Linux

Price, used thinkpads are cheap. I know I can get parts basically anywhere too.

The first machine I ever installed with a distro was an MSI Ultrabook and Linux, out of the box, visibly improved the overall performance of the machine, with no need for benchmarking. After tweaking and fine tunning, it only improved.

After that came a long series of Asus, a few HP, one or two Dell. Always flawless installs, out of the box. The only exception I can remember of was a very specific HP model where the modem had to be manually installed.

Having a hand full of companies designing and building for linux feels like being part of an exclusive, Apple-like club; the prices are high, the choice limited.

We should be pressing the industry to recognize the linux ecosystem for what it is: a stable OS, with an ever growing user base with money to spend that want quality support for the equipments they buy.

Do any of these have:

• As nice a keyboard, that I don't have to worry about spilling a cup of coffee on.
• Track point or similar.
• Ability to survive a fall down a flight of stairs.
• 4:3 or 16:10 aspect ratio.
• Ports.
  While being built with repairability in mind?

I day dream about stuffing the guts of a modern laptop inside with a USB hub and an enormous battery, but that's a huge undertaking.

They still do a good job with build quality and I use them for work. I also use framework 13 as my personal computer, it is great and I like it but it does not feel as premium as my work laptop. It is probably a trade off for modularity though

$$$

I tend to use other people's cast-offs at work. Win 10 slow? JG gets an upgrade! I whip the SSD or M.2 or whatever I'm using out of the old one and pop it in the "new" one.

@[email protected] because of quality of construction. I have thinkpad a running Linux that are more than 10 years old and all this without vendor support. Being able to find parts even after so many years is also important.Do any of these Linux friendly vendors have similar quality and similar prices?
Whenever I think about getting one of those systems I really don’t know if the company is going to exist in the next few years.

I have some preferences in hardware (Vendors are still riding the 4k-in-laptop-size bandwagon) and Thinkpad has good customizability.

Just looked into Malibal, they have no less than WQHD currently and i get a top of the line customized Thinkpad for less than their 2000+.

Last time I was looking, they were one of the few laptops that I've seen that come with a trackpad with three mechanical buttons. Linux makes better use of three buttons than some other environments, and I like mechanical buttons.

There may be other vendors out there now that also do so.