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by smt88 3891 days ago
It'd be hard for us to make this decision for you. Some people feel like they really need a huge screen, some don't. You have lots of personal preferences that we don't know.

Here's a process you can follow to decide, though:

1. Find a laptop you like that's in your price range.

2. Buy the laptop, making sure it has a no-questions-asked return policy with no restocking fee (Amazon, Microsoft, and certain OEMs all have this). I think the Dell XPS 13/15 are good places to start, as Dell officially supports Linux on these.

3. Try your favorite Linux distro by booting "live" from a USB drive. Ubuntu is a good option for laptops because you can usually Google "ubuntu [insert problem] [insert laptop]" and find a forum post about it.

4. If Linux doesn't work well enough for you, return the laptop and start again at step 1. I haven't so far had any more issues with Ubuntu on a laptop than I have on a desktop, so I don't know that you'd have to do this many times. To be honest, though, the problems on both laptops and desktops were too great, and I finally switched back to Windows after 5 years. Your mileage will vary, I'm sure.

1 comments

Just a reminder regarding the Dell XPS. Dell officially supports Linux on these only on the developer editions. The Windows versions differ in things like the Wi-Fi module and are not recommended if you plan to use Linux.
> Windows versions differ in things like the Wi-Fi module

Really? That's odd. Is there a parts sheet that lets you check which module the Windows version uses?

According to ArchWiki[1] the Windows version and Developer editions use Dell DW1560 and Intel 7265 respectively.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_(2015)#Mode...