Like if you want one that can do your daily browsing and work, and potentially play modern minecraft on the side with my little brother. I am mostly concerned regarding issues like hardware, battery life and such compared to windows. Or is hp probook better here?
Difficult question to answer … because of hardware differences between models, and years produced, and hardware … ad nauseam.
We do have two Thinkpads in the house, but those only have Windows running (former software employer donated to us).
Also have two Dell laptops in the house (also donated by same former employer), both running openSUSE (no duel boot). Strictly a personal opinion … I’ll choose Dell over Lenovo.
I yet have to meet the first ThinkPad that has non-working hardware. AFAIK all their configurable x886 models here in NL can be ordered with Ubuntu, even saw one with Fedora 43. Plus, they support the LVFS ( Linux Vendor Firmware Support ).
Also, my impression overall is that the ThinkPads are the de facto standard for linux devs. And my advice to “my local usergroup”.
I would though strongly advice against Acer and ASUS’s consumer laptops. They are known for breaking the simple rule that Model X should always and everywhere come with the same hardware, so the buyer has no guarantee that their Model X is the same as the nextdoor neighbour’s Model X.
Experiences with some Dells are OK generally, but I have met models where the user tried all they could but ended up using a USB Wifi dongle. Same goes for the HP laptops.
But, to stay OT, yes. You should be fine with a ThinkPad.
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Indeed, re: ASUS I am running two ASUS machines, doing just fine. But, I have seen the differences you mention in other ASUS PCs I have run across. As for Acer, my machine was great, up until it went completely dead after a few years, shortly after warranty expired. I saw online that tons of other people had the same sudden death as I did at about the same time I did, on the same model. I can only speculate, but it felt to me like pre-planned obsoletian. (LOL, probably not a real word).
Since this was a premium model, which I payed premium prices for, II have not touched any more Acer products.
I guess you’ve met one now, @knurpht ! I have a Lunar Lake ThinkPad and Linux support hasn’t been the best, the webcam doesn’t work yet, but there’s patches coming in 7.3 (Fedora backported them to 7.2 but it hasn’t been working great for me, I built the 7.3 rc with the same issues). Ubuntu has a working repo too but it’s not at parity with Windows.
I also had a regression with gaming performance just on openSUSE but it was fixed really quickly with a bug report, which I appreciate!
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