After searching using hnsearch I saw it had been a while since this topic had been explored.
note: It does not necessarily have to come preinstalled with a linux distro.
I (and many other Linux users I know) would strongly recommend Thinkpads. In addition to generally working well with Linux they're pretty well-built machines. Everything about my T420 just works out of the box with Debian Wheezy (disclaimer: I don't have a fingerprint reader or camera so I don't know how well they would work; but WIFI, Bluetooth, SD card reader, and smartcard reader all work).<p>Also. <a href="http://www.thinkwiki.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thinkwiki.org/</a> is a very good resource for running Linux on Thinkpads (though everything worked so perfectly with my T420 and Wheezy I actually never needed it!).
<i>Not</i> an HP Envy. Worst laptop I've ever owned.<p>It works OK with Linux (sound is problematic, and it's not good under Windows, either, despite...or maybe because of, wearing a "beats by Dre" logo). But, the quality is simply awful. It has a high end laptop price tag, and all the right features, but it's falling apart after barely a year of light use and has had problems from almost day one.
I'm definitely replacing it with a Thinkpad soon, but I'm currently running Fedora 20 on my half-dead early-2011 Macbook pro and everything worked out of the box besides the wireless driver, which was an easy fix. Everything else works, including camera and keyboard brightness.<p>I wouldn't recommend buying a Macbook just to run Linux on it, but if you have one (which actually works properly) and want to run Linux, realize that you can have a great experience without buying a new machine.<p>A while ago I had a lot of problems installing Linux on my machine, but Fedora 20 installed without problems for me.
I'm currently using an HP ProBook 4530s. I've had it about 2 years now, but there are similar models with newer parts. I cannot think of any problems I've had running a linux distro, and I've used several. The only bit of hardware that doesn't work is the fingerprint scanner, but I don't think that worked under Windows either.
Audio in and out works fine. The keyboard works with no hacks. The touchpad supports 3 finger usage.
You can get ProBooks with either an Intel or AMD components; mine has Intel.
Additionally, this laptop is pretty easy to take apart. Pop out the battery, slide the bottom panel off, and you have access to the ram and hard drive. With tools you can access / remove the optical drive and keyboard. I was even able to replace the display. It came with a 1366x768 and I upgraded it to a 1920x1080. HP does have a fairly extensive disassembly manual for it, if that's important to you.
I would definitely look at this line again when I need to get a new laptop.
I've had two laptops that I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 on and both have worked great. One was a Dell Vostro V131. Literally everything worked and it had such an amazing keyboard layout. It was so hard for me to give it up. I upgraded earlier this month to an ASUS Zenbook UX302LA. The only things that didn't work out of the box was WiFi and the brightness keyboard buttons, these were quickly fixed with using a back port module. I put an extra 8GB of RAM and a 256gb SSD and the things flys. It also has a Haswell CPU so it gets about 9 hours of battery life.
In the end of 2012 I purchased a Lenovo x230, which ran Debian very well for the past year:<p>deliberation: <a href="https://plus.google.com/106336989542410513415/posts/avV5eL1P6BH" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/106336989542410513415/posts/avV5eL1P...</a><p>follow-up: <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/106336989542410513415/posts/PR4efB7D4ev" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/u/0/106336989542410513415/posts/PR4e...</a><p>debian wiki: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/X230/wheezy" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad/X230/whe...</a><p>A couple weeks ago I upgraded to a Fujitsu Lifebook u904, for the 14" QHD (3200x1800) display. I was surprised at how very well it works with Linux, given how little information I could find about compatibility.<p>debian wiki: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Fujitsu/LifebookU904/jessie" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Fujitsu/LifebookU...</a><p>Gnome hasn't got their act together yet around high-resolution displays so font configuration is a bit wonky but that's not a hardware incompatibility deal-breaker. Even the touch-screen works.
I have had the following laptops - on which I've installed Linux:<p>- Thinkpad X1 Carbon (works perfectly - ubuntu 12.10)
- Thinkpad T540p (works perfectly - ubuntu 13.10)
- HP Envy 15 (terrible - ubuntu 12.04)<p>All worked out of the box - except for the HP.<p>My two cents - get the X1 Carbon on lenovo outlet ($1K for 8GB ram, i7, etc.)<p>Everything worked on it
- webcam
- suspend, resume
- wireless
- sound
- UEFI settings (for dual boot)
Dell Latitude - unbelievably good. Built like a tank - I believe these are built to Mil-Spec. I have been running Linux on my laptop for the last 6 years (commuting through South East Asia and India), so I believe it has stood the test of time and kernel upgrades in hot & dusty New Delhi.<p>I run Ubuntu 12.04 on a 6 year old E6410 and everything works - including suspend/resume, smart card reader, bluetooth, etc. I also have a second hard drive and am able to boot off either using UEFI. I'm also able to connect my HDTV using a displayport-HDMI adapter and watch movies. Wifi works out of the box, but even if it didnt, you could swap out the mini-pcie card for a few bucks.<p>And unbelievably upgradable - couple of days back I replaced my keyboard, while the laptop is still running, in under 2 minutes. A couple of days before that I replaced my laptop fan - bought easily off ebay because of the latitude platform's popularity.<p>Dell's after sales support is legendary - in India, it is called CompleteCover and covers next business day onsite replacement and accidental damage warranty.
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition (comes with Ubuntu pre-installed). The best part, though, is that Dell wrote a bunch of drivers for the hardware that got integrated into the main Linux kernel--I've installed over 10 distros on it (not all at once!) and on every one of them brightness, multitouch gestures, etc, worked out of the box.
Asus N550JV (non touch)
All but the Subwoofer works with Ubuntu 13.10 with minimal configurations. Samsung EVO SSD a must have. Only issue seems to be with a 7 port USB 3.0 HUB plugged into one of the USB laptop ports. This screams and replaced my homegrown AMD/ATI desktop. Heavy on Photography, games with Steam and video editing. External SATA 3.0 dock with OEM drives swapped out. ~150+ MB/sec. Best laptop I could find. Clevo is fast, but..... I returned the System 76 / clevo due to mSATA overheating. 3 Months, zero complaints with Linux running on this. It comes with Windows 8 and a slow drive. Never booted it. Went straight to SSD and Secure boot Ubuntu on a new install.
I've had Feisty on my Toshiba Satellite P955 for over 3 years now. I think I bought it for $800 but you can probably get one for $300ish now. Ripped out the HDD and put in an SSD. Ripped out the DVD and put in an SSD with custom mount I bought from somewhere.<p>Had issues with wifi initially but found workaround after a while. I have to say, this box runs extremely well, I never ever have problems but then again I don't use a webcam or many other external devices. Mainly internet browsing, Virtualbox, shell, etc.
HP Elitebook 820 works pretty well. Asus Zenbook UX21 works acceptably. But tellingly, after the news about the X60 last week or so, I decided to ebay an X61 and stuff as much RAM and SSD in it as possible. The X31 remains the greatest Linux laptop, the greatest laptop period, I've ever owned, modulo some graphics driver problems. I would like to see something with the build quality of these Thinkpads, coming with Linux pre-installed.
My 2013 VAIO Pro 13" works astonishingly well with Debian. I don't think I've ever had a laptop work so well right out of the box with Linux. The PCIe SSD it comes with is much faster than past SSDs I've had, too.<p>Note: I got this laptop in late November. If you look online, you'll find a lot of problems people had with distros featuring older kernels. Rest assured, 3.12 enables all features right out of the box.
The Chromebook Pixel is a fantastic piece of hardware and it comes running a Linux variant (ChromeOS) out-of-the-box, so all the drivers should be well-supported.
Does anyone have a System76 Galago UltraPro? I'm planning on upgrading my T410 (which was/is great) but I now need something with more than 8GB of RAM.<p><a href="https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1" rel="nofollow">https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1</a>
I got a Lenovo Y510p. Amazing machine. Running Ubuntu 13.04. The most common problem with any linux machine is FLASH VIDEO! They don't support DRM content (HBOGO, Amazon, xfinitytv, etc...). It's been a pain trying to find a work around. Also, video drivers can be a pain.
Thinkpad T530 works very well.
I've got it running Arch Linux with no features unusable. Hardware brightness and volume controls, webcam, integrated graphics and networking all without issue.<p>My only regret is that I paid for Windows.
the asus 1015 that comes with ubuntu installed works just fine, although the trackpad is pretty bad (i use an external mouse). opensuse 13.1 runs with no issues that i've noticed.<p>10 inch screen, looks like a netbook, 2GB memory, celeron - sounds useless for development work, but after replacing the disk with a cheap 60GB kingston ssd i can run virtualbox and have a workable vm, so it's surprisingly capable.<p>my x220 died and i am happy using this until the x240 with a better screen is released next quarter (i bought it as a clunker for travel).
I just bought a Thinkpad X230 a week back. Looking forward to have a great experience with it.<p>My laptop HP Pavillion dv4 performs out of box with major linux variants. No issues!
Intel "Harris Beach" developer's ultra book is not the best Linux laptop because of various components that are not supported in Linux :(