I started distro hopping about two years ago, Mint first, then Tumbleweed, Fedora, Manjaro and finally EndeavourOS, been using it on a secondary (very old) laptop for more than a year.
I’m very happy, I found it very stable especially compared to Manjaro which previously gave me a few headaches.
Next step is making the final switch and getting rid of windows so I am planning to buy a new laptop and make it my primary companion, would like to buy a 15’’ or 16’’ model from the PCSpecialist website, any suggestion would be appreciated.
2 psychology : a new word that is coined especially by a person affected with schizophrenia and is meaningless except to the coiner, and is typically a combination of two existing words or a shortening or distortion of an existing word”
Good to hear you’re happy with Linux, and EOS especially!
For a recommendation, it much depends on what you’re looking for, like
A gaming laptop (can’t much help here, being no gamer)? You’re probably looking for bleeding-edge hardware. Be warned there can be occasional problems with new WiFi chipsets, NVIDIA and AMD GPUs).
Non-gamer, everyday work, office work, writer, programmer (non-graphics), or just on a budget? I heartily recommend getting a Lenovo Thinkpad, maybe T series. I have (and had) a lot of laptops and notebooks, and my most beloved one is my Thinkpad T14 Gen 1!
Great hardware, great compatibility, great Linux support, and just gorgeous keyboards.
Older models (up to T480/T14) are repairable and parts (RAM, NVME, battery) can be changed easily.
These can also often be had rather cheap (used business laptops).
Look for a good IPS display, high NITS if working outside. Personal recommendation: Buy nothing else than a matte screen. I have one laptop with a glare screen, and it’s horrible. Even in a normal daylit room, you see everything and your face, but not what’s on the screen…
Nightworker? Look for a model with backlit keyboard (or buy one separately, they can be swapped easily).
Intel-only GPU can save lots of trouble, you might not need AMD or NVIDIA.
Richy-rich? Get a Framework or System76. Components swappable, repairable, great for Linux.
So far for recommendations. My honest opinion, others might have other recommendations. Hope you can make something of it!
Just thinking about the T14 Gen1 (my work machine). If you have the Intel model it tends to run hot. I think Lenovo goofed with the cooling of that machine. So I think I would get a gen 2 or higher.
Depends. My T14 G1 stays rather cool the whole day. It usually runs in power-saver or balanced powermode, I very seldom need performance mode. Fan is inaudible most of the time. Temperature (inxi) observed on this one: 32–70 °C, ~80 °C max. in performance mode. Long compilations are what makes it hot, it behaves well on everything else. But of course it was cleaned and repasted when I got it used, and immediately got a BIOS update.
The T14 is currently my daily driver, since my desktop broke down a while ago, and I’ll soon be homeless, so I didn’t bother to repair it before I’ll find a new place to live.
Curently on balanced power mode:
$ inxi -s
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
I do use Intel VAAPI hardware acceleration a lot (even with ffmpeg), so the CPU doesn’t have to software-render that often:
Lenovo Thinkpad, even older than the Inspiron, I left it in my dad’s house so at the moment I don’t remember year and model, it was completely useless with windows and then reborn after installing EOS.
The Dell Latitude E-series were also quite nice. I bought my Latitude E6410 and E6510 around that time, 2012. Happily running Mint ever since. But given the choice, I’d prefer an old Thinkpad anytime.
Hey! Good to have you with us. Don’t do what I did and get a Macbook M4. It’s a beautiful piece of kit, incredible performance, endless battery life.. and.. sitting on a shelf gathering dust.. (It ain’t Linux, it’ ain’t KDE Plasma..)
Lenovo remains a great go-to choice for Linux builds, or if you can find an old Thinkpad, even better!
Thanks for sharing. Apparently there were some Intel drivers which were supposed to be brought over to Linux for Comet Lake processors to help with Thermal control.
I would buy a desktop PC, because consumer/business laptops for 500 EUR are much slower and technologically older than desktop PCs for the same 500 EUR. I had have three laptops, but I’ve used them all only as like a desktop PC, never mobile. For mobile and presentation, simply use a tablet.
-Forum !
Hope you can make something of it!
