I can’t see a dedicated laptop thread, so I’m going to pop this here. I’m looking for a dedicated Linux laptop, - historically I’ve had IBM (back when they were IBM) Thinkpads, and Dell’s, - are Lenovo still reasonable for Linux? This one ships with Ubuntu, so I’d assume some degree of compatibility ;
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/configurator/cto/index.html?bundleId=21K7CTO1WWGB1
Grateful for any experiences, positive or negative!
Depends what your after HW wise and support wise.
I’ve just taken a similar dive myself.
I spent since about March migrating to Linux from windows, and I work as a technician installing and supporting hardware for government entity’s in New Zealand.
Lenovo have some of the best support for Linux out of the box if you go with something mainstream Debian or Redhat based, but the worst after sales support I’ve seen as a business customer, they even give their partner technicians a hard time, highest failure rates with their hardware.
For context the Big 3 are HP, Lenovo and Dell.
Dell have much better after sales support and much lower failure rates, Native Linux support for Redhat and Debian, they are one of the faster vendors to update the LVFS for fwupd.
I have been Using a Dell myself and can’t really fault it, the only major hiccup I’ve had is getting Hibernate or S4 sleep to work, only seems to work on the current LTS kernel, works fine on the HP i tried it on though, seemed to be known issue for Dell’s when i looked around.
HP is a bit middling as well, some Linux Support, again for the common stuff, a really good Support vendor if your a partner, but most of their support is very windows focused.
Generally speaking most HW will support Linux just fine, the more general the OS the better the support, that’s why most users end up with Ubuntu.
The more exotic the Hardware the worse the support.
I’m on an Asus right now for example with a mux for the 2 gpu’s, has a less common set of issues but otherwise works pretty good.
Thanks for this, - and welcome! That’s some really useful perspective, particularly on the failure rates and after-sales support, which I hadn’t considered. Dell’s documentation and native support are definitely a win on that front.
I have three Laptops running Endeavour.
Old refurbished Thinkpad x270 works brilliant My travel laptop with a biiiig battery.
2nd: A first generation Thinkpad T14 with AMD. All good but the fibocom WWAN modem I bought is crap - no support (at least alpha, but not comfortable) - even after years.
And latest and my best buy ever HP Elitebook 845 G10. Fantastic machine. Install endeavour. All is working out of the box. Never had a better exeperience. I have the 1920x1200 low power panel and the 7840U processor for better battery life. Absolutely silent and performant piece of hardware.
I’ve owned several Thinkpads.
I’ve owned Dell, Macbook, HP, Asus, Acer and Compaq
I’ll probably never own anything other than a Thinkpad ever again realistically. Maybe a Dell again. Everything else wasn’t even close quality wise/keyboard wize. I haven’t had a newer Dell XPS, but I’ve heard they are the only keyboard close to a Thinkpad.
I’d kill for a T25 Thinkpad with US keyboard. . .
Lenovo charges you £25 to install Ubuntu? 
I only have experience with my gaming laptop, an Acer Nitro 5 with a RTX 3050 Mobile and a Ryzen 5 5600H. It has worked very well on Linux. I’ve installed Ubuntu, Fedora, Pop!_OS, Linux Mint, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, Arch Linux and EndeavourOS and most things worked out of the box. Auto fan control doesn’t, but nbfc works for me.
Update : Sweet Jesus, is everyone soldering their memory onto the motherboard these days…!? I guess that’s Lenovo out of the list then… It blows my mind that companies are intentionally reducing lifecycles and throwing kit to landfill in this way to get a few points extra in an arbitrary performance spec test. Then again… yep… not surprised…
Aha!!! : https://slimbook.com/en/shop/product/kde-slimbook-vi-amd-ryzen-7-8845hs-1467?category=58&search=KDE
Given I’ve been knee-deep in Plasma for years, and it’s perfect for what I do, this looks really nice!
Lenovo does have models with open slots also.
Sweet Jesus, is everyone soldering their memory onto the motherboard these days…!?
Pretty much, yes unfortunately. Makes no sense for anything other than ultralight laptops but everyone seems to be doing it anyway.
My only experience recent experience with laptops is buying the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED. I mainly use it for use with my school which is heavily integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem so it runs Windows. While I do enjoy the laptop, I also regret the purchase as I think it limits my options as the proprietary Asus software which handles things like OLED refresh appear to be built into the software at the OS level and not the hardware level making putting Linux on it a difficult proposition.
If I could go back I would probably have looked into a Framework laptop as I really like what they are doing and they have a section devoted to Linux compatibility. Linux on the Framework Laptop
For what it’s worth ifixit does still give some of the Thinkpads good scores for repairability: Laptop Repairability Scores. Maybe look into these specific models if the slimbook doesn’t meet your needs?