[lowbloodsugar]

Yeah, I'm sad we're still seeing comments like this in 2021: "I normally work using an external monitor, so I started looking at my options to configure the external display including the external keyboard and mouse."

Trying to use linux on a laptop is how I ended buying my first Macbook a decade ago.

[TacticalCoder]

People are having lots of issues too with external monitors and Mac laptops. xrandr on Linux ain't complicated and it works well.

I've got a M1 running on OS X and it's a sweet machine. I've got a beefy LG Gram laptop (24 GB of RAM, wider screen, much lighter than the M1) running Linux and it's a very sweet setup too.

The LG Gram running Linux is for the serious stuff, the M1 running OS X is to watch YouTube vids and overall surf from the couch.

Now of course the real work is done on my desktop/workstation (running Linux too but whatever).

[lowbloodsugar]

That is a sweet LG laptop you have. I daily a 2018 i9/32GB Intel MBP for work, with an eGPU and three 27" monitors. "Setup" was just plugging them in.

I've got an M1 Max 64Gb for myself, and at 4.7lbs it's just light enough given its raw power (cpu and graphics). It also handles that many monitors without resorting to the eGPU (which is a good job, since it can't use one!) Had an M1 Air before that and mostly used it with old Thunderbolt 27" display and external keyboard/mouse. But I could (and did) play factorio on it for several hours on the couch on battery.

I've always wanted to try a System76 laptop, on the basis that they'd have all that laptop-linux stuff sorted out, but Apple started making nice laptops again...

It's easy for me now to drop $4k on a laptop. A decade ago, when I switched to a MacBook I was working for myself, and "it just works" was worth it so I could concentrate on making money rather than knob twiddling. It was a stressful time, so maybe I'm still carrying that experience with me.

[awill]

What battery life does the LG get? I'm guessing less than half your Mac