WilcoRoger

Running a MacBook Pro 2010 on MXLinux (Debian based). The old HD was swapped out for an SSD a long while ago. Amazing how a decade+ old laptop still keeps up with the current bunch with the right OS. (highly CPU intensive tasks of course are noticeably slower)

MacOS is my daily driver on newer hardware, but when I feel like tinkering, it's Linux.

st1575

About a year before the pandemic, I bought a cheap ASUS Vivobook on a deal to "play around" with Linux a bit. That machine turned into my daily driver for work and home, and I use it still, preferring to the 2010-era Mac Pro that sits on my office desktop. Like others, I keep a minimal Windows installation on the Vivobook but basically never use it.

My only regret is that I chose Ubuntu. It's not a bad choice, but the "Snap wars" make me want to move to something else. I have yet to bite the bullet to jump to Linux Mint or Debian. I added a third Fedora boot partition for a while, and might move to that instead, if I find the time.

During the pandemic, I also acquired some older ThinkPads for the household. Everyone else used Windows on them, but these are magnificent Linux machines in terms of performance and are well-supported under many different Linux-based OSes.

AEM7AC

FWIW, my travel laptop for roughly four years of travel was an old X61 ThinkPad with Kubuntu. It wasn't the fastest laptop with the best specs in 2016, but for $100, it made for a relatively decent device with a solid keyboard that was cheaper and more useful than an iPad. My current travel laptop is a T450s, but I've yet to install Linux on there as it's the second newest laptop in my collection, and it's nice to have a Windows 10 based backup just in case. My T420 runs Ubuntu Budgie, so it's a "I'm bored" laptop to use at home, but it's a bit too heavy for the road. Every so often, I consider buying a new toy to use as the Linux travel laptop, but the right opportunity hasn't come along yet.

Linux is easy enough for somebody who just wants a computer to work if they're willing to put a little bit of effort, and for travel purposes, I'd rather take my odds with a travel laptop using Linux on a hotel wifi versus Windows.

richarddd

I run Mint on an old Thinkpad X220. It works remarkably well. My only issue has been installing the latest python versions, which is probably more my ignorance than any major problem. If I have any issues on my day to day X1 7th gen, I run Mint off a USB to help figure out if the problem is hardware or software. Mint seems to have much better drivers than Windows 10, at least for the things I use on this laptop.

I also like that I can run updates with Mint whenever I want, rather than Windows rebooting to force updates whenever it wants, unless I turn off updates for some period of time.

CarlTheWebmaster

My favorite linux laptop has been a Chromebook for years. Now you can run linux in a container; some years ago 'crouton' let you do the same thing. I had many productive work trips taking along just a chromebook and an ipad.

Years ago, I was a total anti-Apple, pro-Windows person. And mostly, I work on a Windows 10 desktop. Years ago (2008?) I got into Linux for some consulting work and I liked how things were the same everywhere - SSH to a server, local bash, extremely flexible and customizable. Same with Android versions - I could tweak every single thing. Cool!

My SIL said to me once, defending her preference for Apple, "I just want my computer to be like my washing machine. Press one button and go." I kind of thought that was silly, then.

Now - I think I am at that point. I don't want or need multiple update options. I don't really care if my laptop reboots after updates, and same with it taking 30 minutes (but it's rarely that long). And as far as customization (MacOS has TERRIBLE window management), there's usually a free or cheap app to customize what I need. I don't much think about updates, just as with my iPhone, and that's great for me.

HDQDD

Yeah, I've used that and homebrew. They're good at what they do, but it's just another third-party layer between me and the OS that I don't want to have to deal with.

Yeah, I love RPis. I have them running a bunch of test tasks, and recently used 3 of them to build a Kubernetes (k3s) cluster with Ansible, just to see if I could. Got it running but now I need to figure out what to do with it.

HDQDD

Yeah, I love the fact that I only hear the fan if my computer is doing something difficult. I have a work laptop with Windows and almost the exact same processor gens/specs and the fans run constantly. Even at "rest" there's always some garbage windows process taxing the CPU.

reft

MacOS, Windows, Linux.

None are perfect.

Sometimes you pick for the unique features.

Sometimes you pick to avoid the unique bugs.

StuckInYYZ

Currently I'm OS agnostic as long as I can get what I need to do done. That said, in a previous life, I was the anti-GFB guy. The ones that irked me the most were the Apple advocates. They were so anti-windows it wasn't funny. That kind of stopped after I bested several of them in a number of tasks, me with an XP box, them with OSX at the time.

Use whatever floats your boat.