[Aheinemann]

IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad. Sturdy, replacements / repair kits available, often used by university students. Buy refurbished, max ram and swap for ssd. look for i5 / i7 models T420, x201T is a tablet pc (pen, but no touch) available in i5/i7 models. avoid the newer models / research linux compatibility first.

[xur17]

I've used the same approach for my last two laptops. Currently on a T430s. Only thing I'd add is to get a laptop with a integrated Intel Graphics card if you're not doing anything that's graphics intensive. You won't have to fight with proprietary drivers, and the built in display manager / keyboard shortcuts will work properly.

[didsomeonesay]

As for refurbished models, stay away from T410 with discrete (NVIDIA) graphics. I own one and experience nothing but troubles with the thermal design.

I am doing everything to keep the GPU from frying my fingers on the keyboard and/or causing emergency shutdowns

- got the heatsink replaced by customer service

- cleaning the fan regularly

- tune software fan control, nevermind the noise

- check and replace thermal grease

- switch away from graphics-heavy desktop environment (Unity...)

- switching off webgl support in my browser

- ...

Well now that I put it like this, I am thinking it might not be worth the whole effort :)

[fapjacks]

I have a W530 for work and it works very well with Linux Mint 17. There was a bit of trickiness with the dual graphics cards and getting it to work right on the dock to output to quad monitors, but if you're not using multiple monitors via a dock, I highly recommend the W530. Even with that little bit of work it's been an excellent performer.

[jlgaddis]

I'll second the recommendation for the Thinkpad W530, with one additional suggestion: go for one of the "pre-configured" ones, skimp on RAM and HDD, and upgrade it yourself.

I purchased mine right about two years ago (brand new from a seller on Amazon in order to avoid delivery delays when purchasing direct) and went for one with only 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB SATA HDD. I paid (separately and, again, via Amazon) $300 for 32 GB of RAM and $385 for a 480 GB SSD (and spent 20 minutes installing them) but this was much, much cheaper than purchasing the W530 with those upgrades pre-installed. I ended up giving away the "original" 4 GB RAM to a friend who could use it and (since I very rarely need or use the optical drive) I usually keep the original 500 GB SATA HDD in the secondary bay in order to keep a fresh, up-to-date backup of my data for when the SSD inevitably fails without warning.

The NVIDIA Optimus graphics system is apparently a PITA for some people but since I don't use a dock or external monitor it's really not been an issue for me. I believe I have my BIOS set to the "Discrete Graphics" setting (to use the NVIDIA card) and Ubuntu has no problems with it (I previously ran Arch Linux on the W530 with the Intel card and also had no issues).

The W530 isn't nearly as light as many other laptops (about six pounds, if memory serves) but, then again, it's considered a "Mobile Workstation" -- and with the quad-core i7 @ 2.70 GHz, 32 GB RAM, the 480 GB SSD and 500 GB SATA spinning disk, and FHD 1920x1080 15" display, it truly is!

Side note: after using MacBooks and MacBook Pros exclusively for ~7 years, I said that I'd never again buy a "PC laptop" (i.e. a non-Mac), but I'm extremely happy with my W530 (running Linux, of course) and use it almost exclusively nowadays. About a year after purchasing the W530, I sold my MBP simply because I had only used it two or three times in that year and thought I might as well sell it and get something out of it instead of letting it sit around and eventually become obsolete.