Advice for a Linux Laptop in 2025
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.
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.
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
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
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)
They're a bit expensive up front, but I'm really enjoying my Framework.
I had system76 and now on tuxedo. I will buy tuxedo again...
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.
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...
StarLabs
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
If you have budget, Thinkpads can't go wrong. You can also find refurbished.
Tuxedo and Framework are also excellent choices.
I'm loving my Framework, have Mint on there. Thinkpads are also well regarded I believe
Yeah but new ThinkPads comes with soldered RAMs. Even mostly all brands do the same. I think framework don't do it
Whether a Thinkpad has soldered RAM or not is model-by-model thing. When I was laptop shopping I tried to stick to the only non-soldered ones, but they are definitely more expensive, as they are the higher-end models. I absolutely cannot wait for CAMM to, if it ever does, become a normal thing for RAM modules.
Framework hasn't done that yet. They have an event in 3 days and a lot of people seem to be thirsting for a Strix Halo main board, though.
I've been eyeing the slimbook lineup as of late. I am just waiting for someone to drop a review of the slimbook creative.
That logo on the bezzel, though
😬
Go to an electronics recycling center and get a retired thinkpad (or 5). Once they’re decommissioned by corporations, they wipe the drive and send them off to be recycled.
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.
Try Framework.
You'll get a laptop sized to your budget and you'll be able to grow with it, upgrade any part your budget will allow in the future.
Their linux support is excellent.
Yes, Framework!
It's great, works perfectly, and you support something (principals, ways) worth supporting!
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Something what won't lead to/support further enshitification of all the things.
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(And we might even get usable RISC–V laptops fairly soon - to even further ditch megacorps.)
not to be a downer but you could very likely buy a higher performing laptop than even the top framework laptop for less money than even a minimal build
That's cool. Performance per dollar isn't the only factor for a laptop.
Size
Weight
Durability
Battery life
I/O and other features.
A not dogshit network card
An actually usuable trackpad
I'm sure I could list more. But those are all things that are important on a laptop and you can't change after you buy it.
Framework laptops are not great actually. They basically are offloading their qa/qc onto customers. They routinely ship defective units new out of the box and try to make you do all their engineering work for them.
The quality of the components is meh at best. If I were doing it again, I would go the ThinkPad route.
Framework is a bunch of VC funded shills who see the right to repair movement as a resource they can exploit.
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.
Does everything work on it? Sleep/hibernate too?
Pretty sure the mic does not work if you need to have video meetings.
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
Depends on budget but if your budget is above $800 get a framework they are awesome and work great with Linux if your budget is below that look at an e series Thinkpad or used thinkpad on eBay that fits your budget
I bought a Framework laptop then threw Pop OS on it. I have no issues. They sell refurbished devices and they are modular so you can swap out whatever is giving you issues.
Have you gotten any of the mystery boxes from them?
Consider taking a look at this criminally underrated Linux-first vendor: NovaCustom. Prices aren't cheap, unfortunate. But it boasts hardware from about a year ago. Furthermore, NovaCustom takes Libre very seriously: from supporting coreboot to offering blob-free WiFi-cards.
You can get a used thinkpad T480 off eBay for ~$150. I've dropped it multiple times and spilled orange juice on it and it works perfectly fine. No issues running Linux mint Debian edition. Main drawback is the fan which isn't the most efficient at cooling, but it is upgradeable.
Used ThinkPad's are pretty common on Ebay.
They're what I use. Also with Debian.
"Recent" is a factor of how much you're willing to shell out.
$300.00USD will get you a good Debian compatible box. You may want to then replace the battery and/or add RAM. Those are both found inexpensively also.
I second used or new Thinkpads. They have good linux support. I use a p14s with arch (btw).
New thinkpads are trash unfortunately. Lenovo really cheaped out on their build quality. I've had to fix multiple lenovo laptops and one of their all-in-ones and the corners they cut made the repairs either impossible or extremely difficult.
One new ideapad had to go back to them twice with motherboard issues.
Replacing the keyboard is impossible, you need to replace the whole front panel of the case becuase the keyboard is plastic rivited in place.
The all-in-one started as a simple ram and storage upgrade, but in order to do that the whole back panel needs to come off. Its snapped on but the LCD panel itself doesn't have any subframe around it, so when opening the back panel theres a very high chance of you cracking the display.
Open source hardware
I don't like that their 14" model only comes with intel CPUs
This is the route I'll probably go when it's time for me to replace my laptop. The 14" Lemur Pro looks perfect for my use case (ultra portable) although the Pangolin looks more powerful.
DELL Latitude laptops. They're designed for work, come with repair guides from DELL, and have upgradeability. The 5310 is one of the longest-lasting laptops for battery life you can get for $200-300 on ebay (over 8 hours battery video streaming, I've done this) that still has half decent specs (16-64GB RAM upgradeable, upgradeable m.2 wifi / bt adapter, NVMe SSD upgradeable, i5 10th gen)
Runs fine on Debian Stable
Just to second that, the model series is Latitude, not Inspiron. and yeah, the i5 processor options I got over the years beat the i7 on processing power. The Precision models are a step up, but not any kind of low cost and seem not quite as tough.
I have a dell xps from a few years around and wouldn't recommend it to my enemies. Just this week it froze and crashed 3 times. Obviously all related to the stupid nvidia and hybrid graphics it has... so maybe if you can get one without that shitty piece of hardware maybe it's fine.
Latitude is my rec, not XPS. IDK why the XPS always seems to have issues.
As for "stupid hybrid graphics", my HP Gaming 15 is a few years old now and still kicking... AMD/nVidia GTX dual graphics. Only reason I had to replace a board was because the heatsink wasn't attached properly from the factory.
And yes, it is a linux laptop too.
If something supports linux-libre kernel, it supports all distros. See https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Hardware-Considerations.html
Also: https://www.h-node.org/
I'm hearing good things about Framework, provided you get the hinge upgrade.
If you need something beefier, personally I'm using a Lenovo Legion 7 (2024 version... that white one, bought it a few months ago), and I'm loving it. Linux Mint worked out of the box, but I chose to replace the stock wifi driver with a better one.
What's the deal with the hinge upgrade?
I have no first hand experience, but I read about it here recently:
https://www.projectgus.com/2024/09/18-months-with-framework-laptop/
He has another post named "20 months...etc", where he has done something tweaks and upgrades, and it's all good.
I would recommend a Thinkpad. I have an E14, you can get them for under 800 Bucks. The Linux support is awesome ,under Fedora everything works out of the box.
From experience, I recommend Tuxedo laptops. They're really good and come with full Linux support.
Lenovo Thinkpads are always a great choice. You can get N.O.S (new old stock) models at deep discounts directly from their website.
I have a 12 year old thinkpad that runs bazzite. Thinkpads are definitely rad
New thinkpads are trash unfortunately. Lenovo really cheaped out on their build quality. I've had to fix multiple lenovo laptops and one of their all-in-ones and the corners they cut made the repairs either impossible or extremely difficult.
One new ideapad had to go back to them twice with motherboard issues.
Replacing the keyboard is impossible, you need to replace the whole front panel of the case becuase the keyboard is plastic rivited in place.
The all-in-one started as a simple ram and storage upgrade, but in order to do that the whole back panel needs to come off. Its snapped on but the LCD panel itself doesn't have any subframe around it, so when opening the back panel theres a very high chance of you cracking the display.
Ideapads are trash. I only recommend Thinkpads because they are their business line. I especially like their X1 series. I also recommend buying their new old stock because you get a good deal and you can buy their excellent extended warranty service. Two years in my screen went dark. First they replaced the MB and when that didn't work, I got a brand new screen. No charge and I basically have a brand new system.
An almost exact question was asked here about 3 days ago, maybe begin there.
Almost any Windows machine with an Intel sticker on it will work so it really depends on your priorities:
I have a thinkpad t470 from some years ago as my personal laptop has still works perfectly fine. I destroyed a few things in it, like usb ports and have some scratches on the screen, but linux support has always been good. Best think It has is the hardware design that if you drop liquids on top of it then it doesn't reach the motherboard. It saved it when I dropped a full latte on top and I really though it was gonna go to the trash... Fortunately I only had to buy a new keyboard that is something easy to replace.
Anyway, I will also need to buy a new computer soon fro work and am very interested in getting a framework laptop or another thinkpad if it has things like the great feature above still in place.
Also been eyeing with extreme interest some tuxedo laptops.
These are the well known to work I guess.
I would reccomend the current configuration that I am running, It is a customised lenovo laptop that I got for little less than $390 (Not us citizen, and we have mid-high taxes, but i got roughly 5% off as student discount and another 5% for credit card payment, and you also apply the CUSTOMOFF coupon for rougly 5% more) - It is lenovo v14 G4 (you can also try to get 16 inch if you prefer that, differnce is roughly $10-20) - 2 things to note - I did not select a ram or storage upgrade - it comes with 8GiB soldered, but there is one slot free, and I added 16GiB which I already had, also I had my 512 GiB SSD, which i swapped with its 256 GiB one. If you would like to, you can get both of these upgraded for about $50 USD. Also you can choose between a 3 cell battery, or a 2 cell and a harddrive (this choice is only available in 16 inch one though).
List of upgrades that I did
Processor AMD Ryzen™ 7 7730U Processor (2.00 GHz up to 4.50 GHz) selected upgrade Display 35.56cms (14) FHD (1920 x 1080), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 45%NTSC, 300 nits, Battery 3 Cell Li-Polymer 45Wh selected upgrade
Here is a link for configurator (not affiliated or anything else)
https://www.lenovo.com/in/en/configurator/cto/index.html?bundleId=82YXCTO1WWIN1
I checked this config not available in US
You said not a high budget, and yet everyone here is saying Framework even though the they are $900 to $1,000 at the low end. To me that is not budget.
Pine64 is affordable but maybe too slow to be a daily driver, unless you feel confident finding your way through ultralightweight software and the command line and can do most of your problem solving that way.
For other pre-built options, there's Starlabs and System76 but those are similarly priced to Librem and Framework.
Beyond that I might just research Windows laptops that are agreeable to being formatted.
Whats your use case?
Was somewhat recently considering a linux laptop myself and ended up deciding the steamdeck fit my needs well.
A dock + portable keyboard & mouse for when i need to do typing or w/e, and a fun handheld console for when i want fun.
That being said, depending on what your "older" laptop is, it might not actually be much stronger, or it might be wildly overpowered for what you need.
If you're using Debian, do you really need to upgrade?
h/j
But seriously anything with an AMD CPU/GPU in it and an Intel wireless card is probably all you'll need to be mindful of, provided it fits in your budget.
Also, don't worry about touch-capable screens or HDR. The support for those is still a work in progress, and you'll likely have a bad time with them if you're using Debian.
Well, OP only specified that they'd been using Linux for about a decade; no mention of their laptops not being from the early 90s. :)
The touch screen in my 2013 laptop has been working fine since... 2013, running only Debian and Debian-derivatives.
It depends what it is you expect out of it, from what I've understood from others. If you want touch to just be a replacement for a mouse, it will be fine. If you expect multitouch to work like most tablets or phones, you'll be disappointed.
Feel free to refute that with your own experiences. I'm only speaking from second hand.
So, I saw that lot of you are agreeing that basically just a standard CPU is needed. The problem is that in some cases its not enough. Some years ago I bought a very small Lenovo Miix 320 (not a thinkpad) and it was not compactible with free software at all. The audio and webcam crashed all the time with any distro that I tried. For this reason I asked this question, I had the impression that in the last years it became more difficult to make a laptop work with free software but I cannot judge it just with this experience.
I have not had many issues in the past 15 or more years myself running Linux exclusively aside from a shorter Macbook period. Perhaps I have just been lucky.
We sported (in guessed cronological order of first buy): Dell, HP, Lenovo, Slimbook, Tuxedo, Starlabs, BTO all running Linux at our company. We have not had big issues with any except for keyboard on a Dell, Tuxedo, Slimbook and cooling on a Lenovo. Since I chose the Slimbook many have followed on the path of smaller suppliers and I think we rarely buy from the big makes now.
I have been very happy with slimbook. I came from a macbook (bad idea) with the bad butterfly keyboard and the slimbook was a big upgrade on that front. It's still not the greatest keyboard for some but I do like it. I have been wanting to buy a new one but whenever something broke or was insufficient I could either upgrade (2 x nvmeSSD slots and RAM can be replaced) or they still supplied spare parts when I sent them an email (keyboard replacement after 4 years). I wanted a framework but Slimbook has offered me spare parts as needed for longerbtham could buy a framework and the slimbook still works well. Plus it's less expensive. Replacement of the keyboard was not toolless requiring glue to be heated but I did manage to quickly do it with a sleepy head at night. I'd buy their new 13" if this one would be out of service. I'd buy one now but it feels such a waste.
Things I did not like 6 years ago: webcam and microphone of lesser quality, display nice and matte with good color rendition but lower resolution than I'd prefer, no USBC charging on USBC port. Display and USBC are resolved on the new models, no clue about webcam and microphone.
minisforum v3
My top pick for a Linux laptop would be the Dell XPS 13 9310. It's old I guess, from 2020. But the build quality and Linux support is excellent. You could get a used one from eBay for around 400USD.
Alternatively, maybe you could look for a used Thinkpad X1 Carbon. I've purchased several of those in the past and have had really good experiences with them. The hardware is great and the software support is excellent.
I would avoid Framework. I actually just switched back to the Dell XPS 13 9310 after a year of using the Framework. Linux support on the Framework is just not as good as some other laptops. The biggest con of Framework is the HiDPI display. You will never get the display to look good. You'll have to do a ton of tweaking and debugging—and you'll still have some apps that are blurry or have weirdly sized icons or text. See: https://lemmy.today/post/22761155/13770242
I haven't used the XPS 13 personally but my experience and all my friends' experience with the XPS lineup is that despite their build quality, they're quite prone to failure. On my 15, the keyboard failed multiple times, as well as one of the fans and eventually one thunderbolt port, all within a span of 4 years.
They're beautiful machines that really should be quality, but in practice for some reason they haven't lasted for me. On the plus side though, Dell does at least offer service manuals, and lots of parts can be replaced by a user (on the 15 you can easily replace fans, RAM, SSDs, and with some work you can replace the top deck, display, and SD reader).
https://kfocus.org/spec/spec-ir16.html this is an absolute gem, built just for linux. It comes with KUbuntu preinstalled but can be wiped and replaced with any flavor of linux, and all of the hardware and laptop functionality is fully supported by linux.
Framework is way overhyped and even more overpriced. Its "upgradeability" is totally unrealistic at best, scam at worst. Sure you can pop in a new USB port or display output, but that's about it before you're replacing the entire guts to upgrade it and keeping just the worn out case and screen...? Gee sounds great... Repairability is a real point for framework though. Can you still not update the BIOS on linux? Its linux support is historically not great but may have improved
You're worried about the screen being worn out? How does a screen wear out (excluding maybe oled burn in, but this aint oled). And a good chassis shouldn't show that much wear after a few years.
If the laptop is old enough to merit CPU upgrade, then its likely already experienced plenty of wear and tear. Also I never said anything about the screen wearing out, I specifically said the case. I gave credit that at least the screen would carry over
in a few years
You'd think the point of repair and upgrade would be for the laptop to exist and be used for more than just a "few years" (otherwise what is the point?) so consider the realistic and more likely case of upgrading it more than a few years from now. Its worth it to keep an old used case, especially when you are paying a premium for framework?
It's great that it can be repaired easily though and there are internal parts available for purchase, but you can also find internal parts to many laptops available if you look for them, the only real difference is ease of repair
I considered buying framework for my laptop but once I thought about it realistically, it stopped making much sense.
replacing the entire guts
That's not how it works at all though... What? The RAM and SSD are individually replaceable, and the screen, speaker system, and chassis all have individual upgrades that have been released with time too (for the 13, at least). The only "replacing the entire guts" you would do is if you replaced the mainboard for a CPU upgrade, and even then that's just the mainboard, not the RAM, SSD, etc., which is pretty on-par with, say, a desktop anyway as often a meaningful CPU upgrade will include switching to a newer platform and therefore a new motherboard.
Not saying the Framework has no issues at all whatsoever, but that's sure not one of them.
So... all the normal stuff that is normally upgradeable on a normal laptop is upgradeable for framework too? Good point...
The only "replacing the entire guts" you would do is if you replaced the mainboard for a CPU upgrade
That's exactly my point, yes. Again, the "upgradeability" of a framework laptop is unrealistic at best and a scam at worst. It's exactly as upgradeable as most laptops unless you're replacing the whole mainboard which is not very realistic. By that point there is likely enough wear and tear that it makes no sense to keep the case, keyboard, and screen... and with framework premium prices you aren't saving money on the SSD or RAM (which, no, you likely can't reuse on a CPU upgrade, most likely you'll be going DDR4->DDR5). I do give them credit for repairability, which is great, but "upgradeability" specifically is basically a marketing scam and will not make any sense for 99% of users.
I expected the downvotes on my comment because my opinion goes against the framework fanboys, but I hope my suggestion of KFocus IR16 is not discounted because of my opinions on framework. It is truly a great choice for linux compatibility