1w ago

Question: Laptop vendors with long-support for Linux + stylus + powerful CPU?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/50059421

I'm looking around for a laptop with these characteristics in particular:
Screen with stylus / pen (and pressure levels), but it doesn't need to be "2-in-1".
Good or above-average computing capabilities.
Long support for some Linux distribution. I emphasize "long", because for example Lenovo for its laptops supports only one specific distribution version. Recently I upgraded my Thinkpad X1C9 to Kubuntu 24.04, but OEM drivers are only available for 20.04.
Do you have any suggestions of good vendors of a laptop like that? And experiences to share?
The Thinkpad X1 Extreme was a good example of what I have in mind. But Lenovo don't produce stuff like that anymore – and again, it doesn't really support Linux long-term.
Thank you for sharing!

17 comments

What kind of vendor support do you need? Unless you buy something esoteric (like the surfaces suggested in the thread, where specific downstream linux kernel patches are required to make it work) all firmware is already backed into mainline linux kernel and it just works right out of the box.
I daily drive a thinkpad Z16 gen 2, which is basically a more modern/macbooky X1 Extreme with AMD, it ticks all your boxes:
wacom support (though limited to pressure, I couldn't figure out how to make tilt work)
kinda powerful CPU and passable GPU: I have a max spec P1 Gen 6 to compare, my poorly optimized CPU bound python tasks run a bit faster and much cooler, and the Z16 is mid spec 7840HS compared to 13900H on P1; GPU exists and is old, can't really comment since my workflow does not require a lot of graphics power
all hardware is supported right out of the box, I use NixOS and didn't have to do anything after booting my custom image
hardware in general is as good as it gets, great build quality (I have a small list of grievances like only two USB4 ports and a proprietary 135W type-c charger instead of proper PD 3.1, normal type-c charges are supported up to 100W)
has a good battery life (even on the 4K OLED version)
runs incredibly cool (fans never turn on unless you run something on the discrete GPU).
Oh wait, I remembered an idiotic thing: while stylus is supported, max display lid angle is about 135°, this does not make this a great drawing tablet and might be a deal breaker for you. The screen does not wobble though and I can somewhat comfortably draw on my slides with a pen.
- This looked really cool and more or less what I'm looking for. But it seems the Z series has been discontinued? Maybe they joined it with the T series.
  One problem in the Lenovo website is that you can't filter laptops by pen-capability. They have a "touch" search filter, but that isn't the same.
  
  I actually bought the Z16 just a few months ago to replace my aging 16" Intel MBP - I wanted good linux support, type-c charging, normal keyboard and a 16" 4k OLED screen, nothing new seemed to be comparable.
  If you absolutely need something new, notebookcheck has a pen support filter in their search. Just look for laptops without Nvidia GPUs and maybe check Arch wiki (they have device specific pages) or hardware probes on linux-hardware.org. New hardware generally has worse linux support that improves over time.
I don't have a Linux supported answer, but I have a Linux friendly answer! I've been using KDE Neon on my Surface Laptop Studio, and there's surface kernel drivers that work nearly perfectly! The only thing I'd say is troublesome is more Wayland than hardware (howdy recognizes IR camera but won't set up PAM login, touchscreen gets a lot of palm inputs, etc) but overall it's an amazing experience.
- Wow, I didn't know it was possible to put Linux on a Surface – sort of funny! :) Thank you for the great info. The graphics-tablet screen works well? No problem about Wayland, I'll use X11. Wayland didn't manage to work with the touch+pen screen of the X1 Extreme.
  
  Yeah! The midway tablet mode the SLS has varies on tablet behavior, but the transition from laptop to tablet mode works flawlessly. Those palm issues I have are easily solved by a palm glove, but X11 might work just as well. Pen support is great too. I can build Krita brushes including pressure sensitivity and even tilt angle, and the latency is unnoticable.
- I have a MS Surface Pro 9 and also use KDE. Does everything i need it to. Just to expand on this answer a bit...
  Link to the kernel:
  https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface
  There are guides in the repo for lots of distros and is easy to get running.
  
  Thank you so much for the great tip and useful info!
Minisforum V3. You should be able to get one at a great price.
- Very neat, I had never heard of this company! I see that they ship it with Windows. Have you tried some Linux distro on it?
  
  It's one of my daily drivers. Both Gnome and KDE run great. The only tweak I've had to make is for the custom volume buttons, but there's a collection of scripts and profile fixes for various things here JIC: https://github.com/mudkipme/awesome-minisforum-v3
https://frame.work/laptop12

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