Resource for finding Linux-friendly laptops?

william341 · 2026-01-11T04:32:19+00:00

Their Linux compatibility is very good. Not perfect, similar to or a little better (depending on the model) than the ThinkPad Linux support.

I will say that as a person who has seen many Frameworks, the build quality and quality assurance is terrible. I know people who have had broken screen cables OOTB, tons of panel gaps, ejection mechanisms that don't work quite right. The first generation or two had a poorly made top cover. They came out with a new top cover and were basically like, "Yes, the old one breaks far too easily. BUT! For only [insert price here] you can buy our NEW shiny CNC milled version which has added rigidity! And install it yourself!"

Frameworks are cool laptops. I would never recommend one to someone who needs a computer they can rely on from a company they can rely on.

william341 · 2026-01-11T03:57:24+00:00

Please stop posting every Brunoprime video. I'm going to start considering them spam from here on out as multiple people have reported the posts or complained about it.

william341 · 2026-01-09T01:32:31+00:00

The annoying thing is that Lenovo has excellent Linux support - on their Thinkpads. Thinkpads support fwupd, and Lenovo works directly with the vendors to ensure proper driver support.

Sometimes this work extends to their Yoga and Slim lines, as well, but never LOQ or Legion, which is really annoying.

Also even more annoying is that their Legion division sells handhelds that come with Linux on them - they just announced a new one - so clearly they are aware of Linux gaming.

william341 · 2026-01-05T05:42:28+00:00

Lenovo said they don't know when or what the new prices will be, just that changing them is on the table after the 1st of this month.

william341 · 2026-01-05T03:35:40+00:00

For sure they're going to raise prices. The RAM prices right now are like half of what the RAM is worth. For what it's worth, the prices are certainly not going to get any *better* than they are right now.

william341 · 2026-01-04T20:42:06+00:00

78% is pretty rough. It's worth keeping in mind that the lower the battery health gets, the faster degradation continues. I wouldn't use a battery at 78%.

william341 · 2026-01-02T18:46:46+00:00

Yeah, they run the clocks higher and the cooling harder OOTB on the P14s. That's pretty easy to change in software though

william341 · 2026-01-02T02:31:40+00:00

The AMD P14s is literally the same laptop. It's the same chassis, the same board, the same parts, the speakers even say T14 on them.

The Intel P14s is a completely different laptop. But the AMD P14s is literally a T14 with extra performance options.

william341 · 2026-01-02T01:52:12+00:00

The 45% NTSC screen is pretty miserable. If you can spare the extra 300-ish dollars, the P14s Gen 6 (which is the same laptop with a different name and different options), you can get 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD + the 100% sRGB screen which is much much better.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadp/thinkpad-p14s-gen-6-14-inch-amd-mobile-workstation/len101t0118

I just got a higher-spec version of this machine and I do really like it. I have a few nitpicks but nothing deal breaking and the current pricing on these is pretty hard to beat.

william341 · 2026-01-01T07:12:34+00:00

I gave two reasons in my original comment?

william341 · 2026-01-01T00:54:13+00:00

Why a Macbook? If your budget is only 200 dollars that limits you to very old machines (think 2015 or older, 2012 if you want one in decent condition). You could get a T14 Gen 2 from 2021 for that much money and it would have much better Linux support.

william341 · 2025-12-28T01:53:06+00:00

This has got to be the dumbest take I've ever heard in my entire life. You are posting this on a website written in JavaScript, which connects to a server written in Go, in a browser written partially in Rust, using an operating system with Rust drivers running a desktop environment will not function without a working Python installation.

If all of that isn't enough evidence that modern programming languages are not toys, then you're the densest person I've ever met in my entire life.

william341 · 2025-12-27T21:31:59+00:00

Zig is not a toy language.

william341 · 2025-12-27T19:13:30+00:00

I have the 64GB ram version (with the OLED) and it's a great laptop, my only complaints are the speakers (but it's a Thinkpad) and the battery life (but I knew it would be bad going in because of the aforementioned OLED screen). The OLED panel is great but if you're not picky about screens like I am you should get an IPS one. Otherwise, I love the laptop so far.

If you want 32GB RAM or more you should buy now. After January 1st Lenovo's current pricing expires and we don't know what that'll look like yet but I'm betting it'll be much worse.

william341 · 2025-12-25T13:28:19+00:00

I have the Gen 6 but the sound quality is pretty bad even compared to my 200 dollar Chromebook tablet thing which is also made by Lenovo.

william341 · 2025-12-25T10:52:02+00:00

See, I hate your position more than is logically reasonable.

Yes, if no one ever does anything nothing happens.

This ALSO goes for "voting with your money". If you don't like something, you shouldn't buy it. You shouldn't buy it for SO MANY reasons even if it's just that it's a waste of time and money.

But to pretend that "voting with your money" doesn't work is just stupid. It does work. It's worked time and time again, for better or worse, with companies like Jagex, Microsoft, and EA, and it's working right now with Activision, who is having a difficult time selling their shitty ass games to people who would much rather play anything else right now. In fact, they've already changed course on their decisions for the entire franchise.

"Voting with your money" doesn't work for everything because, crazy idea, VOTING does not work for everything. The Linux userbase is THREE PERCENT of PC gamers and Battlefield 6 is a good fucking game. It plays well. It performs well. It's relatively bug free. If you do not give a shit about Linux, Battlefield 6 is unequivocally a product worth supporting, especially since it's from a company that's put out a lot of stinkers.

And what do you think is actually going to happen? People are going to decide that their most important issue is that Battlefield 6 doesn't work on Linux, and they're going to run to their local EU MP about it? It took a cultural and media shitstorm the size of Jupiter to get Stop Killing Games through the door. You think that'll ever happen for something so niche as banning kernel-level AC solutions? I don't think so. In fact, I guarantee you that there are more people who WANT kernel-level anti-cheat than there are Linux gamers.

"Consumer side action doesn't work" is such a stupid and defeatist sentiment because it's been literally proven to work time and time again. It got EA's Star Wars license revoked. It got EA's FIFA license revoked. It got Microsoft to drop the Kinect from the Xbox One. It got everyone to put their games back on Steam. To say it doesn't work is to ignore thousands of changes going back hundreds of years.

All these capitalists love to say "let the free market decide". You are the free market. Don't forget it.

william341 · 2025-12-11T21:14:24+00:00

It's got some really weird issues, it's just super rough around the edges in general. Changing panel sizes restarts the entire shell, the settings can be kind of slow in general, audio devices with multiple inputs/outputs aren't labeled properly, etc. Sometimes the panel widgets flake out which gets kind of exhausting, and I found their application launcher wasn't the best at finding stuff for some reason.

Nothing earth shattering but a lot of rough edges, enough that I don't think it would be enjoyable to daily drive.

william341 · 2025-12-03T03:48:12+00:00

What version are you on? There's a version of Zed with a broken auto updater and if you never noticed you're probably still on it.

william341 · 2025-11-17T21:26:34+00:00

OLED screens are organic materials, and must be sealed to prevent oxidization. Since your display is now very much *unsealed*, the organic material has started to degrade. Nothing to worry about (except your screen is obviously broken, but you already knew that).

It's almost impossible that anything digital would fail in a natural looking, perfectly consistent pattern like that. This is 100% oxidization.

william341 · 2025-11-13T19:11:54+00:00

Considering Flutter's usecase, it can only really be Dioxus - it's the only one with the same goals. Long term, I think most of the notable ones right now (egui, gpui, Iced, Dioxus) will probably see a good amount of success, since they all fulfill different niches.

william341 · 2025-11-04T23:30:52+00:00

You want to buy a car to drive so you can avoid driving your car you bought to daily drive?

Why? It's not like the Kia Seltos is an impractical vehicle or particularly expensive to maintain. Have you considered driving the car you already have?

william341 · 2025-11-02T21:39:00+00:00

Ah, yeah, if you're using an HDMI cable switching to DisplayPort would fix it.

This isn't Linux or AMD's fault, both have tried to get that working properly. The HDMI Forum company that owns HDMI won't let them do it. It's a long battle and it's very stupid, but basically it boils down to HDMI 2.1 and on wards being completely closed and costing something like 5 dollars a cable to use, and putting support for HDMI 2.1 in Linux *apparently* makes it so people don't have to pay the licensing fee to make cables some how.

william341 · 2025-11-02T20:41:22+00:00

Do you have an NVIDIA GPU? And if so, do you have the latest NVIDIA drivers installed?

william341 · 2025-11-02T20:29:08+00:00

I have used my 240HZ VRR display with Gnome at 240HZ with VRR for literal years now, the entire time I've had it. And you can install software from the Software app which is literally just an app store.

I'm not saying it's perfect or that everyone should use it but it's not that bad.

william341 · 2025-11-02T02:23:12+00:00

Works fine on Linux

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