[kwlug-disc] laptops with Linux preinstalled

[Ron Singh]

I often wonder how statements from Lenovo/Fedora "Redhat employees have
been working with hardware vendors that supply components for the X1 Carbon
in order to make Fedora work correctly" are meaningful?

As far as I can tell, someone at RH installed Fedora onto a X1Cv8, had no
panics, wireless worked out of the box, video same, so...certified?

I come across some kinda jaded with these claims as I have not had any
issues with Thinkpads running Ubuntu/Arch as of the 8th get T and X series.
Only did Linux on the 7th-Gen X1 Carbon so far though.
Ditto for recent-ish HP Z workstation laptops(up to 2018 models).

If a sub-3lbs laptop is not a hard yes, there is quite a bit out there for
3.5lbs used(off-lease) T450s/T460s/T470s/X1Carbon up the Gen 5 which work
great with Linux including the current 2020 LTS stuff recently released.
The T470s is notorious for bad batteries though.

A thing that I am experiencing, USB-C connectors are horribly crappy on
every T490s/X390/X1Carbon that I have dealt with in the past year or so.
Considering that USB-C charging is all the rage these days, a poor USB-C
connector spells trouble down the road. There is some comfort in knowing
that the 9th-gen Thinkpads have replaceable daughterboards hosting the
USB-C connector, albeing with some grunting and swearing.

That said, CS Depot is a lovely local company to work with, have known Yale
since the late 80s, enthusiastic, great customer service, recommended.

Thanks,

Ron S.



On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 9:29 AM Doug Moen <doug at moens.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 4, 2020, at 1:17 PM, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
>
> If you do go with a "made for Linux" laptop, please be sure to tell us how
> it goes for you.  I'm sure other folks here are thinking about buying soon
> too.
>
>
> I did some more research yesterday.
>
> The Dell XPS 13 model 9300 (the 2020 model) can be configured with Ubuntu
> preinstalled, and lots of reviewers call the XPS 13 the best 13" ultrabook.
> But Dell Canada doesn't offer the 9300 and Dell US will not ship this to
> Canada. Even in the US, not all configurations are supported (you can't
> currently configure it with more than 8GB of RAM if you want Ubuntu
> preinstalled). So it's off the table.
>
> Lenovo just started offering the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 8 with Fedora
> preinstalled. You can configure the hardware any way you want, and they
> ship to Canada. This is the result of a partnership where Redhat employees
> have been working with hardware vendors that supply components for the X1
> Carbon in order to make Fedora work correctly. Currently it's just the X1
> Carbon, but more laptops will be offered later. The news broke yesterday.
>
> This means I can now walk into a local KW shop and buy a brand name laptop
> with a major Linux distro preinstalled, with tech support and warranty
> service for Linux from the laptop manufacturer. I think this is a historic
> first. The local shop is CS Depot on King street Waterloo, and they'll have
> to order it for you, with a 5 week lead time. This is important if: you
> want to support local business, you want a 30 day return policy that
> doesn't involve a hefty restocking fee and mailing the laptop to another
> country, and you want local warranty service.
>
> The Lenovo Thinkpad T14s with AMD Ryzen 7 is an interesting alternative.
> Compared to the X1 Carbon, it has 8 cores (not 4), the integrated graphics
> are more than twice as fast, max RAM is 32GB (not 16GB), slightly better
> keyboard, in a similar 14" ultrabook chassis, for a lower price. You'll
> need to install a bleeding edge Linux kernel: 5.6 for the graphics to work,
> 5.7 for battery reporting.
>
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