I found this old post:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6714192
but I was hoping someone might have a more current recommendation (although the laptops from that post still look pretty good a year later).
I would suggest to check out E6540 in Dell outlet, they have 20% to 30% coupons frequently http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySea....
This is coming from somebody who also has a 2014 Retina Macbook Pro, absolutely don't care for it, I keep it closed in the corner of the room and do remote desktop when I need something Mac specific.
If you are just getting started with Linux then I would suggest to start off with Ubuntu or read up on different distro's. (If you are coming from Windows or Mac, all linux distro's will require some level of tinkering, they just vary on degree.)
I actually plan on buying another this year for both development and gaming, but I'm rarely somewhere without a plug for more than a couple of hours at a time.
Re: Arch maintenance, a daily 'pacman -Syu' will usually keep your system running healthy. Arch does not like to be ignored for too long. ^_^
Checkout zareason and system76.
The rig is now 4-5 years old has 12GB RAM and a 2nd gen i5 in it and this thing FLIES. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Skype, and tons of browser tabs it does not miss a beat. You can prob pick this version up for $3-400 or a new one for $7-800 I beleive they all come installed with Windows but this model very *nix friendly.
Has a good deal on eBay right now for $799
(I'd been using MBPs exclusively for several years when I bought the W530 (in May 2013), hadn't touched my MBP in over a year and finally got rid of it a few months ago.)
