this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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Hi everyone, I use Linux on all my machines since a decade. Unfortunately my laptops are getting older and I will probably have to change them soon. Which Laptops would you recommend me to buy in 2025 a part Librem?

I don't have a high budget but I'm still looking for something relatively recent. I looked on H-node but it seems that there are not a lot of recent things.

I use Debian as a distro.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Best is Framework in every regard. Works 100%, great Linux support, specify exactly what you want and it's fully repairable. (They're also by far the most satisfying machine to unbox, given you have to plug it all together yourself)

Lenovo and Dell are okay, in my experience. The odd thing but generally fair quality hardware and reasonably compatible. (Thinkpad quality isn't what it used to be, so don't pay a premium thinking it'll last, Lenovo are trading on its past glories)

Avoid HP - shoddy flimsy things now, and with a lot of bespoke drivers (graphics and audio, plus function buttons in particular)

There's quite a lot of random-branded Chinese laptops around now. I've no direct experience of them, but I imagine they're exactly how you'd expect them to be. Cheap, tailored for the OS they ship with, but will probably work to some degree. Linux is past its initial hardware problems (and to be fair, hardware is problematic now)

There's another thread that's a few years old, but still contains some useful info - such as "Check the Arch Wiki"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

Thinkpad t480 with libreboot from minifree

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Thinkpad X1 Carbon if you're swimming in money and want the lightest possible laptop, Thinkpad T14 if not.

Asus Zenbooks are kinda neat machines too, and taiwanese instead of chinese, but probably not quite as reliable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

I have an all amd alienware m17 r5 I got $2000 off at around 1200$ pretty fire, 6850mxt = 3080 laptop, ive had no issues running most things, msfs needs hella tweaking on windows but past that even vr stuff mostly works fine

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Frameworks cool if you can afford it, but if you want the best perfomance/deals, then laptops go on sale for half off or 70% off often, you just gotta check daily since they sell out within the day for those deals

Give yourself a month to look at deals, its around week 3 for me where I usually purchasep

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago

I recentlly swapped to cachyos, works way better than windows, had hella driver issues on windows, I forgot and reinstalled my windows os (shrunken partition, just in case I need it) had the same issues.

All I've had to download is like two extensions in the package manager for the amd gpu to work in blender, everywhere else it workd well instantly (because of cachyos and all it installs)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Thinkpad t480, they can be found pretty cheap second hand, then install libreboot. Can be upgraded with 64 GB of ram and a 4K screen.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

So that's why everyone recommends the T480 over the T580.

The T580 doesn't have a libreboot build.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Up until very recently the t480 didnt either

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Brb gonna go libreboot my sister's t580 when that comes out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

You would probrally have to wait a very long time, keep in mind not all features (ex: Thunderbolt 3) are working on the t480. In addition I dont think the t580 is even supported by coreboot yet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago

Currently in the process of fixing up my old Asus TUF FX505DU with Debian & KDE Plasma.

Setting up Nvidia Optimus would be a pain if it weren’t for Envy Control, run one command and boom GPU’s speak nicely to one another.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

I had system76 and now on tuxedo. I will buy tuxedo again...

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They're a bit expensive up front, but I'm really enjoying my Framework.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

That is very likely to be my next laptop.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Been happy with my Purism Librem 14, and soon they'll have a 16". I think today, I'd probably buy their 11" tablet. Perfect travel size and you don't need to put it away during takeoff and landing of flights.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Do you want mainstream brands that work well with Linux? Lenovo or Dell

Do you want smaller brands that are specialised and support Linux? Tuxedo, System76, Slimbook, Purism...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

I want to support tuxedo, as an European brand, but the last one I bought had such a shitty screen that got worse and worse over the years. They seem to have improved the hardware somewhat but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Tuxedo is a bit hit or miss. Used one for 2 years and wasn't happy with the case quality. The plastic basically broke at some edges and screw holes

The hardware also wasn't as Linux compatible as they claim. 5Ghz wifi just didn't work reliably. With their support page saying the fix is to disable 5Ghz

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe not what you're looking for, but I use Asahi Linux on an old M1 MacBook Air and it's quite nice. I bought it used for $480 last year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Does everything work on it? Sleep/hibernate too?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Pretty sure the mic does not work if you need to have video meetings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I think hibernate is a missing function - I've never tried it though. Here's a good write-up on the pros/cons and potential issue depending on your use case :
https://www.anuragrao.site/blog/05-asahi-linux

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I bought the Asus Tuf A16 AMD Advantage laptop. I installed Arch on it and it's been great. Got it for $600 on eBay. Put 32gb of RAM in it and a 2tb nvme drive into the second slot. Left the 512gb drive it came with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I have had a Tuxedo InfinityBook 14 Gen7, and I've been happy with it. They focus on hardware that has a good compatibility with Linux, so it works well out of the box without any tinkering. You say you don't have a high budget though, so these might be too expensive (I believe you can get similar specs at a lower price), but I've also been very satisfied with the after sales service they have provided - I've had some issues with it since I got it, but if it was Tuxedo specific (or appeared to me to be Tuxedo specific), and thus not easy to find general troubleshooting help online, I contacted them and I was helped out promptly, both via e-mail and the phone.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

If you have budget, Thinkpads can't go wrong. You can also find refurbished.

Tuxedo and Framework are also excellent choices.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

I personally buy refurbished. Lately I got a Lenovo X280 thinkpad, for $160 with 8 GB of RAM, 1080p screen. Worked fine, Linux flies on it.

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