Linux Laptops

[Nefarious]

I've been using a Dell XPS L421X with Linux for a number of years and it's not been a great fit, but I believe this is largely because the laptops itself has a number of issues*.

I had a quick look on the Dell website, they only seemed to offer 13" and 15" these days and it looks like they only sell their Ubuntu specific laptop over the phone.

I like the metal body of my current laptop and the shameless rip-off of the Apple design but it's time for a change - any suggestions?

* noisy fans, even when just browsing, wifi sucks big floppy donkey parts, the track-pad is all over the map and the battery is terrible.

 

[thenewoc]

Depends what you're wanting to use the laptop for?

The greater the intensity of use for demanding applications, video editing etc = higher spec hardware.

Once you know what your hardware requirements are you could also look at laptops that have Win 8.1 with bing as these shouldn't be carrying much if any price overhead for being supplied with Windows. Then just install your preferred flavour of Linux or possibly consider a Chrome Book depending on what software needs you have.

My brand preferences in this area are Lenovo, Asus, Samsung and Medion as I like the island style of keyboards these often use and have found these brands in general to have had some competitively priced models when considering the combination of build quality and hardware specs offered.

 

[Nefarious]

I know that Linux is very good at providing nearly universal support for a lot of hardware but was hoping that there would be recommendations of laptops that had better support.

Ideally I would like to have a laptop ship without OS but I'd especially prefer without Win 8 because it's an appalling mis-step by M$ and I'd rather not give them any encouragement but am well aware that the laptop market is geared towards bundled sale.