[xando]

This is kind of interesting for me. I'm trying to find for myself a proper Linux machine. Right now on Dell e6410, a bit regret that I bought it. In my opinion nearest to the ideal developer machine on Linux is Lenovo X1 or X220.

Screen 13": is enough, even 12" is enough. If you are kind of developer who moves his behind from meeting to meeting or spends some time on plains or conferences. 13" (max) is your choice. You can buy really cheap big monitors and plug you machine, in every place where you work.

Processor and Memory: this is out of discussion i7 and 8GB ram. Memory is so cheep those days that giving developers less than 8GB is a sin.

HDD: SSD 128. This works for me. I have external drives, as a developer I don't keep movies, games, photos on my computer.

Graphic Card. I had a rule that if I'm using Linux I'm using Nvidia cards. This probably not true any more. I've heard from people that Intel Cards work well. But still, switching screens is done decently in NVIDIA drives.

Screen: for me Glare.

Battery: should follow at least MacBook Pro 13". which is 3-4h.

Price if this will be more than 1400 $ people will buy MacBookPro.

Ubuntu: I'm using Xubuntu. Unity still keeps me angry, and as smallest as possible number of installed programs. Because I'm developer it doesn't mean that I'm using Eclipse.

[magnetikonline]

+1 to the NVIDIA requirement with Linux - when looking for a new Linux dev laptop, this was a must since I use an external monitor most of the time when docked - you can trust this will work 110% with NVIDIA - Intel GPU's have been a bit shaky with this in the past. But this might be better with newer Linux kernels/Xorg shipping with distros like Ubuntu 12.04.

In the end, I went for a speced up Thinkpad T420 with i7/NVIDIA/8GB - works really, really well.

[secure]

Uh, I can’t really second this. I’ve been using Intel graphics for the last 3+ years, and never had a single multi-monitor problem. Intels FOSS drivers (nVidia doesn’t publish FOSS drivers or even specs) support xrandr (the linux standard for multi-monitor configuration) like a charm. nVidia only offers xrandr support in the latest beta of their driver, forcing people to use their weird twinview utilities for years.

[replax]

I am actually surprised that the battery only lasts 3-4h on a mbp on linux. on the x220 i get around 6h with the 6cell battery, obviously depending on use.

[zerostar07]

X220 is really nice, as long as you use an external screen. Apart from being small, the screen (although bright) has a big aftereffect problem .