After searching using hnsearch I saw it had been a while since this topic had been explored.
note: It does not necessarily have to come preinstalled with a linux distro.
I (and many other Linux users I know) would strongly recommend Thinkpads. In addition to generally working well with Linux they're pretty well-built machines. Everything about my T420 just works out of the box with Debian Wheezy (disclaimer: I don't have a fingerprint reader or camera so I don't know how well they would work; but WIFI, Bluetooth, SD card reader, and smartcard reader all work).
Also. http://www.thinkwiki.org/ is a very good resource for running Linux on Thinkpads (though everything worked so perfectly with my T420 and Wheezy I actually never needed it!).
I have a T430S running Ubuntu 12.04, and it's easily the most enjoyable laptop to use that I've ever owned.
I replaced the HDD with an SSD, added RAM, and replaced the DVD drive with an extra bay battery. If you gave me a pile of cash to spend on hardware, the only thing I'd do is trade out for a bigger SSD.
Please, could you test your camera? Almost all USB webcams use the "uvcvideo" module (and built-in webcams use USB in most cases), so it would be noteworthy if your camera _didn't_ work.
We just did an informal survey and most people (of a handful) with an x230 reported some kind of audio problem related to the internal mic or USB soundcards.
Apart from that the webcam works and audio output as well and we're all pretty happy. (Ubuntu, Debian wheezy, Arch, OpenBSD)
I use a Thinkpad T430 with Debian unstable. All hardware works as intended. I purchased mine with the Intel wireless, and that requires a non-free firmware blob. Optimus works, but if there are issues it can be disabled in the BIOS.
I've had a succession of Thinkpad laptops, don't think I would pick any other for Linux. I have had various other laptops but none was comparable for Linux.
I installed Slackware 64bit on a ThinkPad T61 and it works out of the box, completely (though I haven't messed with the fingerprint reader). It also performs extremely well, much better than the Dell Inspiron it replaced, even though the hardware (processor, etc) isn't necessarily much faster on paper. It also doesn't get so hot. These things are just so good in so many ways. :)
I'm on my third or fourth generation of Thinkpad myself (T520i). Wireless has been a problem, but other than that, it's an excellent device. And Lenovo can have its TrackPoint when it pries it from my cold, dead fingers.
The distribution doesn't really matter here. I mean, the drivers (modules) are the same: If they work on Debian they will work under Gentoo, Arch, You-Name-It.. Since the kernel is ... the same :-)
It works OK with Linux (sound is problematic, and it's not good under Windows, either, despite...or maybe because of, wearing a "beats by Dre" logo). But, the quality is simply awful. It has a high end laptop price tag, and all the right features, but it's falling apart after barely a year of light use and has had problems from almost day one.
Just to provide an alternate opinion I've been using a HP envy 14 for school (lugging it around on transit, to LAN parties etc...) and it's held up absolutely fine.
It may be specific to the model I own. I have an Envy 15, with i7 CPU, 1080p display, ATI+Intel graphics, 8GB of RAM, etc. Cost about $1350, I think. I'm happy yours is holding up OK, though. It was the highest end and highest resolution laptop they had at Fry's when I needed a new laptop on short notice, so I bought it with little research.
Problems I've had:
Dead pixels. New ones have sprung up just in the past couple months. I think it has 7 now (in two clusters).
Heat. Damned thing runs hot enough to literally burn my legs. It has "Cool Sense", which allows you to choose between "Slow enough to where you have to take coffee breaks between opening or closing new tabs." and "Oh gods, why am I on fire?" So, I disabled Cool Sense. It made the computer vastly slower than the one it replaced (and the one before that one).
Keyboard is truly awful. I'm a great typist, but this keyboard slows me down, and misses strokes if they aren't really firm. Also, if you type really fast, it'll sometimes randomly insert the number "6". Why 6? I don't know. It's just this thing it does.
The faux metal coating began discoloring within a couple of weeks or purchase. I'm an obsessive hand washer, and I've never had this problem with any other lappy. This one just sucks at looking good. I've never put stickers on a laptop before, because I like a shiny new looking laptop...this laptop looked like crap so quickly, that I put stickers all over it to cover the crappiness.
Fans makes a horrible racket for a few minutes when returning from sleep or booting. I have no pets, and I don't smoke, so my house is not very dusty or plagued by particulates. I've opened it up to try to clean it and blown it out with compressed air, but no apparent dust was present. The fans are just crappy and noisy.
The headphone jacks are janky. I can mostly only get one channel out of them. I use this laptop for movie screenings (my audiovisual company does outdoor screenings on a pretty large scale; sometimes for 1000+ people), and had to buy a new USB audio interface to get reliable sound output. The USB interface is a minor expense in a $25,000 setup, but it's a nuisance to not have a decent audio output on a high end laptop that claims to be good for audio. Also, the Dre Beats filter is awful; I recommend disabling it on any device that has it.
The trackpad (a fancy multitouch thing) has been really...umm...touchy. For most of it's life with me. It's gotten solid under Linux (or I've gotten used to it, when others use my machine they are startled by the jumpiness of the touchpad; I've mostly acclimated to treating it with kid gloves). Under Windows it is still really bad. Typing on the keyboard can make the pointer jump and trigger a click, so focus can shift without warning while typing. I've never been able to adjust this away, and it is infuriating and makes working under Windows on this machine a serious burden.
It has begun to die. Every few days the caps lock light will flash ominously, which, according to the documentation means it needs to be serviced. I haven't figured out what, specifically, is wrong with it, but since it's my primary computer, I'm loathe to be without it. Sometimes it goes away after sleeping or rebooting, sometimes it stays on for days. Again, I've had it for a little over a year. Every other lappy I've owned has lasted 4 years or more. This laptop is a sad story.
Maybe I got a lemon. I wish I'd taken it back during the return period, but I needed a machine to work on...so, it ended up staying with me. I won't make the mistake of buying another HP.
As for Linux compatibility, it's actually really good, except for sound (only one set of speakers works, so it is really quiet under Linux, and since head phone jacks are janky, I can't really even use headphones effectively). It's got a lot of Intel components with Open Source drivers. The ATI drivers, both Open Source and proprietary work OK, though I prefer the seamless experience of the Intel drivers.
I'm definitely replacing it with a Thinkpad soon, but I'm currently running Fedora 20 on my half-dead early-2011 Macbook pro and everything worked out of the box besides the wireless driver, which was an easy fix. Everything else works, including camera and keyboard brightness.
I wouldn't recommend buying a Macbook just to run Linux on it, but if you have one (which actually works properly) and want to run Linux, realize that you can have a great experience without buying a new machine.
A while ago I had a lot of problems installing Linux on my machine, but Fedora 20 installed without problems for me.
I suppose this is an important point that I forgot to mention, but I don't have a functioning battery, I have to keep it plugged in all the time. I know that you have to install a new power system before you have reasonable battery performance, and I know its available, but I haven't tried it so I don't know how good it is.
I'm currently using an HP ProBook 4530s. I've had it about 2 years now, but there are similar models with newer parts. I cannot think of any problems I've had running a linux distro, and I've used several. The only bit of hardware that doesn't work is the fingerprint scanner, but I don't think that worked under Windows either.
Audio in and out works fine. The keyboard works with no hacks. The touchpad supports 3 finger usage.
You can get ProBooks with either an Intel or AMD components; mine has Intel.
Additionally, this laptop is pretty easy to take apart. Pop out the battery, slide the bottom panel off, and you have access to the ram and hard drive. With tools you can access / remove the optical drive and keyboard. I was even able to replace the display. It came with a 1366x768 and I upgraded it to a 1920x1080. HP does have a fairly extensive disassembly manual for it, if that's important to you.
I would definitely look at this line again when I need to get a new laptop.
I've had two laptops that I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 on and both have worked great. One was a Dell Vostro V131. Literally everything worked and it had such an amazing keyboard layout. It was so hard for me to give it up. I upgraded earlier this month to an ASUS Zenbook UX302LA. The only things that didn't work out of the box was WiFi and the brightness keyboard buttons, these were quickly fixed with using a back port module. I put an extra 8GB of RAM and a 256gb SSD and the things flys. It also has a Haswell CPU so it gets about 9 hours of battery life.
A couple weeks ago I upgraded to a Fujitsu Lifebook u904, for the 14" QHD (3200x1800) display. I was surprised at how very well it works with Linux, given how little information I could find about compatibility.
Gnome hasn't got their act together yet around high-resolution displays so font configuration is a bit wonky but that's not a hardware incompatibility deal-breaker. Even the touch-screen works.
Dell Latitude - unbelievably good. Built like a tank - I believe these are built to Mil-Spec. I have been running Linux on my laptop for the last 6 years (commuting through South East Asia and India), so I believe it has stood the test of time and kernel upgrades in hot & dusty New Delhi.
I run Ubuntu 12.04 on a 6 year old E6410 and everything works - including suspend/resume, smart card reader, bluetooth, etc. I also have a second hard drive and am able to boot off either using UEFI. I'm also able to connect my HDTV using a displayport-HDMI adapter and watch movies. Wifi works out of the box, but even if it didnt, you could swap out the mini-pcie card for a few bucks.
And unbelievably upgradable - couple of days back I replaced my keyboard, while the laptop is still running, in under 2 minutes. A couple of days before that I replaced my laptop fan - bought easily off ebay because of the latitude platform's popularity.
Dell's after sales support is legendary - in India, it is called CompleteCover and covers next business day onsite replacement and accidental damage warranty.
I'm typing now on a u6430 running ubuntu 13.04, and it runs great.
Three challenges:
1) On a busy wifi, I have some challenges with connection drops, but I haven't determined if that's a driver issue, or a chip issue. The connection drops are mostly after several minutes of idle network connections. (Now that I think about it, its probably driver, since rmmod/modprobe the wireless modules fixes things)
2) The thumbprint reader doesn't work out of the box, but honestly, I'd rather type a password.
3) When I try to use a usb3 'docking station', it works. However I find that I need to rmmod the usb3 module, and then modprobe it again to get it back to life after ~10 undock/redock operations. After about ~20-30 undock/redocks I find I need to reboot.
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (comes with Ubuntu pre-installed). The best part, though, is that Dell wrote a bunch of drivers for the hardware that got integrated into the main Linux kernel--I've installed over 10 distros on it (not all at once!) and on every one of them brightness, multitouch gestures, etc, worked out of the box.
I've got the XPS 13 standard edition (max-specced refurb was half-price of the dev edition!) and it's been nearly smooth sailing.
One difference between the dev and std editions is the wifi chipset - 6235 in std, 6230 in dev (and some reports of the AR9462 in others). The wifi was practically unusable for me until I manually disabled power-saving on the wifi interface.
Also had a couple of instances where the machine has dropped into a coma (even on full battery). Usually after rebooting or suspending. Quite scary when it happens, since the long-hold power button trick doesn't always revive it. It usually comes back to life later but I wish I knew what was causing this.
Also have to run the battery all the way down to 0% (the point at which the HW forces a shutdown) and charge back up to 100% every couple of months else the calibration goes wonky.
From what I understand the XPS 13 standard is exactly the same as the standard model without Ubuntu preinstalled yes (except that it has a windows key as opposed to a linux labeled key)? The developer edition is not available in all countries.
So you don't have to obtain the Dell drivers separately? They are included in ubuntu 12 onward?
I don't believe all of the drivers were actually merged upstream. According to reports that I've read, if you don't create a recovery disc, and try to install stock Ubuntu 12, you are in for a nasty surprise as half the hardware doesn't work. Installing drivers without a working network interface, sucks.
I did a stock reinstall of Ubuntu 12.04 shortly after getting the laptop and everything worked except for one brightness tweak which took me <5 minutes.
Asus N550JV (non touch)
All but the Subwoofer works with Ubuntu 13.10 with minimal configurations. Samsung EVO SSD a must have. Only issue seems to be with a 7 port USB 3.0 HUB plugged into one of the USB laptop ports. This screams and replaced my homegrown AMD/ATI desktop. Heavy on Photography, games with Steam and video editing. External SATA 3.0 dock with OEM drives swapped out. ~150+ MB/sec. Best laptop I could find. Clevo is fast, but..... I returned the System 76 / clevo due to mSATA overheating. 3 Months, zero complaints with Linux running on this. It comes with Windows 8 and a slow drive. Never booted it. Went straight to SSD and Secure boot Ubuntu on a new install.
I've had Feisty on my Toshiba Satellite P955 for over 3 years now. I think I bought it for $800 but you can probably get one for $300ish now. Ripped out the HDD and put in an SSD. Ripped out the DVD and put in an SSD with custom mount I bought from somewhere.
Had issues with wifi initially but found workaround after a while. I have to say, this box runs extremely well, I never ever have problems but then again I don't use a webcam or many other external devices. Mainly internet browsing, Virtualbox, shell, etc.
HP Elitebook 820 works pretty well. Asus Zenbook UX21 works acceptably. But tellingly, after the news about the X60 last week or so, I decided to ebay an X61 and stuff as much RAM and SSD in it as possible. The X31 remains the greatest Linux laptop, the greatest laptop period, I've ever owned, modulo some graphics driver problems. I would like to see something with the build quality of these Thinkpads, coming with Linux pre-installed.
T420's / X220's are the last generation to have 7-row keyboards and also available with IPS screens. The newer generations have 6-row chiclet keyboards with neutered TrackPad buttons. Despite using a rMBP daily for work, the old ThinkPad keyboard is home for me.
In their quest to become MBP replicas, ThinkPads lost their distinguishing features. Now that I've resigned myself to carrying a mechanical keyboard at all times (HHKB), I no longer choose a laptop based on one. I am now exploring alternative laptops after being a loyal ThinkPad customer for 7 years.
I am desperately trying to extend the life of my X220 exactly for this reason. It is the last laptop with a usable keyboard. But this thing has been around the world at least a dozen times and has cracks and bruises to show for it. No idea what I will do when it finally dies on me.
The Chromebook Pixel is a fantastic piece of hardware and it comes running a Linux variant (ChromeOS) out-of-the-box, so all the drivers should be well-supported.
My 2013 VAIO Pro 13" works astonishingly well with Debian. I don't think I've ever had a laptop work so well right out of the box with Linux. The PCIe SSD it comes with is much faster than past SSDs I've had, too.
Note: I got this laptop in late November. If you look online, you'll find a lot of problems people had with distros featuring older kernels. Rest assured, 3.12 enables all features right out of the box.
Is that the one which comes with a touch screen ? Have you tried using the touch screen ? And I have heard that the whole thing is very flimsy due to the carbon fibre build, what's your take on this ?
Yes, I got the one with the touch screen, but if I had to do it over I'd have gotten the non-touch version with a matte screen. Touch screens are just too reflective. The touch screen actually works fine, but gnome treats it like a mouse. It doesn't bother me, but might bother people who expect all the gestures you get with Windows.
Carbon fiber only seems flimsy when you've never had a notebook made of it before. It does have a little flex in the screen, but not much. The flex isn't a bad thing, mind you. I've had several carbon fiber laptops and the flex helps them bounce when they're dropped and can help prevent damage if something stupid happens like someone reclining their airline seat into your screen in just the wrong way.
The other benefit is that the laptop is seriously light. The 13" Air feels pretty heavy in comparison.
Does anyone have a System76 Galago UltraPro? I'm planning on upgrading my T410 (which was/is great) but I now need something with more than 8GB of RAM.
Its terrible. If you want good Linux compatibility, get another Thinkpad.
System 76 sells rebranded Clevos. The best Clevo laptops are mediocre, the worst are unusable. The Ultrapro falls into the latter category. Quite a few models of Clevo laptops have keyboards that randomly drop keystrokes. The Galago keyboard is by all accounts particularly horrible. More than one reviewer listed this as the sole reason for returning the machine. The company "fixed" the issue by sending out new keyboards with metal strips attached to the back of them. This did absolutely nothing to address the fact that the keyboards don't work.
Because they don't actually make their own systems, there is little that System 76 can do to change the fact that some of their systems are defective. System 76 by all accounts has pretty decent support, but when all they can do is continue to send you more defective parts and / or defective replacement systems, it doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot.
After repeatedly trying to fix these issues, one of their favorite sayings is "most of our customers like our keyboards."
Another great quote from a System 76 rep is that the Galago Ultrapro's touchpad is hands-down better than a Macbook's. Which I found particularly amusing because some of the reviews of this machine specifically mention that the touchpad doesn't work correctly.
The other downside of Clevo laptops is that the company absolutely sucks at making motherboards. They are inefficient, and it ends up contributing to the Galago's poor battery life. This is a machine that should probably get at least 6-8 hours, yet it only gets 3.5-4.
I really love the idea of a vendor dedicated to selling Linux machines, but until System 76 pulls off a miracle and convinces Clevo to stop making defective keyboards, people should stop giving them their money.
If it weren't for the defective keyboard and the terrible battery life, my comment would be completely different and it would probably be getting typed on a Galago Ultrapro. Instead, I have a T430 that I snagged off of Lenovo's outlet with 8GB Ram, an i5, and a 256GB SSD for less than $500. Its the best computer I've ever owned.
I second everything phaus said above. This post was typed on a Galago Ultra Pro. The 3rd generation keyboard is "ok" and doesn't bother me, but many other things do (touchpad drivers, battery life, stability, etc).
For comparison I used Linux (Gentoo & Ubuntu) for years on a Lenovo T61p and didn't realize how well I had it. For work I use a rMBP (not by choice). Both blow the Galago Ultra Pro out of the water.
The single redeeming quality of the Galago Ultra Pro is the horsepower of i7-4750HQ combined with mSATA + 2.5" SSD. I do alot of big builds for embedded devices and the space and horsepower help alot. Unfortunately, everything else is "meh" and the battery life and touchpad are down right disappointing.
And System76 does little to support Linux as far as I can tell. The Intel Wireless 7620 had firmware problems System76 up until several weeks ago they weren't even aware of[1], just to gauge their QA process. And what power user machines don't fully support UEFI[2] these days?
I've had the machine for less then a month and seriously considering sending it back. :(
Do all System76's still have that massive PSU? I had a coworker who had one, and the machine was nice, but the unbelievable size & weight of the laptop's power supply was truly laughable.
I got a Lenovo Y510p. Amazing machine. Running Ubuntu 13.04. The most common problem with any linux machine is FLASH VIDEO! They don't support DRM content (HBOGO, Amazon, xfinitytv, etc...). It's been a pain trying to find a work around. Also, video drivers can be a pain.
Don't. The Y510p has a really cheap screen. I know its price sounds enticing. I compared its screen with my Macbook Pro and it looks very "washed out".
Thinkpad T530 works very well.
I've got it running Arch Linux with no features unusable. Hardware brightness and volume controls, webcam, integrated graphics and networking all without issue.
the asus 1015 that comes with ubuntu installed works just fine, although the trackpad is pretty bad (i use an external mouse). opensuse 13.1 runs with no issues that i've noticed.
10 inch screen, looks like a netbook, 2GB memory, celeron - sounds useless for development work, but after replacing the disk with a cheap 60GB kingston ssd i can run virtualbox and have a workable vm, so it's surprisingly capable.
my x220 died and i am happy using this until the x240 with a better screen is released next quarter (i bought it as a clunker for travel).
I second the Carbon X1 .. Great laptop. It's small, light has an awesome keyboard and touchpad. I run Debian Jessie on mine.. Everything works 100% except for the fingerprint reader (I don't use it.. Maybe it does work thou!). Currently travelling on the road and using the built in UTMS/3g modem- works like a charm!
I have a Samsung ChromeBook and I tend to prefer it for on the road use to the MacBook Pro. Much lighter and better battery life. With WiFi both public and via smartphone tethering, it is fine for most tasks that I need on the road.
Crouton is fine if you need a full fledged Linux. Using a 32GB SDHC card for extra file space.
Also. http://www.thinkwiki.org/ is a very good resource for running Linux on Thinkpads (though everything worked so perfectly with my T420 and Wheezy I actually never needed it!).