I’m considering buying a laptop from Tuxedo, but I’m in Australia and I’m not sure how bad that idea is. Does anyone have experience or recommendation? I would not buy from any american company though. Is there a risk to not go through the country, or that I would have to pay a massive tax on it?
I bought 2 lenovos before. It seems to be getting worse for Linux and Amd. My first one was awesome, the second one had so many issues and I have to use a usb wifi and blacklist the internal one, so I probably want to skip lenovo this time, even if I have to pay a lot more.
if your concern is hardware support then buying from a Linux installed company like Tuxedo is a good idea. If following from that your concern is hardware failure or part availability ask a local repair shop their opinion, they’ll tell you better than us.
If you buy from buy brands, e.g. Lenovo, then in my experience checking online forums for the exact model is enough.
FWIW I’d also consider Pine64 (geographically closer to you) and a RPi5 seeing your power consumption concerns but that implies no very demanding workflows.
Dell is good for Linux (especially Latitudes and Precision models). They’re also relatively reliable and build quality is great (if you ignore the stupid XPS-s).
For laptops, you have https://linux-hardware.org/. It’s also better to avoid MTK network cards(many are still fine). Otherwise, I think linux support is good for mostly all hardware.
Lenovo’s ThinkPads are still as good as any other models.
I did have a cheap dell netbook in the past and it’s true I didn’t have issue with any driver. But it I have an option outside of usa I would prefer.
About the site, l keep getting ‘too many requests’ error. I’ll keep trying. My network card is qualcomm. Apparently a common problem with people who have this model.
My lenovos are thinkpads, and the second one I had was far from as good with Linux compared to the first one.
I run a Slimbook as an American. I chose it because it was hard to find a powerhouse laptop with ANSI keyboard layouts. The keyboard was the only reason I did not go with Tuxedo. It’s fine. Not good, not great. I think my previous System76 had better integration with the hardware. However, I like the aluminum shell on the Slimbook more for daily abuse.
I did not have to pay exorbitant taxes to import. But your mileage may vary.
This company https://slimbook.com/en/kde?
They seem to have everything I want. Multiple drives, sd card, lightweight, etc. I just can’t find the actual power requirements.
Which one did you get? What are you not happy with on the hardware integration? And do you know what happens if you need warranty?
The only think I don’t like is that this AI 9 365 seems to be just slight better than my current one, Ryzen 7 7840U, so many years later, while much more expensive. But I guess the days of getting twice the performance every 2 years died a long time ago.
It has “AI” in the name, so that makes up for the lack of real improvement /s
Edit: further researching, it seems that although the performance is not much better, the power consumption is much higher. That seems to be the case for all this new “AI” stuff. So maybe I’ll keep with my problematic lenovo that doesn’t require a new solar panel…
I got a Titan with expanded drives. I increased the RAM size myself which was inexpensive at the time. I wanted a laptop capable of large CAD projects and other nonsense that I have to do for work.
The PSU brick is a 19.5 V supplying 230 W. I have a dock which supplies power over USB-C, but that seems to act only as life support. The computer needs a lot of juice. However, it it pales in comparison to my desktop computer requiring a 1kW psu to boot. Your frame of reference may be different from mine.
Hardware integration is fine, but not perfect. I have had trouble with their built-in core priority scheme which seemed to struggle with eco mode. I tend to leave it docked at one of my workspaces though, so I leave it on high CPU mode.
With my docks, I run 2 screens in Ultra HD quite easily in addition to the laptop maxing at 2560x1440. This includes when I do something stupid like compile code with a CAD drawing on another screen while watching shows in a browser with a million tabs open.
I run into weird challenges with the hardware that might be only specific to me. E.g., I hate black metal laptops because I do a lot of field work. Summer means burnt wrists. But, this comes with the territory of a laptop targeted for gamers. This may be relevant depending on how far in the outback you are with that solar panel!
The speakers suck, but that’s more of a laptop problem than a this-laptop problem.
The company was responsive when I had questions. I had an SSD die (not their fault), and they supported well to help me buy a replacement from a US vendor to reduce cost of shipping it back to Spain.
The Ryzen 9 5900 laptop had just been released by them when I bought it. The timing was right for me. I don’t know your needs, so I can’t help with that. Of course, looking for Linux-first hardware you will be limited by the slower lifecycle and availability due to demand.
This was not the “perfect” laptop for me when I bought it, but it was the one that ticked enough boxes to be “good enough” in my budget. I am still happy with my choice.
I smell bullshit with the AI thing, but that is just branding I suspect. The specs look similar enough and match my use case. What I call a CAD box or CUDA box somebody will use for AI.
I know you are avoiding US manufacturers, and I’m not here to convert you on that. However, I recommend looking at the System76 computers, since they still seem to be what many upstart Linux-first shops chase. It will give you an idea of what you should look for as good options elsewhere.
My case is very specific because I live in a van, so power usage is a massive issue. My first thinkpad is roughly 45w, which is awesome. The second one can get to more than 60, which is bad, but it’s close to twice the performance of the first one, so it’s ok.
Now it seems that they use like twice the power of my second one, while being just a fraction better. That’s not ok. Kind of the main reason I wanted to upgrade was to see if I could get more performance with the same power usage, which is already kind of as high as I want to go. The current result is disappointing.
230w would be like 4 times more than I’m ok with. Even if usb-c could do that, which is anther requirement I have (no AC power).
So I might stick with what I have…
Oh yeah, you aren’t going to fill that niche unless you move into something outside the Linux-first group. Even my System76 Lemur draws 65W.
I’d love to hear if you find something else out there. Sometimes I need to order field gear for very remote jobs, and more recommendations are always welcome. I hate only using those ginormous toughbooks.
Well… my issues with my current thinkpad https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadt/thinkpad-t16-gen-2-16-inch-amd/len101t0076 are: -non expandable memory. 32gb would be nice -non expandable drive, I’m still using the old one just because I have a 1tb m.2 that I can’t use on this one. (but you can put another wifi, or a 4g modem, I don’t remember, some bullshit they thought would compensate for this) -bultin wifi barely works. -no micro sd card, which would be useful for me. -I had massive battery issues. They replaced it, but it now often goes from 50% to 2% for no reason. No recalibration fixes it.
Other than those things, I quite like it. It’s powerful for its energy usage.
But seeing how many issues I wrote… yeah I guess it’s not something I one can recommend. All issues are debatable, but the battery and wifi can’t be ignored.
I’ve indefinitely borrowed an old underpowered Lenovo Miix from my friend which I pretty much fucked up. It used to run Windows 10 b4 I nuked it w Arch the instant I got it. it installed just fine and connected to the WiFi in the live ISO but it doesn’t on baremetal. doesn’t matter if I do lspci or whatever, the NIC’s a bloody ghost. I’ve yet to figure this out but tried a remedy that failed. can’t even distro hop to LMDE or downgrade to Win10. none of these ISOs even load to memory cuz it barely has any. this “laptop” even has an Arch Wiki entry. apparently the NIC works on Ubuntu but even that I can’t install lol. my PC doesn’t have WiFi so this’ the first time I experienced the Linux WiFi NIC debacle.
regardless if you ever buy Lenovo again, please make sure to identify the NIC and that it actually works on Linux rn. don’t buy one that’s planned to be compatible.
Yup. That’s my lesson. Or avoid lenovo altogether and go with a company that respects Linux, like old lenovo used to.
On my one the wifi is just blacklisted. Might as well remove it. I use a tp-link tiny usb dongle. It’s a pain to have it always connected but I can live with it. Definitely not acceptable for what I paid for the laptop though… not even counting the headaches with the battery.
But… you borrowed someone’s computer and installed arch? I imagine they were never expecting to get it back…
for the most part he didn’t really have a use for it, so I asked if I can buy it off him. he told me it’s really underpowered and told me to test it out. if I could live w it then I can pay him. it’s been a few months now and we’ve both got busy w our lives and it comes up once in a blue moon. I’ve asked him a few times if he wanted it back but neither of us have a use for a shitty laptop w no WiFi lol.
I went with Laptopwithlinux for my last one, I don’t remember the reason (probably the shipping too). I’m quite happy, don’t recall having to do any workarounds to get my distro running.
I’ve also had Slimbook and Tuxedo (when I was living in the EU) and my takeaway is that no laptop is perfect. The Slimbook was great because of the aluminium case, like dialectalraveling says, but the monitor’s light leakage was a bit too much for my taste (same goes for LWL). Tuxedo was great because I have never found such a great power/weight balance, but the case (magnesium I think) took very few years to start chipping. LWL feels like a reasonably priced in-between (but I miss the others’ FlexiCharge, now I need to unplug the charger manually).
You could also try and find the corresponding white label model (TongFang, Clevo…), maybe some Australian company sells them without having to go through customs. Unfortunately I can’t recommend Metabox though: at work I have one, the specs are good but the trackpad and the most used letters on the keyboard started “peeling”(?) after very little time of use (I swear I don’t eat at my desk).
When you say it took very few years to ship, do you mean days, weeks, months, or actually years?
They seem to have some nice stuff too. It seems that all Linux oriented shops do. All this enshitified garbage of not letting you upgrade memory or hard drives seem to be bullshit of big companies just like the mobile phone ones do too…
But so far I’m researching, it seems that since amd embraced “AI”, talking about enshitification, the CPUs are barely better than my current one, while using a lot more power. It seems that if I want to have the same power consumption I’ll actually have to downgrade, while paying more.
I may be better trying to find a used laptop that has the stuff I want and just replace the battery. Weird days where buying a new laptop after years will get you something worse and more expensive than you bought…
Intel’s new core ultras are aparently extremely power efficient.
I would pay thousands of dollars to kill intel, not to help them.
I still have very bad memories from when they became a near monopoly with criminal ways and set back the world of cpus by many years. Luckily the market is different now so that’s unlikely to happen again, but I don’t ever want them on the top again.
And that’s not even counting their massive support for israel. Anyway, of the evil companies I don’t want to support they are close to the top of the list.
Years. I don’t know how many, but less than 4 or 5, not super bad, but annoying enough specially in the corners. Also by the 5th year the rubber “feet” had started to crumble.
Oh… chipping. The case was breaking. Sorry… I thought you mispelled “shipping”, that it took a very long time for them to send you the laptop.
Yeah, that’s important for me. My current lenovo, although higher end than the previous, doesn’t compare. The first one is all metal. I dropped it several times on concrete and it survived without barely any issue. While this one even being so careful gives me a headache.
No point buying something expensive that will die on the first time I’m not careful and I’m usually not careful.
If you need sturdy, nothing like a refurbished old Thinkpad, but probably the expertise needed is too much for me.
My ones are thinkpad. I’m not sure why people praise them so much. There’s all different kinds.
My first one like I said is a tank though. I never thought laptops needed to be that sturdy, but now I know that, like phones, they need to be as strong as they are expensive (and it’s usually the opposite).
I had a ThinkPad X200 (IIRC) that I could literally stand on. Still working (with limitations). I wish things could last that much nowadays.
