for 600€. Nvidia graphic card handling needs tweaking on Ubuntu or it stays constantly at max power. I never tried to get the fingerprint reader to work. The rest works fine. I really like having 3 external screen outputs (vga + hdmi + usb c) to make a triple screen setup without needing an adapter

Writing from a Carbon X1 6th gen right now. Ubuntu 18.04 stock, no tweaking required, all worked no problem. The best laptop I ever had.

Previously owned a 4th gen. 16.04, minor tweaking, also excellent laptop. Pricey, but the best you can get.

seconding the x1c6, fantastic linux machine. Lenovo's sub-model differences are a little bit baffling, but this means there are sometimes deals to be had on ebay.

I’ve got one of these as well, and it’s great at running Linux, but it’s SOOO much slower than my 6-core MBP.

Compiling any project that takes longer than 30 seconds kicks the fans into high gear, throttles the cpu, and leaves it nearly unusable until it’s finished.

maybe this anti-throttling script[1] should help. I'm able to run at max CPU clock frequency at 85-90+ deg temps without throttling when doing CPU intense stuff (t480s, not carbon, but should work on carbon).

[1]: https://github.com/erpalma/throttled

I've had this installed and running since day 1.

that's impossible. If it were that that much faster, it'd have to weigh twice as much and the CPU would probably have double the TDP! :)

Do you use it as a laptop? What’s the battery life like with no tweaking?

Yes, very frequently. I haven't measured it, but it lasts quite long.

I have the high density version of this laptop and it's a pain switching between external monitor and the laptop screen due to lack of ubuntu support for per monitor fractional scaling.

Otherwise it's been pretty good. I wouldn't say no tweaking at all, but mostly none. Love the keyboard.

I would also recommend considering Thinkpads which often run Linux fairly well (not always, but usually.) The X1 Carbon series is generally a great option (though be mindful of which generation you're getting since it varies strongly by generation.)

I'm not sure how the current generation works, but I have very good experience with ASUS Zenbook serie (especially 16GB UX32LN - still works flawlessly). Also I can recommend 2018s XPS - works just fine with xubuntu (haven't tried other distros).

Thinkpad t480 (t480s if you need at any cost something as slim as possible) or t580. Bonus part: nothing is soldered so you can replace any minor part without problems (yes I hate any notebook which has not easily replaceable ram or ssd or, worse, battery)

T480 (Intel Core i7-8650U, 32GB RAM) owner here.

To be honest it is not doing its best, I mean not everything works at its best out of the box.

What is broken:

1) There is some bug in intel firmware out of the box. You will never get your peak CPU freq @ turbo boost mode. Check dmesg and see some fake errors like:

```[35678.237593] CPU0: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 123) [35678.237593] CPU4: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 123) [35678.237595] CPU4: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237597] CPU0: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237637] CPU5: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237638] CPU1: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237639] CPU6: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237640] CPU3: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237640] CPU2: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179) [35678.237641] CPU7: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 179)```

It's well known problem, just google "Lenovo throttling fix".

I am sitting on 4.20.16 and still I've to apply some workarounds, such as undervolting CPU and so on.

2) Huge power consumption.

I spent weekend to lower it up to 4-6 wh in idle from 14 wh in idle (sic!)

You have to turn everything unneeded off in BIOS (smartcard reader, card reader, ...?). Changing Thunderbolt Assist Mode to Enabled is a must. But be aware of some nasty bug, when after turning assist mode on you will get a brick instead of working device. To avoid it you have to upgrade BIOS, thanks I get BIOS updates in Gnome Software Center (Fedora). Of course take care and install tlp and so on.

3) There is bug in ACPI, when you enter into S3 mode (by design only CPU0 should be online) all of cores will wake up immediately after entering sleep mode. This leads to increased power consumption in sleep mode (approx 10-15% during all night).

There are some other little quirks that I don't remember at the moment. However overall it's a great laptop.

I am running Fedora 29 and pretty happy.

I am using Asus Zenbook UX430. Everything except fingerprint works out of box. Getting 6+ hours of battery life with kubuntu 18.10 installed. Also it is decently priced.

Asus Vivobook F510UA here, same report: 6+ hours on Ubuntu MATE 18.10. Runs perfect out of the box, sans fingerprint support. Great machine if you add the M.2 SSD and more RAM.

From what I've read, fingerprint support for the hardware is still experimental but should be working soon.

2013 - 2015, pre facelift MacBook Pro 13. Great Linux laptop, and a nice resolution without the scaling issues you will probably run into with a 4k screen. I run arch/i3wm on mine and it runs great. I had a new MBP like yours, but 'downgraded' to a 2015 model because it runs native Linux much better, and the keyboard is much less hassle too.

I currently have a Dell XPS 15 (the model before all USB C ports) with 4k screen, nvidia, Intel quadcore. Replaced windows 10 with ubuntu 18.04, so far the best linux laptop experience I've ever had. Brightness keys work. Closing the lid suspends correctly. I probably need to look for a bath script to turn on/off the nvidia card.

Is it problematic to use external monitors under linux with the nvidia dgpu? In a old model I had it was a pita

Maybe, I'm going to try this: https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/switch-intel-nvidia-...

I'm using a Gigabyte Aero 15X because I wanted the 8750H asap and a proper graphics card.

5 seconds in powertop and I'm getting 10 actual hours of proper use including heavy IDE and loads of browser tabs.

I had a lot of trouble in windows with drivers and the likr, so it's not a perfect machine, but in Linux it's been pretty perfect (Ubuntu and Fedora)

I run a 15" HP zBook. FWIW I configured it without discrete graphics as I don't game and it's supposed to be better for battery life.

If you want something more in the "thin and light" category everyone I know with a recent XPS 13 loves it.

Also using either TLP or PowerTOP is important; many distros don't have that out-of-the-box.

I've been using a Galago Pro for over a year now, and I can't recommend it. I thought I wouldn't mind the small battery but it's burned me a few times now. I'm hesitant to even leave it overnight in suspend mode.

If I could do it over I'd get an XPS 13, non touch screen.

As mentioned the X series is great.

The X1 Extreme

Pros:

- Up to theoretical 64 GB RAM (2 DDR4 slots) - 15.6in screen. - Secondary M.2 PCIe slot - Optional 4K display.

Con - Nvidia GPU - 5-6 Hour Battery life

There is also the X1 which is 14 in laptop, which max memory at 16GB of ram and but has great battery life.

Also second the X1 extreme. I bought for my machine learning projects and work. It comes with a dinky GPU (1050 TI w/ 4GB) which is useful for running experimenting with small deep learning models locally.

I was able to buy mine with 64 gb and core i7 (i7-8750H 6 Core Processor) during Lenovo's cyber monday sale for around ~$1,800. It looks like Lenovo is moving aggressively and is selling their high end laptops at a discount to capture the Apple audience. A similarly configured Macbook pro would run closer to $3,500.

I run pop os (ubuntu flavor) and it runs great. A couple of caveats. There is no linux driver for the finger print reader. Also it is super loud, anytime you do something intensive the fans start running. Additionally, you need to tune the laptop to get better battery performance. Usually, I disable the NVIDIA driver for general use which improves the life by 50 to 60%. And finally there have been some documented bios issues which have caused bricking. This is avoidable if you stay away from the touching the bios. Thankfully pop os makes switching between the drivers easy.

Overall, its a great laptop. Love the keyboard and the power under the hood.

Your problem with the Dell was likely its Nvidia GPU. Even if you aren't using it, the Linux drivers seem to leave it "on". You have to actually unload or never load the drivers.

My XPS 15 gets six hours, easy on Fedora 29.

Can you elaborate more on that issue (and how to turn it off)?

I've had a Dell Precision 5510 and now I'm using a Precision 5520. Ive run Ubuntu, but am currently running Fedora 29 on the 5520. Fantastic machine. Best Linux on laptop experience I've ever had.

I switched to a ThinkPad due to the 5520 bottom mounted camera. I never thought I'd hate it so much, but we started doing lots of video calls at work, and it really became an issue for me.

Those cheap sub-$200 Dell Inspirons run Xubuntu no problem. No non-free wlan needed and storage is easily expandable with USB 3.0. No complaints so far the experience has been smooth.

Asus Vivobooks are fine and cheap .e.g S410U and easily upgradable (taking it to 16gb cost maybe $100)

Everything works out the box except the fingerprint reader (maybe in 19.04)

Anybody have the Thinkpad P1? Been thinking about it...

I use Thinkdpad 13 with Ubuntu18.04 and 16G memory, 256G SSD, i7, it's light, battery life is good, 1080p screen, and it's cheap

My next linux laptop is probably going to be the sytem76 Galago Pro, you can get it very highly specced for a very reasonable price.

ThinkPad carbons rated well by owners. Pre carbon X series rated well by diehards

I own one (6th gen). It’s okay relative to other PC laptops. The WQHD display is good. Trackpad is passable. Lenovo’s quality control is shit. The bezel is a peelable sticker....

Lenovo: Trashing the brand, one change at a time..

Dell m55x0 with 4K touch display and preloaded Ubuntu works very well.

iPad with mosh into remote Linux box in cloud. It’s the best!

MBP with Docker.

Docker on macOS literally halves the battery life (since it's running a VM).

If it halves the battery life that’s a really bad sign of an inefficiency somewhere. Docker isn’t even a VM.

I think docker runs in a vm on platforms other than Linux.

Docker isn't even a VM on Linux Kernel :)

On macOS/Windows it will run a small VM with Linux Kernel first.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com