this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
33 points (90.2% liked)

Linux

47958 readers
1479 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I’m trying to downsize from an aging gaming laptop to an ultrabook I can use for writing, web browsing, and JavaScript / Python web development. I understand an ultrabook will be a downgrade in the performance department, but I don’t need all the performance my current laptop offers.

I’ve been looking at ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 machines and they seem like a good sweet spot of price to recent parts/repair-ability. Anybody have other suggestions for Linux ultrabooks? Needs to be <$400 USD.

PS. For more intense tasks, such as training language models, I plan on renting cloud compute as I don’t have the space for a deep learning machine at home.

edit: meant under $400, I am a dumbass

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, while I presume you meant to say less than 400$, if you really did mean more then I would highly recommend getting a Framework laptop. They are amazing fully repairable and upgradable ultrabooks, and they have mostly excellent Linux support (you can even buy them without windows preinstalled!). I've had one for several months now and it's been great.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I honestly love the idea behind the Framework laptops. If I had the cash that is what I would buy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, Framework definitely needs to eventually make a less expensive device (right now they aren't really price-competitive), but they are a small company with very limited resources, so it's perfectly understandable that they haven't yet. In any case, getting something like a used Thinkpad definitely still at least partially follows Framework's vision while being less painfully expensive (I had some trouble justifying the purchase at first given the high price compared to the competition, although ultimately it was definitely nessisary to replace my aging Zenbook, and it will probably age better than the competition) and would probably work well for you (their reputation didn't come from nowhere after all). Anyways, sorry for the long and somewhat rambling response (I need to work on cutting down all those parenthesis), and I wish you luck on your laptop-finding adventure!