this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023

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Linux Laptop for (student) programmer (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As the title says, I am currently learning to be a programmer, and my tablet does not suffice for the job.

I have already finished a small MEAN-Stack application for learning Typescript, learned some Java syntax (I expect nothing more exciting than a sorting algorithm, but exam language is Java, so...) and the next stop will most likely be plain vanilla C to learn about handling hardware.

Windows I hate with a passion, and I don't know squat about Macs, so I am thinking of getting myself a decently sized laptop for a sensible Linux install.

History (I started my Liux journey with SuSE Linux 4.4.1, way back when) taught me to be very wary of driver issues on laptops, so I thought I could ask you for recommendations that play fair with Linux.

(as an aside, if I could play GuildWars2 on it in the evening and attach my two big monitors when at home, that would be super cool)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

If you want to buy new (or can find one used): framework, no contest

Used, just see what's available around you on offerup/craigslist/fb market/etc then google that laptop and linux, or see if you can find an archwiki page for that model. This is what i did a while ago, i found a used thinkpad t14s for a good price, checked the archwiki page for it ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo_Thinkpad_T14s_(AMD)_Gen_1 ) and everything i cared about was marked as working, and it's worked well for me

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Don’t make the mistake I did and go with mac. Apple has great products but they used planned obsolescence to make you waste money on new equipment on a regular basis. Windows just bites. So go with a Linux laptop for sure. Your money will stretch out further for sure. Thinkpads X1 Carbón are great. Older generations have great battery life. If you game there’s other thinkpad a that have graphics carda. Thinkpads work great with Linux usually. Specially carbon x1

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Eh you can get new major version updates for about 6 years on Macs, and several more unofficially. It's nothing compared to the 20+ years you could get with Linux, but let's be honest, there's no point in keeping a laptop for that long.

If you don't need the latest and greatest MacOS, I can tell you that the 2012 non-retina Macbook Pro I gave to my mom after I was done with it is still kicking strong and still got security updates up till last year. Sometime this summer I'm gonna have to install the unofficial patch so I can get Monterey or Ventura running on it for 2-3 more years of security updates.

Now I still wouldn't recommend a Mac for a student though. Reason being, I wouldn't recommend a student get a brand new machine unless their parents are rich and I wouldn't recommend Intel Macs to anyone at this point. The ARM ones just blow them out of the water, with ridiculous performance and especially performance per watt metrics. In particular, compiling any big projects is a BREEZE with the ARM chips. But as a student that barely matters if you're mostly doing small to medium sized school projects, not compiling the Linux kernel. And afterwards it should be your employer providing you with the machine, so unless you do hobby projects of huge magnitude or work on large established open source projects, compile times on a personal machine won't matter too much.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

2012 macbook pro retinas with nvidia cards have a very fun problem where you won't get graphics due to motherboard flex when the screen is opening. This flex causes the solder to crack on the chip that provides power to the GPU. So, avoid that one... Lol.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I've been having a great time with my HP Elitebook 845 G9 which I got on sale for $950. It's crazy expensive now due to inflation but you might be able to snag it on sale somewhere. Mine came with an AMD Ryzen 6800U with 32GB of RAM and I manually replaced the SSD with a cheap 1TB one I found on Amazon. There's a FreeDOS option that allows you save $200 bucks by not buying a Windows license.

I find that the key components to check for Linux compatibility are the Wifi, webcam, and sound modules. For wifi, anything with an Intel or Atheros chip is usually supported very well

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

What's the budget? I got myself a Tuxedo Pulse Gen2 this year and am very happy with it, I have no complains at all regarding built-quality, performance and Linux-compatibility. (However, it appears they don't offer many Ryzen-notebooks anymore, I just looked and only found one model :-()

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Do you need a touchscreen for handwritten notes? My laptop can do that and I have the pen for it too and it works really well. I could give you the details of what laptop it is and what software I use if that's something you need.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Thinkpads are popular and well respected among linux users, and the trackpoint is dope as well. If you want a gpu workstation that also works for gaming, check out the P series.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Go for Framework, you can upgrade components in a few years instead of buying a whole new laptop.

even better if you can stick it out for a few months and get their new one when it releases

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Any laptop will work.

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