I’m currently using an HP with Windows 11 and WSL but I’d love to switch to Linux, proper - at least just on my development machine. I’m standard LAMP, though I also would use Node and Rails, too.
I use AI and PS (though I’m familiar with Inkspot and Gimp, if WINE isn’t perfect for them), Visual Studio Code/Codium, Git, and Chrome/Firefox.
What are some of the best places to look for machines that can work for this? I’d prefer Debian, though I’m fine with Ubuntu. I’ve looked at Dell but they seem limited with what is available.
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Is it pretty seamless on a laptop you picked up from a retailer with Windows on it? Like in terms of picking right up and going after installing?
It is usually pretty seamless, but unfortunately some laptops may have some weird quirks or certain things which may not work and may require manual steps. Most common issues you might come across is with suspend/resume - it’s either broken, or it may not resume properly or may crash etc. Other issues could include audio issues, or wifi issues.
This isn’t generally a problem though with popular / “good” models, as these get picked up and fixed pretty quickly. The problem usually is with less popular models, or brand new models which haven’t been tested yet by the wider Linux community.
Good models/brands include Thinkpads, mainstream Dells (especially the XPS series), mainstream HP (especially the EliteBook series) and Framework. Plus there are laptops which come with Linux out-of-the-box, as the ones by System76 and Star Labs. HP also have the Dev One, and Dell have the XPS Developer Edition.
In general, I’d recommend going for a full AMD system (CPU+GPU) because of their better integrated GPU performance, particularly on Linux. Unlike nVidia, you don’t need to install any proprietary drivers for AMD GPUs, which increases system stability and reliability - especially when you update your system.
Fantastic; I’ve always loved Thinkpads with Windows so that’s what I’m leaning to for Linux too.