I bought and returned an AMD Framework. I knew what I was getting into, but the build quality + firmware quality were lacking, sleep was bad and I'm not new to fixing Linux sleep issues. Take a look at the Linux related support threads on their forum.
I've been using AMD EliteBooks, the firmware has Linux happy paths, the hardware is supported by the kernel and Modern Standby actually works well. Getting one with a QHD to UHD screen is mandatory, though, and I wouldn't buy a brand new model without confirming it has working hardware on linux-hardware.org.
If you look online, HP has a YouTube channel with instructional videos for replacing and repairing every part of their laptops. They are made to make memory, storage and WiFi/5G card replacements easy, parts are cheap and the after market for them is healthy.
I've also had good luck with their support, they literally overnight'd a new laptop with a return box for the broken one in a day.
We have Elitebooks at work and can confirm that the 8x0 series, at least until G8, has superb Linux support out of the box (and I run Arch, by the way). IME it's actually better than Windows, since both my AMD and Intel models have had things not working on Windows (the AMD still often hangs during sleep).
> Getting one with a QHD to UHD screen is mandatory
But I have to ask: are those screens actually any good? Ours have FHD panels, and I have not seen a single one with a decent screen.
There are roughly two categories: either the el-cheapo screens, with washed-out colors (6 bpp panels on a 1500 EUR laptop!) and dimmer than the moonlight through closed shades, but they have usable angles; or the "sure view" version with very bright backlight, usable outside (not in direct sunlight, of course) with, on paper, ok colors (specs say 100% sRGB) but laughably bad viewing angles (with the sureview off, of course) and, in practice, questionable color fidelity.
These are also fairly expensive, around 1500 EUR, and the components are of questionable quality. The SSDs in particular are dog-slow (but they're very easy to replace).
I have two 5-year-old 840 G8s (one Intel, one AMD), and they have both held up fine, but I usually don't abuse my laptops (my 2013 MBP still looks brand new aside from some scratches). However, looking around at my colleagues' laptops, they tend to fall apart, and I can count on one hand the ones still in good shape. The usual suspects seem to be the barrel power connector and the keyboard. Newer models only have USB-C AFAIK (mine have both, but came with a USB-C power adapter in the box). But they tend to look pretty bad in general, with very misaligned panels and fragile USB ports.
> But I have to ask: are those screens actually any good? Ours have FHD panels, and I have not seen a single one with a decent screen.
Yeah, I brought up the screens because the FHD screens are not good and there's a chance you might end up with a SureView screen. The QHD screens suit my needs, they support HDR and higher refresh rates. I'm not a designer or someone who can speak to color quality/contrast/etc, though.
I eventually had an issue with the keyboard on a G8 model, a key popped off 3 years into using it, but I've also had that same issue with the keyboard of every laptop I've owned including every MacBook from 2006-2018, so the problem is likely me.
> These are also fairly expensive, around 1500 EUR, and the components are of questionable quality. The SSDs in particular are dog-slow (but they're very easy to replace).
I buy them on the consumer side when there's a >60% off sale, I would not pay the sticker price for them, and get them with the intention of replacing the innards so I spec them out with the least I can.
If you don't care about new, if you buy Ebay open box/refurbished Elitebooks, you can find recent ones for a few hundred bucks with HP support for a year or more. The overnight laptop replacement I got was for a refurbed Elitebook I bought on Ebay and HP replaced it without question.
> Yeah, I brought up the screens because the FHD screens are not good and there's a chance you might end up with a SureView screen.
I actually prefer the SureView to the regular one for code / office work because it's much brighter and usable outside in the summer if there's shade. The other one needs to be at least at 80% brightness inside to be usable. Then again, it's OK in the dark, so YMMV.
> I'm not a designer or someone who can speak to color quality/contrast/etc, though.
Right, but those panels are quite bad, so I think it's good you've advised people to steer clear of them. Then again, some people don't care, so they could save a buck or two. Lower resolution is also easier to deal with for people still running X11 and multiple screens.
> I buy them on the consumer side when there's a >60% off sale [...] you can find recent ones for a few hundred bucks with HP support for a year or more.
Huh, I dind't know they got so low even relatively new. I was looking for some sff desktops on ebay the other day, and previous-gen ones weren't much cheaper than brand new current gens (I was looking in the EU).
I think for people who don't care about "great" screens but do care about Linux support these are a really great deal, especially if you don't expect to abuse them.
I'm generally very happy with my 845 G8, I only ever hear its fan when compiling. The only thing it's missing is thunderbolt, but AFAIK this wasn't available on AMD CPUs at all at the time.
Lenovo T and X series are excellent and cheap as dirt used. There is also System 76. Or you could get a MacBook and boot Linux on that. Some older ones work well, I hear.
> Or you could get a MacBook and boot Linux on that. Some older ones work well, I hear.
Is linux support on the M1/M2 models as good as linux support on x86 laptops? My understanding was that there's still a fair bit of hardware that isn't fully supported. Like, external displays and Bluetooth.
I use an old Lenovo AIO PC to dual boot Linux Mint and Windows 10. It works well from a hardware and firmware perspective, but I've deliberately avoided Windows 11 as it is crapware.
I have done triple booting of MacOS, Linux and Windows on an old Mac Mini, and it was a nightmare to get them working, but worked well once set up.
I think well known brands and models of PCs are better for such alternative setups, rather than obscure PCs.
They don't. I don't know what they're talking about, but I've had fewer problems with linux on my framework than weird stuff on my OSX work machine. And I'm running Alpine on my framework, so if anything should be wonky it's this one.
I've used Dell Inspiron laptops in the past, never had a problem. WiFi, multimonitor output, bluetooth, etc all work out of the box with Debian or Ubuntu.
I've had very few issues with Lenovo and Toshiba. They're generally somewhat repairable. EliteBook and Z Book from HP seems fine for Linux too, but I've never had to fiddle with hardware except that I once removed a battery from an EliteBook.
