I am typing this post on a modern “Thinkpad” from 2020 where the hardware volume keys could never change the volume on Linux. But everything works more or less correctly in Windows 11, unfortunately.
What are my options for getting computer hardware, desktop or laptop (etc.), where the hardware is specifically supported under linux?
Let’s say I am wanting to plot a graph with “Usefulness” on the Y axis and “Cost” on the X axis. Then I could plot each computer on the graph, and make a decision about how much money to save up and spend for the best value that satisfied minimum requirements.
In my initial searching, I have uncovered these vendors as supporting Linux, albeit at a (usually) premium, niche price point:
- System76
- Framework
- Dell
- IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad
However I don’t yet have a good intuition for when this is true (for example my thinkpad having incompatible hardware) or where these belong on the hypothetical usefulness vs. cost plot.
Also, as I understand it, linux distros are not in the habit of “supporting” specific hardware as “works on our distro.” However in the past some have attempted to keep track of what works better than other things. I am hoping for a legitimate guarantee that the hardware I buy will not have hardware problems with the distro it supports. At least for some time.
My personal “minimum” requirements would be: feels “snappy” loading the OS and webpages/videos/media. The touchpad and keyboard are fully usable. All the hardware works correctly, and DPI/screen resolution doesn’t cause scaling issues (or said another way, fractional scaling doesn’t cause problems. Maybe this is unrealistic if I want to use arbitrary software like hexchat which is GTK2).
Let me know if I’m thinking about this in the right way or missing something.
EDIT: thank you everyone for your suggestions!
I’m no expert but I think AMD hardware works pretty well with Linux. That’s what I went with in a recent build. AMD ryzen CPU and a Radeon based GPU, installed Pop!_OS (System76) and it has been very ‘snappy’ so far about 5 months in. I don’t use a touchpad so I can’t speak to that, but Pop sounds right up your alley since the company does their own hardware too.
I’m seconding this. Admittedly it’s anecdotal, but I’ve always had great luck with Amd chipsets and especially their graphic cards both laptops and desktops. Also, this is somewhat opposite of your question, but I’ve always had better luck matching the distro to hardware rather than the other way around. In my specific instances I’ve had good luck with Red Hat based distros for hardware support (Fedora for my personal machines, Almalinux for business); specifically when handling hardware raid controllers and dedicated tpm chips.
Bought a brand new Lenovo Legion last fall. First thing I did was to nuke the harddrive and install linux Mint. Everything worked out of the box.
I did similar with an x61 thinkpad years ago and it worked a treat.
System76 manages their own distro. I would start with them.
Lenovo and others have Linux-targeted models. I would look at those. That’s not to say all think pads work well with linix, just the ones that are aimed at Linux support.
I use t series thinkpads for my business running Linux, and have for the last 10 years. I upgrade every 3 years. I’ve never had any piece of hardware in any t series thinkpad not work with stock kernels from Debian and Ubuntu.
Tuxedo computers
I’m typing this message on my Dell XPS 13 9310. I’m really happy with it, specifically the 9310 model, not other models.
- The volume, screen brightness, and keyboard brightness buttons all work great.
- Bluetooth and wifi work great.
- Touchpad and touchpad gestures work great. It’s also a decent size.
- The FHD display has no scaling issues with any apps or any distros.
- The keyboard and overall build quality feel nice.
The one thing that doesn’t work great is the webcam. It turns on and captures video… except it’s really dark. Although, I haven’t tried running Wangblows on this, so maybe it’s Dell’s fault for picking bad hardware. Anyway, I just use an Opal Tadpole webcam and that works great. Happy to answer any questions about this laptop! I use Arch, btw, with GNOME. Zoom, Google Meet, Discord video calls and screen sharing all work as well.
If you’re serious about this requirement:
DPI/screen resolution doesn’t cause scaling issues
then I would avoid Framework. I recently sold mine after daily driving it for about 1 year. My biggest complaint was the high DPI display. It will 100% cause scaling issues. You will have blurry apps and/or tiny text, 100%. People will suggest that you add a ton of config or switch distros—neither of which will actually 100% solve the issue—or use different apps—which you can’t always because alternatives may not exist. If you want to use arbitrary software like hexchat which is GTK2, DO NOT buy a Framework laptop. 🙅
I honestly haven’t had that experience at all with Framework, at least on Plasma Wayland. All of the apps I use play very nice with scaling (with the exception of apps through JetBrains Gateway, but that’s a different can of worms).
Yeah I think I will have to avoid high DPI for the time being.
https://kfocus.org/ these are really nice laptops with full linux support
To answer your initial question with a personal success story I can recommend a supplier in Spain called Slimbook.
I bought one of their Evo 14 models with Mint installed for a mate and everything worked straight out of the box.
I’m in the UK so delivery was very good but as expected with customs etc. Comms & service from Slimbook were excellent.
The machine is excellent and works flawlessly. Configuration on their site is a doddle. There are a few reviews of their machines around.
(I’ve used Linux on various machines for twenty years - currently a mini PC, an old MacBook and three HP Streams; I’ve installed linux for friends & customers.)
https://slimbook.com/en/shop/product/evo-14-amd-ryzen-7-8845hs-1492?category=62
I’ll either buy a Framework or Slimbook next. Hope that helps.
Thanks! It’s really good to hear from folks who have had a positive experience trying this.
Linux has traditionally been a “hands-on” OS. So there’s not a big market for hardware that ships with Linux pre-loaded and everything “just works.” People who seek out Linux are generally tinkerers. But obviously there is a big market for computers that just work out of the box. Honestly, I’d say this is the biggest thing holding back mass adoption of Linux: no over the counter Linux boxes to just buy and run with.
Sorry to not really answer your question, but I’m just curious what distros and kernel combinations you’ve tried on your 2020 thinkpad that don’t support the hardware keys? I never ran Linux on a thinkpad but I’ve heard that they are fairly well supported. Also, I wonder if it’s an issue with you desktop environment, which ones have you tried? I’ve seen most hardware features seem to work on KDE but many didn’t on xfce for example.As a bit of an anti-consumer, I would recommend trying a few totally different distros and DEs with the latest kernels just to be sure that it’s really not supported.
To answer your question a bit. I’ve honestly not had issues with drivers of any kind on any desktop hardware since I started using arch with KDE. I don’t even bother checking compatibility anymore. This is even true for Nvidia GPUs although there are some issue with Wayland there. For a laptop, I do watch videos of people opening them up to fix or upgrade them before I buy. If the laptop is hard to open or upgrade or if it breaks easily during the process because its only held together with plastic clips and glue then I don’t suggest you buy it unless portability is more important to you than device lifetime.
Hey thanks for asking! It looks like there may be a patch from this November that fixes it: https://www.spinics.net/lists/platform-driver-x86/msg48479.html
The problem was that the keys weren’t sending any input events, so there was nothing the distro or DE could do. But now that there has been a patch I may try it out. :)
provides refurbished Thinkpads and SFF PCs.
They each have libreboot BIOS installed, and all hardware will work with fully free drivers(no binary blobs required).
Used with a fully free distro like Trisquel, you can get a stable libre experience.
- This is not a system geared towards installing and running proprietary software packages.
I got my desktop computer from https://www.currentbuild.com/
I know people are going to hate me for saying this, but based on your stated priorities recommend getting a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. As much as I love ricing Linux and playing games, I use my MacBook Air for 90% of all my computing and coding. MacOS provides the most polished user experience out of the box (although it’s going down hill with every update they push). And once MacOS hits the enshittification event horizon you can switch to Asahi.
I suggest at least going to an Apple Store and dicking around with a display model to get a feel for the UX.
This is an example of why people make fun of fanboys. They asked “What are the best options for computers that explicitly support linux?” Lol you don’t even have to read further than the title! Completely irrelevant “answer”.
Why bother spending more on a computer with an OS you admit is enshittifying and that you’re going to put linux on eventually anyway?
Get a used Thinkpad, slap Mint on it and be on your merry way, and prevent some e-waste while you’re at it.
Next time you’re looking for a toaster, let me know; I have a bunch of refrigerator recommendations for you.
Can’t install Linux on macs anymore. They won’t boot from external drive and locks the ssd via security.
I haven’t been a fan of Mac OS for several years now, however I am kind of curious what it is like to use these days. My biggest concern with Mac OS is that the system will stop getting updates and new web browsers especially will stop working – this is what happened to my parents’ Mac systems. I guess that was an unspoken requirement – I expect with Linux that my hardware will be supported 15+ years, and I could still use it for some purposes even when the hardware is slow. With apple hardware and software they seem geared towards getting you to buy the latest and greatest hardware. And it looks like it is unclear whether or not community support and reverse engineers will be able to support the hardware in the long run.
