Anyone else using a Linux laptop?
 

Curious if there are any Linux laptop users on FT. If so, what is your setup like? Are you happy with it? I'm a new daily user and would be interested to hear about how its worked for others and if there are any apps or tricks that I should be using as a fellow road warrior. More on my journey below.

TL;DR: I got myself a Linux laptop and I'm never going back to windows or macos.

Background:
So I've been a Macbook user and proponent for the last decade or so. Great hardware, good enough OS (even if Apple treats all its customers like children), and as we all know awesome integration between their other devices and services. I've always been disappointed in the desktop experience and lack of customizability, but it was still much better than a windows PC. Most of my company's software we sell is also windows based, so the ability to run windows was a must. I ran VMs in Parallels at first and then VM Fusion in the later years. I was pretty happy, and then the Apple Silicon came along... I bought a tricked out 14" MBP the last year they had intel processors, but it's almost 4 years old now. So the search for a new laptop began back in June...

OS Search Begins:
I've always been a huge Linux fan for servers and I run multiple headless Linux VMs and containers in the homelab. However, all my earlier forays into using Linux have ended in disappointment with the clunky desktops and lack of support for many drivers that have been in Win/Mac for years or more. So I started testing some Linux desktops in VMs and decided I loved the KDE Plasma desktop. It has tons of features built in and one can customize almost everything. I was originally planning to go Ubuntu, because they seem to have the best support for laptops AND are derivatives of Debian which is my favorite Linux distro*. Debian is by far my favorite distro for servers, and I was more than thrilled when rave reviews of Debian 12 came out, mostly centered around how Debian is now a legit option for laptops.

Hardware:
So I had my OS and Linux desktop, the hardware search began. I was interested in some of the Linux only laptops like System76 or Pinebook and I love supporting open source and small outfits, but ultimately I just couldn't seem to find the right fit. So I looked at the usual suspects. Ended up going with a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Gen10 with i7-1280P and 32GB RAM. A month in and I can say this is the best laptop I've ever had and it's not even close. It's super fast and I rarely hear the fans, unlike my Mac or my colleagues work PCs which also have a 12th Gen Intel processor. It's lightweight (significantly lighter than my same screen size Mac), thin, and I'm amazed at how efficient and stable Linux is on a laptop (and I'm using the Debian testing repo). Virtual Box does everything Fusion did and it's significantly faster. I've enjoyed tricking out the desktop and the fact that I can basically do anything I want with the OS. If I get tired of the KDE desktop, I'll just install Chrome, or LXDE, etc. I love that about Linux.

The only real downside is that there's no way to have iMessage on my desktop. I'll just have to get over that.

*I've learned that Linux users get really defensive about their preferred Linux distros and desktops, and now I get it!

Let us know how much time you spend keeping everything up to date in 6 months or so :)

I used to tinker around with hardware and software .. it can be fun and it can be frustrating also.

I'm fine running macOS, which is implemented with BSD underneath so you can use all your unix command utilities and editors, etc if you want to.

-David

I used to run Ubuntu on my laptop until I realized I was spending more time getting stuff to work than I did actually doing the things I wanted to. Now I just use Windows 11.

Linux isn't my daily driver, however, for work purposes that require Linux, I have two for my endpoints. If dealing with security, it's Kali. If it's for testing, then it's mint (VM) I refuse to use Ubuntu directly as I don't like snaps. I was pondering setting up a Chimera install on an older box for casual gaming on Steam, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe a December project when all the change freezes give me more time than I should have.

That said, if you like to do customizations in Linux, search for linuxscoop on YouTube. They do a lot of custom interfaces.

I have a few repurposed ancient Thinkpads running Mint in the field. They're used primarily as thin clients to remote back to the office. So far, so good. Everyone seems happy with them. No tech support calls/tickets on them in 3 years now.

Currently typing this on a client's Windows 11 Asus Zenbook which I've had for about 10 months now. And I hate it, specifically Windows 11. Very buggy. Just blue-screened on me tonight. Forced updates are still a thing. Many random glitches. Windows would really benefit from a re-write at this point.

I'm in the same boat. My 14 year old Macbook Pro (mid-2009) is on its last legs. I'm also looking at going to a Lenovo Thinkpad, although not sure which series yet. I like the X1s, but the Windows 11 experience on the Asus has been abysmal and makes me wish Apple weren't so anti-consumer with everything soldered in. Still haven't pulled the trigger yet.

If you wanted to point out how a mac is better than Linux, you probably shouldn't have chosen updates. :) MacOS updates take what: at least 45-60 minutes if you include "preparing"? Linux updates are usually done in less than a minute and don't even require a reboot (unless I want to start running a new kernel). Regarding updates, with Linux you have options. Usually each distro's repo has at least 3-4 releases (stable, unstable, testing, LTS, etc.). Apple gives what: two? (only if you include beta testing as one). Also on the update subject, there's no built-in package manager in macOS. In Linux I can just issue one command from the CLI and update everything.

Darwin is a far cry from BSD nowadays. Yeah it has some BSD components, but so do almost every other OS (including Windows). As I said in the original post, I've used macOS for a long time. I always had a terminal window open (often just to SSH into Linux boxes). There's no built-in package manager, many commands are different, and the file system is significantly different than any Linux distro I've used (I think it may have come from BSD). I'm believe macOS also isn't fully POSIX compliant. The last few "updates" to macOS, have just added bloat IMO. The macOS UI is pretty stale, and you can't really do anything about it. Moving the apps to whichever side of the screen and choose light/dark mode is about all the customization they allow.

I don't hate Macs, my wife has one and it's a fine PC, but I realize now how much more productive I can be with an OS that I can literally do anything with. I got tired of wasting so much time on google trying to figure out how to get around Apple's walled garden to do simple tasks, like updating Python, which Linux does during normal updates. Lots of people like that they have everything locked down, I'm not one of them. I could have lived with many of the restrictions, but as I said, my move was mostly because of Apple moving from CISC to RISC processors.

About the only negative so far is that I don't have iMessage and shared notes on my desktop. I know I'll never get the same battery life as a RISC based machine (and Apple's done a phenomenal job on that front), but I'm good with that. I don't really need 10+ hours of battery life.

In the past, maybe 5+ years ago, that was my experience as well. Things have come a long way since then

If it wasn't for snap, I probably would have gone Ubuntu. But I'm really glad I went Debian (and I manage about 20 Debian VMs so I know it well). I also prefer to be as Opensource as I can, especially after what's going on with Redhat and CentOS.

I will checkout linuxscoop. Thanks

I would consider LMDE but for the moment, base mint meets my needs. Right now Linux isn't my priority. But give it a few years where even the endpoint security software does not support them.... Then I'll need to figure out what to do with my old stuff...

Sorry, not my intent at all. Just pointing out that keeping everything up to date with linux was a chore when I was using it. Last time was on a raspberry pi as an ssh gateway. It worked great and used a tiny bit of power.

-David

I have been running GNU/Linux systems for years and thus the primary OS also on laptop is GNU/Linux, although I have kept a small Windows installation just in case I would need it. In recent times, the only reason to boot into Windows has been some camera firmware update software. My current laptop is already somewhat older 13" ASUS Zenbook UX305FA, which I have upgraded with a larger SSD. My choice of GNU/Linux distribution is Ubuntu, although I am not 100% sure if I like all the newest developments, but then there is often some options to avoid some of these (like I do by running Unity desktop instead of the default GNOME) and I certainly don't want to spend too much time reconfiguring everything while I already have reasonably well working setup. When I first started using GNU/Linux at home, my choice of distribution used to be Debian, although then at some point the more polished desktop experience on Ubuntu lured me to change.

Mac port(s) is not "factory" but installs fairly easily. Most, but not all of the packages you can "apt-get" seem available to "port install"

The officially Apple line is probably that their App Store is their package manager.

Mac, Linux, WIndows. All 3 have holes the others fill. Running 2 of the 3 tends to get you most of the way.

Ran Debian for many years, forget the version. Somewhere around sid. Have a couple of raspberry pi's - great little headless systems for tinkering.

I've run LMDE on some old laptops over the years and I really liked it. I think all desktops have their advantages/disadvantages. I've tried Gnome, xfce, cinnamon (mint) et al, but now I've settled on KDE Plasma. I think I like KDE mostly because of the customization aspects, great community, and they have a wealth of great apps.

For the older systems, most likely Cinnamon or XFCE (they could likely handle KDE, but extra resources are always good). I really want to set up one of my linux boxes as a faux macos box. I've been getting a lot of the "I'm calling from Microsoft and your box is attacking our system and we think it's hacked" calls lately.... so having VMs with Windows and macos just to string them along would be nice.

I work for a Linux OS vendor and my desktop machine is pure Linux and I've used linux as a daily driver for over 20 years at this point.

in the past I had laptops (thinkpads mostly because the old IBM thinkpads were rock solid) that were linux only machines too. Mostly Ubuntu or Red Hat, but I also used Puppy and DSL and Crunchbang on my little sub notebook sized machines (Ideapad).

My current laptop is a MBP and I run OSX with two Linux distros in Parallels VMs. I'll keep OSX because I do a fair amount of photo and video editing and the tools on OSX are just better in every regard (yes, I've used things like Darktable, GiMP, and others but none of them come close to tools like Capture One or Lightroom or Photoshop or Luminar.

but I'll always have Linux running somewhere. For work it is my daily driver OS and l, as I said, has been for well over 20 years.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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.

MacOS, Windows, Linux.

None are perfect.

Sometimes you pick for the unique features.

Sometimes you pick to avoid the unique bugs.

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.