What do you folks suggest?
Rather not have to pay it, but not anything crazy relative to the price of hardware.
I believe there are also Dells that you can buy that don't come with Windows preinstalled.
They're as thick as a Tolkien book and weigh several pounds. They don't have 4K screens. If those tradeoffs are acceptable to you, they excel on pretty much every other metric. They use high-quality standard parts; Linux drivers available for all devices. The design has a high degree of modularity/repairabiity; they're even more field-repairable than Thinkpads. And of course they really are fairly rugged; I can vouch for their being toddler-proof.
It's easy to get these configured for craft personnel; the one I'm using now has RS-232 and MM fiber interfaces... not to mention VGA and SmartCard. No dongles here!
Not to mention all kinds of standard security features... hardware kill switch for the radio; Fn hotkey to immediately blank the screen; quick-release HD cage so you can take your disk with you when you go to the restroom.
They're great machines.
Regarding its ruggedness, at least for this model, it makes the computer more comfortable than the average laptop, IMO. I don't have to worry about putting too much pressure on the screen, for example. This is semi-rugged though. There are some really rugged toughbooks that are uncomfortable.
The RAM can be accessed by just removing 1 screw.
How much battery life do you need as minimum?
Do you need a discrete gpu? Nvidia or amd?
Screen's inches? Fullhd is enough or do you need 4k?
Is it important for you that hw parts are easily replaceable?
Budget?
- The screen can be full hd or 4k is fine.
- With regards to the GPU intel integrated is totally fine.
- Min 5 hours battery life
What distro?
Do you need virtualization?
Are you looking to just have access to bash and unix-like tools?
Windows and Chromebooks fill most of my software needs for Linux... I push whatever else to a cloud, or switch to a more dedicated tower/rig for horsepower.
In the past I have used Dell Inspiron and HP Pavilions and they were excellent Linux laptops and almost everything worked out of the box. Dells, Thinkpads and most HPs in general have pretty good linux compatibility. You can also install Linux on your Macbook pro if you are okay with the hardware.
Their support was superb, but I havent tried that out in a long while...
However - I would still use them in the future...
But, My next purchase for a linux/windows dual boot machine is going to be the Lenovo Y545 -- It has all the guts I would need on both platforms and the price is fantastic. I checked out the case at Costco the other day and it feels solid. ($999 at costco)
For my day-to-day Linux needs it has been great. I get all my apps/streaming through the play store, and all major SW for Linux works for my coding (VS Code, GIMP, Android Studio).
The current downside: I can run vms on the box (but I likely could run Docker...maybe?), But there's SSH for that.
Mainly it's a drag that the mouse-lock feature hasn't been implemented. So I can't play Minecraft. XD
It took a lot of thermal modifications to get it working as a professional machine.
If I could choose again, I'd trade the x1's battery life for x1 extreme size and performance.
I've had a very good experience with Thinkpads. T480 with Ubuntu was a pleasure to use and you can get it almost anywhere in the world.
Always get a pro-grade laptop, not a consumer one. Consumer laptops have hughe price competition, are difficult/cannot be upgrader.
