Ask HN: Do you use a Linux-first laptop? (System76, Librem, Dell XPS Dev Ed)

Re:Ask HN: Do you use a Linux-first laptop? (System76, Libre... by chrisjericho on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @11:58PM (#28217639)

Lenovo's Thinkpad series is also a good bet. Some of their laptops now ship Linux (Fedora) by default. You can get the list here - https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/linux-laptops-desktops?sort=s...

I run F34 on a Thinkpad 13" myself and have used Macbooks in the past. UX-wise it's a bit of a downgrade - The trackpad isn't as good, and is quite a but smaller because it has physical buttons. - The screen is matte instead of glossy (personal preference - but I prefer matte screens). - The Fn key is where LCtrl should be. (takes some time to get used to honestly) - Battery is good, but not Macbook good

But Thinkpads generally have pretty good customer service, good upgradability (RAM, SSD, maybe WiFi chip) and a good number of ports.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you use a Linux-first laptop? (System76, Libre... by erklik on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @12:47AM (#28217865)

> The Fn key is where LCtrl should be.

You can change that. An option in the BIOS.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you use a Linux-first laptop? (System76, Libre... by istingray on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @12:05AM (#28217676)

Thinkpad brand is legendary. The one hesitation I have is some sort of rootkit that Lenovo was installing called SilverFish (sp?). Did that come up on your radar?

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Re:Ask HN: Do you use a Linux-first laptop? (System76, Libre... by mindcrime on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @10:17AM (#28221241)

FWIW, I'll add this as a former Lenovo employee. Lenovo got their hands slapped pretty hard over that deal, and up through the time I was there (near the end of 2019) all of the people in and around my group took consumer privacy very seriously, and were very committed to making sure we never wound up making a mistake like that again.

Now... could upper management still make a decision to push something like that and make it happen? Yes, in principle. There are no guarantees. But based on observed behavior / communications that I saw inside of Lenovo I would not expect anything like that. Still, I can understand a measure of skepticism based on that whole debacle. It was a huge black-eye for the company.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you use a Linux-first laptop? (System76, Libre... by chrisjericho on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @12:54AM (#28217899)

Superfish iirc was Windows only. They broke (very loosely speaking) encryption to show you ads. But yes, theoretically a similar attack can be done on Linux too. Beating this is comparatively easy, reinstall the OS and kernel and install a clean version of some Linux distro.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you use a Linux-first laptop? (System76, Libre... by rurban on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @12:16AM (#28217723)

Long time ago.

Running Fedora on my Thinkpad after having switched away from macOS/Mac Air's. I paid €450 and it's 2x faster with 3x better SW, compared to my €2500 air.

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