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Comment by pkinsky | Hacker News Reader

I was considering getting a Lenovo X1 Carbon to run linux on. I'd be installing a clean image, so no Superfish, but I still don't want to give money to Lenovo right now.

What alternative linux laptops are there? (aside from macs)

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The Dell XPS 13 is superb, been running Linux on it since day one. Fantastic, solid little machine.

There's System76, which are basically pre-loaded Clevo laptops (which are sold under many different names). I have the Galago Ultrapro and am quite happy with it. Good battery life, fast, user-serviceable and a calibrated IPS screen. On release the keyboard was a little off, but the new one is pretty good.

Wow, a very impressive lineup. Their performance laptop even has the optional second GPU - never seen that in a laptop before.

If only they had a trackpoint style pointing device, that would be my perfect next laptop!

How's battery life? That was always my concern, it seemed to be quite pathetic in comparison to modern 6-12hr competitors.

It depends on what you're doing of course. Normal usage (playing music/Youtube, browsing firefox, coding, opening up some PDFs) gives me about 6-8 hours I'd say, I get about 3 hours of (modded) minecraft, which is quite the battery drain. this is on Gentoo (Awesome as WM) so the background drain is pretty low. It's good enough that I never really pay attention to it.

upower says the battery is designed to store up to 48Wh, with a maximum design capacity of 53Wh.

Is the battery controller programmable from Linux? E.g. can you set charging thresholds?

Is there any hardware in it that doesn't work in Linux?

I don't know about the battery controller, all of it works with Linux (System76 is a Linux retailer after all).

The Dell XPS is actually not bad if you're looking for an ultrabook type machine, also the HP EliteBook.

Dell sells laptops with Ubuntu, its $100 cheaper. Most awesome is probably XPS 13" 2015, but it does not have official support yet.

Is there a version that's not touchscreen?

Why does lenovo thinkpad have to be the only line of laptops that has a trackpoint by default? How hard can it be to include it for other brands? This is a very important feature for some people and it limits their choice to thinkpads and (AFAIK) some HP laptops.

I've had track points on hp and dell laptops (I always disable them)

Also some Toshiba laptops....

At a guess, it's patented?

The patent is way expired.

I think it has more to do with the fact that a lot of people just don't like the Trackpoint or (more likely) won't give it a shot, so manufacturers aren't going to invest the time and money to put it on their laptops.

Personally I think the Trackpoint is the greatest thing ever, but I worked at IBM for a long time. Pretty much anyone who has had to use Thinkpads for an extended period of time ends up loving the Trackpoint. But regular people just don't want to give it a shot.

I recommend the Asus UX line. Don't get the super-high-end ones if you're going to put Linux on it, but you'll get excellent value for your money with $600.

The Dell Precision M3800 can come with ubuntu preloaded (which actually subtracts ~$100)

It's more comparable to a macbook pro than the air though.

Also this 20% off coupon works: MXPX2T1N9HGH12

Thankyou for the coupon code. I just bought one :)

The Librem should be shipping in April if you can wait: https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/librem-laptop

I have an hp elitebook, works great with ubuntu

We're using almost exclusively HP here: the EliteBooks always had/have crappy trackpad buttons (to the point of being bothersome). I noticed this in their EliteBook line since 10 years, so they just don't care about it. The keyboard is so-so but acceptable, and the screen of the Folio/G1 ultrabook series is downright bad (strong blue color cast with large sample variability). You can get a matte filter and a replaceable battery in an ultrabook line, which is very good to have, but that stops here. Dell and Lenovo ship way better screens and keyboards for the same specs, which I would definitely recommend for a serious programmer.

The 840 G1 I'm trying now has some ACPI and ATA issues currently on any stock kernel (google for more details). HP is definitely not even trying to test his high-end laptop line on Linux.

I was quite ok with the Thinkpad line, but this move from Lenovo would now tend me to Dell.

I am running the dell xps 15, works beautifully. Though the refreshed xps 13 is likely worth a look as well.

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