[gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[William Kenworthy]

My MS surface pro4 has died (swelling battery has popped the screen - 
known problem) so I am looking for a better replacement. I bought it new 
years ago but it only got good Linux support (touchscreen etc.) in the 
last couple of years so its been a bit frustrating.

So the question is - whats a good replacement?  Criteria is good battery 
life, can dual boot windows (this is my only windows machine these days 
and there are still some cases - Logitech harmony remote for one) and 
gentoo with everything working/supported.  I do like the tablet with 
detachable physical keyboard design but I mostly use it with keyboard 
attached.  And non-microsoft hardware is preferred (the sp4 failure is a 
design issue for which MS suffered a class action lawsuit to get them to 
honour the warranty - I don't want a repeat)

BillK

Re: [gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[Wols Lists]

On 09/01/2022 12:49, William Kenworthy wrote:
> My MS surface pro4 has died (swelling battery has popped the screen - 
> known problem) so I am looking for a better replacement. I bought it new 
> years ago but it only got good Linux support (touchscreen etc.) in the 
> last couple of years so its been a bit frustrating.
> 
> So the question is - whats a good replacement?  Criteria is good battery 
> life, can dual boot windows (this is my only windows machine these days 
> and there are still some cases - Logitech harmony remote for one) and 
> gentoo with everything working/supported.  I do like the tablet with 
> detachable physical keyboard design but I mostly use it with keyboard 
> attached.  And non-microsoft hardware is preferred (the sp4 failure is a 
> design issue for which MS suffered a class action lawsuit to get them to 
> honour the warranty - I don't want a repeat)
> 
> BillK
> 
I've bought a laptop off these people ...


https://junocomputers.com/product-category/laptops/

They're UK or US but I guess they probably can ship to you. I bought the 
NyX 14 v2 or similar for my wife (weight was the primary concern, at 
1.2kg her previous laptop was heavy, this added 2" on the screen for 
100g but was the lightest I could find that wasn't an astronomic price).

I'm looking at the NyX 15 AMD v2 for me, I want AMD and don't want more 
than a 15" screen. I've had a 17" - it's too big for a laptop. Luggable, 
maybe ... :-)

You can get a Windows Pro OEM licence pretty cheap off Amazon or 
wherever, I configured my wife's laptop as dual boot. However, it was 
some grief. Make sure you install linux first or you'll find the EFI 
partition is too small to multi-boot.

And whatever you choose make sure you investigate upping the spec, I 
think the difference between a 256GB or 512GB m2 was about £10 ...

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday, 9 January 2022 13:47:19 GMT Wols Lists wrote:

> I'm looking at the NyX 15 AMD v2 for me, I want AMD and don't want more
> than a 15" screen. I've had a 17" - it's too big for a laptop. Luggable,
> maybe ... :-)

I'm looking at their Gemini 17", which you've found is too big. In my case, 
portability is less important than a big screen for my slowly, inexorably 
deteriorating vision (glaucoma, in case you were wondering). This workstation 
has a 27" curved screen at 1920x1020, which is very fine but it's upstairs  :)

The laptop may also stand in as a sort of superior tablet, especially if I can 
find a Kindle program to read books on it. I've seen the Kindle Cloud Reader 
suggested, but it may not be usable with all titles. Or I could boot Windows 
just for that purpose - I think I have a disc here somewhere...

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[Jack]

On 1/9/22 07:49, William Kenworthy wrote:
> My MS surface pro4 has died (swelling battery has popped the screen - 
> known problem) so I am looking for a better replacement. I bought it 
> new years ago but it only got good Linux support (touchscreen etc.) in 
> the last couple of years so its been a bit frustrating.
>
> So the question is - whats a good replacement?  Criteria is good 
> battery life, can dual boot windows (this is my only windows machine 
> these days and there are still some cases - Logitech harmony remote 
> for one) and gentoo with everything working/supported.  I do like the 
> tablet with detachable physical keyboard design but I mostly use it 
> with keyboard attached.  And non-microsoft hardware is preferred (the 
> sp4 failure is a design issue for which MS suffered a class action 
> lawsuit to get them to honour the warranty - I don't want a repeat)
>
> BillK

Do you really need/want dual boot, or would Windows in a VM work?

Re: [gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[William Kenworthy]

On 10/1/22 00:26, Jack wrote:
> On 1/9/22 07:49, William Kenworthy wrote:
>> My MS surface pro4 has died (swelling battery has popped the screen - 
>> known problem) so I am looking for a better replacement. I bought it 
>> new years ago but it only got good Linux support (touchscreen etc.) 
>> in the last couple of years so its been a bit frustrating.
>>
>> So the question is - whats a good replacement?  Criteria is good 
>> battery life, can dual boot windows (this is my only windows machine 
>> these days and there are still some cases - Logitech harmony remote 
>> for one) and gentoo with everything working/supported.  I do like the 
>> tablet with detachable physical keyboard design but I mostly use it 
>> with keyboard attached.  And non-microsoft hardware is preferred (the 
>> sp4 failure is a design issue for which MS suffered a class action 
>> lawsuit to get them to honour the warranty - I don't want a repeat)
>>
>> BillK
>
> Do you really need/want dual boot, or would Windows in a VM work?
>
No, has to be a hardware install.  Trying to do usb flashing using vm's 
(which I have) has not worked well. (logitech harmony, bluefin, ...)

BillK

Re: [gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[Marco Rebhan]

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Take a look at the Framework laptop if you value repairability and 
customizability! I don't have one myself (yet, it's going to be my next 
laptop though), but there seems to be great Linux support and an active 
Linux support community.
https://frame.work/blog/linux-on-the-framework-laptop

-Marco

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Re: [gentoo-user] OT: whats a good laptop for gentoo these days?

[Lee K]

On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 12:59:09AM +0100, Marco Rebhan wrote:
> Take a look at the Framework laptop if you value repairability and 
> customizability! I don't have one myself (yet, it's going to be my next 
> laptop though), but there seems to be great Linux support and an active 
> Linux support community.
> https://frame.work/blog/linux-on-the-framework-laptop
> 
> -Marco


I've had a good experience with AVADirect. They also have very good online
reviews. They will tell you if a particular laptop is compatible with linux,
and will even install Ubuntu if you request. They use mainly rebranded
Clevo's (made in Taiwan I believe).