Hello! I'm planning to have a small laptop which i'd like to work fine with Linux, especially with distros: Ubuntu or Lubuntu or Mint.

I've read that some laptops aren't well working with Linux so i try if anyone can help me on this topic.

Currently my limited options would be:
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Acer 13,3" Chromebook 13 CB5-312T-K9F6

Asus 14" Chromebook C423NA
Asus 14" E406SA
Asus 14" VivoBook E402
Asus 14" VivoBook E402WA

HP 14" 14-ck0826no
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Would any of these work without big hassle with these distros?

I would steer clear of Chrome OS if you can. My brother has a chrome box, and it makes windows look reliable :-(.

Prioritize. You obviously have a tight budget. That's OK. What's important to you? What does your work involve? Your list includes Arm (lower power, lower cpu power) and x86 (big battery drain, higher cpu power).

EDIT: I can't find that HP 14" 14-ck0826no. Have you a link? Links to all would be good.

I would go with the Asus laptops if I were you. They're one of the best manufacturers I've used. I still have a 9 year old X53E that's running as nicely as it was the day I bought it.

If you don't mind the dongle lifestyle, you can make most laptops work. I tend towards HP laptops, they're cheap so even if they don't work or work well, I have enough money left to buy something else that would. About the only issues I've had with HPs is that wifi and sometimes ethernet drivers SUCK. But most times they can be made to work.

I have a pinebook, and it mostly works. The wifi on the linux kernel sucks, although recent updates in arch seemed to have made it work decently. Previously only on the android kernel that it ships with did wifi work to any usable level. Not that I have much room to complain on a $99 laptop with a 1080p IPS display and a trackpad that doesn't suck. Granted +$33 shipping, and a bit of a wait list just to get one. But it's pretty and the battery lasts longer than two hours.

I had good luck with a number of Dells (but you have to get Broadcom working on the low-end Dells) and an Asus. Many of the members of my LUG swear by Lenovo, but not the low-end Lenovos.

If you want to go with a USB dongle for wifi, I can recommend the dongles from ThinkPenguin. I got one and it worked with Linux out-of-the-box.

I am leery of Chrome, if only because I don't care to run nekkid through the Googleplex. My local rag had a syndicated story today about how Alexa (I know Alexa is not Google, but same difference) is listening to you.

My girlfriend (who is in no way a computer geek, but who is a sane and savvy computer user) looked at the headline and said, "And they're surprised?"

i heard good things about fully installing gnu/linux on chromebooks via mr chromebox. have not tried it myself yet.

stay away from Chromebook if at all possible. They look nice, but can be a bigger pain then its worth for linux, from everything I've read.

How much you planing on spending? got Ebay? I've picked up two HP Elitebooks over the time, both in the US $100.00 range. intel wifi nic so it works fine. Like brand new, got upto $200.00 US if you look hard enough and at the right time, you can get some really good deals on a good almost brand new laptop. Because it was hardly ever used. One of them corporate every body gets one laptops that stay in the office and hardly, if ever get used ones. Then they do an upgrade and get rid of them.

this latest is a i5-5300u - 5th gen cpu Elitebook 840 g2 1920x1880 touch screen, 8GB RAM, $140.00 US, like brand new condition and it works too.
HERE is an example.

Getting "old tech" is not a bad idea really, as long as it is not way too old.


so searching and researching using different key words to see what ebay has on it. to me is worth it. But as it stands right now on ebay they are not even accepting there own gift cards. #&#*($&@ but that is on them, and an entire different story for some other time. Method of payment, you'd have to look in to that part of it on your end.

Acer is not bad, but what cpu are you planing on getting. atom, intel, anything under 2Ghz is going to seem slow no matter what. though if it is a net book, it can still be ran for light work. nothing major, some movies may not play as one would like due to the CPU cannot push all of that data they shove into the files now days. So it going to be stick and go when trying to watch a movie.

email, and surfing sure.

I would not get a HP Stream, from what i look into on them they are shit low end laptops. The ones I just looked at sell for ~$200 US, you're better off getting a high end HP Elitebook for around the same price. The HP Probooks too I'd say they work, but still the Elitebook out does it even though they use the same MotherBoards for both from what I've discovered.

I'd hold out some and keep looking around to get the "biggest bang for the buck". What you do is up to you.

you should look into everything about that laptop before buying it. USB Ports, what type are they and how many come with it. what type of RAM it uses, type of hdds it uses, ie. PCIe , sata, all of the different types of sdd's they have out now, mSata, pcie, etc... screen resolution, battery, older ones, if you're lucky will last over one hour, does it come with a power supply ( cord ), what ports does it have on it, etc... all of the little things like that. So you can try to get the best deal for the money spent on it. Even if it is only around $200 US.


Batteries for older Laptops, just because it says new does not mean you will get 4 to 10 hrs out of that same 'new' battery, what it is, is a new old stock battery. These types of batteries used in today's laptops, they start to deprecate as soon as they are off the press. they have to real shelf life to speak of. a new $50 battery will probably get you the same time as a new $20 battery if you buy a year old or older laptop. that is just fyi to keep in mind.

If you want a Chromebook I would personally only recommend Xubuntu. Chromebooks are notoriously picky when it comes to Linux. I have tested many distros with them and the only one I would recommend is Xubuntu because

a] audio will work as long as you employ erdnaxe's fix - even the knowledgeable Captain Fantastic could not get audio to work in Mint without extra hardware
b] it won't force updates on you, unlike Ubuntu

Ideally though, go for another type of machine. You will be very restricted with OS type if you go for a Chromebook. Mind you, it's not like Xubuntu is a bad system, but using Linux is partly about choice and freedom, and you won't get much of that with a Chromebook [see for reference my own 6+ page thread on Slackware on Chromebooks, which ended in failure].

A year plus ago I walked out of office depot with a $300 HP 15" amd laptop. On sale of course (it's always on sale, except weekends). Be sure to point them at their own website for the sale price. Six months later I walked out with another HP 15" amd laptop for $400-ish with mostly the same specs(8GB RAM, 4x 2.5GHz cores, r5 GPU). That's the retail / off the shelf price. The local TOPS (they sell used office stuff) sells thinkpads for $500-ish. It's been more than a year, but that was the price for a 4th gen i5 thinkpad. Like I said, you can make most laptops work with linux. Now out of the box and any distro, is another story probably best served with older (used) gear. If you really want linux compatibility, see if it's BSD compatible, if so, then linux is way better odds. Going to a BSD or Linux conference is one way to see what "others" are using. the Texas one for linux is near Dallas around the end of May and start of June 2019.

may I suggest going with something based on AMD rather than Intel...

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As long as you are free, this is part of my recommendations, too. In addition, just look at the component list of your future machine, get some knowledge of current models which *do run* fine with Linux and compare.

I object to recommending manufacturers, but tend to propose “procedures”. The best notebook I ever ran with Linux was an ASUS. I never preferred ASUS from others, but this one had a metal case (mostly), so I took the pain to analyze the components. All was compatible, even the network-chip was totally okay. Do I recommend ASUS, now?
NO!
In reality, my information was false and the authentic components ran fine by chance!

I have an HP notebook which should be dead right now, overheating for years with windows, but it runs and runs and runs... So, if you can get an old, used HP Pavilion dv6, it will probably be okay for most of your activities. That is an Intel Core i3, but anyway.

Recently my wife needed another notebook and we bought one of these Lenovo thingies that do not even come with a numerical pad. We chose this one solely for its low price and I did not compare anything at all and had no information whatsoever on its probable performance with Linux.

All works like a charm. Now what...
No. The best you can do is get some information on the components and try to be on the safe side. After that, do not insist on recent hardware and in case of doubt, choose the cheap machine.

I look at the components more for what I need for my personal use, and not compatibility. Other than the wifi nic. Broadcom stay away. run fast and far away from a broadcom nic. they are a bugger to get working. but they do work. mostly after installing having to do everything one needs to do to get it to work. but if you need the wifi to get the driver to get the wifi to work and that laptop is all you got to work with. well it turns into a catch 22.

USB ports, ports in general, which ones do you actually use? the VGA port, the printer PORT, the smartcard port, the display or hdmi port, the cat5 port, the sd card port (does it even have one), they have some newer than the one I got, old laptops that are using usb-c and no USB Ports or maybe just one, but I have nothing that uses usb-c. I got 4 3.0 USB Ports and wish I had a few more.

You can also nitpick about placement of ports, even the exhaust fan port, and power cable connector locations. right handed? is the fan exhaust port on right side? it keeps your hand warm in some situations if you use a mouse. Location of the SD Card reader, one laptop I have is under the usb ports which sucks when I have a usb device plugged in and need to get to the SD Card reader. They belong in the front of the laptop with nothing hindering its access.

type if ram, price of same said ram, for future upgrades. same for hdd's. does it come with a means for a second hdd? that comes in handy. pull the dvd player then slap in another hdd. buy a cable to connect the dvd to the usb port if needed. they do make them.

But one learns as they go. The more information they gather before the commitment the better.

Umm.. yeah.. whatever.... lucky you.

Long story short...

I stated to go with AMD rather than Intel as there are KNOWN issues with newer Linux kernel (4.4 onwards ?) running on Intel on-chip graphics... namely the widely reported 'flip_done timed out' issue.
Which I am currently experiencing on a Dell 1525.. meh!

+1 on that, and Welcome to LQ, fiskrond.

In addition, I'll mention that linux-laptop.net does/used to keep linux user reviews in a searchable format. So you can look up any particular machine and be warned off. These reviews vary in quality, but if you have a bargain offered, you'll have someone's experience on it.

A couple of questions, and a suggestion:

1) What is your budget?

2) Have you seen this list? https://certification.ubuntu.com/desktop/

My suggestion is the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. It comes with Ubuntu pre-installed and prices start around $800.