If you want a linux machine, I would strongly suggest going with https://system76.com/ rather than getting a thinkpad or dell or whatever, if one of their options work for you.

The main thing I dislike about them is too many of their laptops come with 10-keys on the keyboard, with no option to not have it.

If you're not sure if you want a linux machine or not, I can't really comment since you know better than me how much this matters.