Laptop recommendations
 

Due to work reasons, I've spent the last couple of years predominantly using other operating systems. I must say I rarely booted into linux.
One of the laptops that still had an installation of Slackware has died on me. Looks like I'll be back to doing some coding, which'll let me spend more time in linux.
Can you recommend a laptop with a good hardware support for the latest Slackware?

I remember in the past lots of people were swearing by Thinkpads T40s, which I could probably live with in 2019 if not for a battery life.

Any recommendations of more modern laptos with out-of-the-box hardware support?

Thank you

Well if you stick with a ThinkPad you cannot go wrong. I run Slackware64-current on a Lenovo ThinkPad T460 for 3 years now, and it flies.

Lenovo seconded.
All running well with -current:
T480
X270
X220

I've been using ultranotes (clevo's) put together by pcspecialist to my own specifications: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/ultraNoteV-15/. I opted for these models because no external graphics problems, great processor options, great weight for in a backpack (I cycle with it sometimes for two hours to get home), and sturdy (it survived one nasty crash). I am on my second ultranote now, these models gave me great bang for the money (my first one is still operational, lasting for over 4 years); I ordered them with 3 yr guarantuee - had a screen repaired once which went smoothly. They don't mind you putting different hard drives or memory cards in than they offer (as long you get something in for them to test the machine). You pay for the components not the branding....
Oh yeah, running current, you can install what you want once you wipe the test-windows

I have a Thinkpad T430, which I think is the model a few years older than Alien Bob's. I have no complaints with it, though I haven't looked at the new models.

If you don't care about 3D graphics for games and don't mind the fingerprinter reader not working, this ASUS K570ZD-ES55 isn't bad. Don't try to recharge it on an American Airlines plane if you're not in business class (I don't know if it would work there either); the charger draws too much current.

The major drawbacks to it is that adding an SSD or upgrading the RAM will invalidate the warranty. You have to unscrew the entire bottom to add an SSD and you must unmount the motherboard to get to the RAM slots. There are YouTube videos that show you how.

See this post for other information on that system.

I don't use Laptops very much but I was powerfully affected by security concerns over MCH in mobile gear so I looked for and bought a far more ancient Thinkpad than most would even consider - a T60P which I bought used for ~90 bucks. I had to get the firmware blob for the wireless chip but that's the only addition to any vanilla kernel. It runs 14.2 64 bit extremely well partly thanks to the nVidia Quadro graphics.

Depending on your needs and the use case of your laptop, it may be worth knowing even such ancient Thinkpads still work quite well with Slackware. If you have more than casual concern over security you might find this useful if not just a tad scary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcwngbUrZNg

I have a ton of Dell's that work, and have had a ton of past Dell's that work well.

Depending on the price bracket you're looking in, E7440/E7450 work very well, are new enough that they're still attractvive, can be had with a nice 1080P LCD, and are absolutely great with linux.
A little newer and a 2-in-1, if you don't mind that the keyboard is extremely meh, the Latitude 3379 works out of the box other than the accelerometer (may be possible to get working, I never have tried).
Other 2-in-1's that work well IF you verify what wireless they have before buying are Inspiron 5368/5378. But if you can't get the wireless card information before getting one, I'd probably avoid it. While the broadcoms WILL work nowadays, the performance isn't that great, and it's more work than they're worth.
For newer, the 7480/7490 (no more E) is fantastic. I LOVE my 7490.
The Latitude 3500 for a brand new (value level) business machine is surprisingly good. Requires a fairly modern kernel for the decent ones (NVMe drives and Intel 9560 wireless), but otherwise works out of the box.

A few alterantives for you to maybe consider.

I've had good luck with Dells, but the ones I've used had Broadcom wireless, which works with Linux, ,but which usually takes a couple of extra steps to get working. I also once had an Asus that worked very nicely with Linux.

Many of my LUG members swear by Lenovo, except that I understand the Yogi line is not a good choice for Linux.

In the UK, Entroware offers native Linux machines (they sponsored a podcast I once listened to).

I'm running Slackware64-current on a T410 and two T420 Thinkpads. They're older units, but, they work very well indeed with XFCE.

I opted for a Dell XPS13 back in 2015 since they were shipping with ubuntu and had decent hardware support, although I bought the windows 10 model and wiped that since it was cheaper than the ubuntu preinstalled version, go figure.

It has worked great up until early 4.19.X kernels when a bug in the broadcom brcmfmac driver popped up, causing intermittent crashes with my BCM4350 card. I currently have that worked around by disabling wifi power management and I'm hoping that the bug will be addressed but its been over a year now. If you go with Dell just beware of their broadcom cards. I have been tempted to replace the card several times now.

For Dell, that's why you get Latitudes. Business line = Intel wireless. You can get Intel on the Inspiron and XPS lines, but the entry level models don't include it, and often it's difficult to tell WHAT card it actually does include. As to replacing the card, Dell doesn't white/black-list cards, so it'll cost ~$15 to replace it with a good Wireless-AC Bluetooth 5.0 card off ebay.


Yogas are...ok with linux. I've had 3 Yogas. A 700 11, 710 13, and a 3 Pro. The 3 pro FUNCTIONED fine, but never could control the keyboard backlight and suspend plain wouldn't work. The 700 11 worked almost perfect except suspend, and the same for the 710 13. All 3 had Atheros wireless, which anymore seems to work really well.

Last time I purchased a laptop, it was from System 76. Pretty nice laptop, especially once I got Ubuntu off of it. :D

You can find hundreds of off lease HP 8460p/8560p laptops on eBay for cheap. Throw a SSD in them and they are still very capable machines. I have bought three used ones for myself and friends. Slackware works 100% on them. Only down side is finding one that isn't cosmetically damaged in someway. Also you want to try to find one with the dedicated ATI graphics chip.

I personally use Acer E5-475G-52GU and it's working great here. In the past, i used different brand (ASUS) and it's also working fine with Slackware-Current (i never play with stable on my laptops)