I’m in the market for a new Linux laptop. My current machine is a 2018 i7 with 64GB of RAM, a 4K screen, 1TB of storage, 2x USB-C and 1x USB-A.
I’m looking for something that can match my current specs but brings great battery life, modern Wi-Fi, and a fingerprint reader. I don’t have to have 4K, and may actually prefer lower resolution for the battery savings.
I’d love to hear some recommendations for a machine built within the past 12 months. Thanks in advance for your feedback!
If you like open source bios and trackpoint along with hot swappable mechanical keys, then take a look at System76 Virgo.
I like the idea of a System76 machine, but have never used one IRL. Nor do I know of anyone who has one. As a result, I’m hesitant on making the leap without some level of expertise/experience to back up the decision.
I’ve owned a few System76 laptops and they never seemed quite right. I’ve bought three, one I returned for no fault of theirs, I just thought it was far too big. The second I have had for 5 years, but it’s nearly dead now. Graphical glitching, might be as simple as a loose cable, but I have found the time to try to fix it. This laptop also has an issue where the keyboard drops keystrokes frequently enough to drive you mad, but not so frequently that they were able to warranty repair. Finally, I recently (2022) purchased a new one that I had I’ve had to send a back due to hardware issues immediately out of the box. They do have very good customer support, but it’s a shame that I’ve had bad experiences with the hardware itself. It’s been a while, but I’m still gunshy about pulling the trigger on System76 again.
This is the kinda thing that concerns me. I don’t want to get to a point where I’m unable to use the machine after spending the time to migrate to it.
I wouldn’t use one. They made PopOS, and it’s just crappy Ubuntu with a bunch of garbage changes.
I wouldn’t expect this in the next year at least.