Comment by reacharavindh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by reacharavindh | Hacker News Reader

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I’m on the same boat. Using an intel Mac provided by work. Had an M1 MacBook Pro until a few months ago, and it was great at several things(fast, responsive, quiet, and great battery life) at the cost of crippled Docker use(I needed local docker at that time).

I feel like many many engineers like me would easily get a reliable laptop with MacBook Pro like specs. The problem is that simply does not exist.

Excellent hidpi display.

Ryzen 5000 series CPU with its low power draw.

Good build quality.

Reliable support system.

Non weird components such that a recent release of popular Linux distribution would “just work” without needing manual tweaks.

In my experience, you get 3/5 in the above list at best. Framework laptop hits several of those points but misses out on Ryzen. Another contender on my list is ASUS 14 OLED with Ryzen - I’m worried about their support system though.

If you can compromise on the HiDPI Screen, checkout the HP EliteBook 8X5 Series, they are amazing machines. You can plug up to 64gb of RAM into them if you need it, they run pretty smooth and my colleagues can run Linux on them without any issues.

Wow! Yes, this is exactly what I was looking for. Looks very appealing. I might get one! They're expensive, though. But it might honestly be worth it to me.

I want just to add that I am using a 8x0 g5 elitebook currently (because at the time there was not the 8x5 series which uses amd ryzens) and it's by far the best linux laptop I ever used in my whole life. Also very sturdy and looks great.

I'm even more tempted. My XPS 13 Developer Edition was also a very nice experience on Linux.

How is the trackpad?

Well you know, it's like the standard of the high end for windows laptop, still behind what apple put in their macbooks, but comparable with what you are gonna find on xps and thinkpad x/t.

Looks nice indeed. I have been spoiled by the excellent Retina display on Macs. For something literally in front of my eyes for a big part of the day, it must be good. I cannot see myself compromising to a lower res display :-( May be for others that are not as nitpicky as me….

Maybe way to got is simple linux laptop for work and an iPad for everything else. Would probably still end up being cheaper than a MBP.

Asus Zenbooks have always been solid on Linux for me, using them since they came out. Typing this on a UM425.

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