I don't think anything matches macbook's solid aluminium body and build quality. After I've dumped my ubuntu laptop few years ago, I don't want to go back to all that plastic rubbish.<p>Not all laptops created equal, so yes, you can probably find decent hardware. It will inevitably be priced similarly or above the Mac alternatives. So no gain in HW department.<p>Now consider OS. I have to use win7 desktop at work, and have to maintain my wife's win7 laptop at home. Both are orders of magnitude worse than ubuntu or osx.<p>And any decently built laptop comes with Windows preinstalled and manufacturers rarely care about other platforms.
Good luck fiddling with the 3d graphics and wifi drivers.
I'm not saying it's impossible to set it up, and maybe it's much easier today than last time I've tried 2-3 years ago. Maybe it's not too bad.<p>But still, is it worth it?<p>And btw, please share your experience, if you try any of the alternatives suggested here.
I'd love to find a good alternative to my MBA. But for now I just don't see a point in trying.
I love my Lenovo T430. The build quality is far beyond most other laptops that I have come in contact with. Running Ubuntu 13.10 on my Samsung 840 SSD and running Windows 8.1 on the HD that came with it for when I need to use Visual Studio.
I have a high end lenovo ideapad using linux. I liked the specs for the price. (16GB ram, terabyte of space, high end i7) for 1200. Some would debate the RAM or hard drive, but I personally needed the higher ram for the kind of work I do (yes 8GB wasn't enough) For most web development work though, I couldn't see it mattering that much. Actually having hard drive space is great too.<p>I definitely wouldn't get this thing for traveling though. It has terrible battery life. If I had my way, I'd get an ultrabook like sputnik or something else. The specs for the ultrabooks aren't quite there yet.<p>In general, I'll just suggest lenovo as the macbook alternative.
If you want out of the box, dell makes an ubuntu xps (sputnik, I have one), but the mouse sucks and there are some sound driver issues.<p>What sort of hardware dev are you doing? I end up running a VM for much of my work.
Out of curiosity what made you leave Apple (or consider it)?<p>This is coming from a former die-hard MS guy turned Apple fan boy. It's like Apple took what I love (*nix) and just made the best desktop experience for it. Yeah, I hate the prices but even the hardware is unbeatable--what I've seen so far that is.<p>However, I'll always still be searching for a true Linux desktop OS and appropriate hardware for it that doesn't feel like it will break if I carry it around with one hand while open.
thinkpad laptops are awesome, especially if you get a dock. they run linux great, if that's what you'd prefer, but they can come with either windows 7 or 8 installed.<p>I'd stick to either the t-series or x-series but don't go buy anything tonight since new models will be out by the end of this month or so with much improved displays and haswell.
If you want it to run free software, have a look at <a href="https://www.thinkpenguin.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.thinkpenguin.com/</a> . I've had good experiences with them, but it was for a mini desktop, not a notebook.
I been looking at laptops at System 76 (<a href="https://www.system76.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.system76.com/</a>). Anyone have any experience with them?