I can not recommend the framework laptop enough. Love their mission of producing a reparable and user-friendly laptop. You can even buy it without windows, to install your own OS from the get go.

old thinkpad FTW!

got a T430s for 115Euros one year ago

I would highly recommend a Framework if it’s within your budget and you care at all about right to repair. Otherwise I’d highly recommend a used Thinkpad as they hold up exceptionally. I’ve used Linux on both very smoothly.

Laptops these days do much better with Linux than before. But if you really want ~0% chance of dealing with driver issues, I’d go with System76 laptops. They’re made for Linux, and with Linux pre-installed.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I will have a look at used thinkpads or tuxedos. Scratches never bothered me.

You are all very helpful!

pickup a t440p for peanuts, can add more ram and processor if you want

Checkout Framework laptops. If they don’t do it for you, maybe try System76.

Linux is the correct (and only) choice for programmers. 99.9% of the internet runs on Linux. When you get a job, you’ll most likely deploy to Linux servers. Other people (MacOS/Winblows) will spend a significant amount of time trying to emulate a Linux environment.

My daily driver is a Dell XPS 13 9310. The build and finish is pretty good. All the hardware works out of the box.

I also used a Lenovo X1 Carbon for a few years. Also very good. I think the speakers sounded better on the X1 compared to the XPS. I think at this point all the hardware is supported by the latest kernel. When I had it, I think I had to wait for microphone support because the X1 had some fancy array of microphones. Eventually the software support caught up though.

Not recommend: I’ve also tried a System76 laptop. I quickly returned it because the build quality felt super cheap and I had a dead pixel. I also didn’t like that the power adapter was a barrel plug. (Although, yes, you can also charge with USB-C, but then you still have a useless barrel plug.)

Not recommend: Framework laptops. They seem cool, and they are, but the build quality is not as good as the XPS or the X1 Carbon. Also, the biggest reason to avoid Framework is due to the poorly supported HiDPI display. This goes for all laptops, by the way.

Finally, I’d also like to mention to be successful in Linux, you have to adopt a different mindset too. If you go into Linux expecting MacOS or expecting Winblows, you’re going to be disappointed. Linux is Linux. It’s great for computer science. It’s not great for video/image editing, music production, gaming. Sure, technically you can find a way to run those apps, but it’s not going to be the best experience. Similarly, it doesn’t make sense for me to go to MacOS and complain that I can’t use systemd or LUKS.

tl;dr

• Linux is the right choice, can’t avoid it.
• I’d recommend the Dell XPS 13 or the Lenovo X1 Carbon.
• Avoid HiDPI displays (unless you want to debug issues and still end up with slightly fuzzy apps)
• Avoid NVIDIA
• Different tools for different jobs

Consider the Framework laptops!

Don’t make the same mistake I did and get it with a good CPU. Good CPU bad GPU far outweights good GPU bad CPU

g14 6800s open box is 800 atm at bestbuy , if you’re in the US I don’t think that deal can be beat.

But we’d need to know your budget, and some more of your requirements to help more.

If you dont care about gaming, then an old thinkpad would last you the rest of your life.

if you are from the EU i can recommend Tuxedo Computers. they have a wide range of laptops to fit your budget, and among those a lot of customisation options.

the only downside about mine ive noticed, would be that the keyboard legends seem to wear a bit faster than normal. then again that is because they are laser etched, which means for a small upcharge they will put whatever you want on there.

I’ve used pre-owned corporate thinkpads for years. At least in here we have multiple of stores to purchase previously leased (and since wiped+inspected) laptops for quite cheap (your definition of cheap may vary). Just now I have one waiting at the post office, T495 for 299€. Granted that’s never been a top line model, but it’s well sufficient for my usage and it’ll happily replace the old x240 I’ve been lugging around.

I’ve ran them with ubuntu/debian, dualboot and pretty much every combination. They just seem to work, altough there may be more or less hiccups specially with keyboard lights and (to me) minor things like that. Networking, hardware itself, suspend and everything else just works. And there’s mountains of information on various wikis etc to check before purchasing.

any recent laptop (or even older stuff) would work pretty well with linux. just make sure that you can have access to the BIOS or UEFI. I personally like AMD hardware, but Intel and Nvidia work just as well.

if you can afford it, System 76, Framework, or other linux first manufacturers are nice, but otherwise any normal laptop should work.

If you’re bringing it to school, consider the weight and size, also the backpack you’ll put it in. Big screen is good, but more annoying to carry around. I have a tiny 13" that I bring between home and work, which works great, because apart from meetings, I never actually use the screen. Might consider the keyboard too, but unless you go apple, I feel like laptop keyboards are always gonna be “eh”

Guild Wars 2 works without issue, though if that’'s specifically what you want to play, Guild Wars 2 works better with a good CPU and an SSD, whereas the GPU would be good but doesn’t need to be great. That of course depends game per game, just I know that Guild Wars 2 specifically relies a lot on the CPU, and without a SSD it will stutter.

Thinkpads are absolute tanks and support Linux quite well. Would shy away from the T470 and T480 though. The touchpad on those isn’t really well implemented. If you don’t care about reliability my Surface Laptop Go does Fedora Silverblue 38 really well.