I see a lot of Framework recommendations, and I had the 12th gen Framework for around a year running Fedora. I faced a bunch of excessive power use issues, and had to add some kernel flags just to get maybe 4 hours of battery life. The device is notoriously repairable, but the one thing that conked out on me was actually the mainboard, which was like the price of a new device. Support spent two weeks trying to find out if it was anything else before sending me a replacement mainboard.

My friend recently got a Zenbook 14 OLED with the same processor. The entire device was $200 cheaper lightly used than the Frameworks mainboard alone, and the only issue is the speakers don't work. That being said, he gets almost double my battery life, and a 90hz OLED screen on top of it all. Plus more ports; even with Framework's modular add-in cards I don't feel it is as flexible a system as having >4 useful ports.

My time with the Framework was great, but I wouldn't recommend it. Getting something secondhand is an environmentally conscious option, and you can get great stuff secondhand.

Some recommendations I would suggest are: -Linux-specific laptops (HP Dev One, System76, etc.) as they are built specifically with running Linux in mind. -Framework Laptops, as Framework has worked hard to make sure Linux works well with their devices. -ThinkPads, as their hardware usually tends to work really well with Linux.

I personally use the Framework Laptop 13 running Debian, and I love it!

For the software side I would recommend Linux Mint as a great simple starter distro with good support and a nice community. The overall design paradigm is about maintaining familiarity while also making sane defaults and simplifying processes. Because it is Ubuntu based it is also easy to get documentation and support because what works for Ubuntu also works for Mint.

For hardware it really depends on your budget and locality as well as use case. Laptops vary much more country to country than you may think, so it may be worth thinking about what is local to you. For example, I live in Australia so System76 is a bad choice here, same with SlimBook (I think that is the name, European KDE laptop that advertises with that French(?) YouTuber, they don't ship here.

Also, when looking at laptops the RAM configuration is important. If you have two RAM slots but only one RAM stick you will have really slow memory access. This will bottleneck for both the CPU and GPU if you are using both at the same time, say during gaming or doing AI work. Swapping out the single stick for a matching pair or just adding one more stick that matches what it already has will let both ports work together, making everything faster. Also when I say matching I mean in terms of size and speed. If you put 3200MHz and 2400MHz in the system at the same time the 3200MHz won't just down tune to match, they will both go slower as far as I am aware. Best to match not only the speed but if possible the brand and ideally model, there are lots of little differences between RAM sticks and honestly it has never been worth the trouble in my experience to have mismatched sticks, I just replace with a matching pair.

Avoid Lenovo. At least, I have not had great experiences with the ThinkPad T14s AMD, both gen 1 and gen 2.

Gen 2 came with an Aetheros (sp?) bt/wifi card that would never wake up after suspend, had to get an Intel replacement, thankfully the bad one wasn't soldered in and I could replace it.

Trackpad has glitches that had to be mitigated in the kernel - mitigated well enough that it doesn't bother me but it's still silly

And both gen 1 and 2 still cannot reliably wake from suspend, and experience unreasonably high battery drain while suspended

Then again that could be a problem with all modern laptops..

If you're looking for something that can handle AAA games, I've had a great experience with my Dell G5. Linux Mint had everything working out of the box, including the dedicated Nvidia GPU (though I agree with others, AMD is easier in Linux).

My laptop also has the advantage of allowing you to do weight training every time you move it, so there's that to consider.

Hard to make a real recommendation without knowing your budget and general likes/dislikes. Like screen size, weight, clamshell vs convertible, integrated graphics vs dedicated GPU. I know you said gaming but integrated is great for indie and retro gaming and can handle some.modern stuff but a dgpu is needed if you're playing AAA titles and care about graphics and framerate, etc.

For everyone who says Linux runs on anything, that's mostly true but specific hardware components are still problematic. Most fingerprint scanners won't work if the laptop comes with Windows and you're installing yourself, the same for any unique hardware feature.

I have the Thinkpad x1 yoga gen 7 and everything works including the OR camera for facial recognition and the fingerprint scanner.

Lenovo ThinkPads are what I've mainly used the last decades and they're quite Linux friendly now, can even buy them with Linux preinstall I believe.

Framework feels more in the spirit of Linux than most but I haven't owned one.

Ugh, don’t use Linux for anything ever. It’s so hard to use and you might actually have to learn something new. Just stick to windows so you know every single piece of software ever created will definitely work 100%.

/s

@Toldry System76 hardware is great and they run their own distro Pop!_OS. Highly recommend their machines. I have one otw as we speak.

my brother runs a thinkpad T380. best thing about it is that there is a swappable and a built-in battery. he bought it "refurbished" so his didn't include the internal one for some reason. but you can open and even upgrade some components.

all for around 300€.

we think these have benn bought by companies for full price (1000+€) and are now being replaced, so the market for used thinkpads is very saturated at the moment.

currently runs windows, but i see no problems with running linux on a laptop, you aren't gonna game on integrated graphics anyway.

i've used Linux Mint Cinnamon a fair bit, i really like it. i've heard KDE offers more desktop customization, but i have no idea what that would actually look like. Kubuntu apparently has it.

Choose whatever laptop you like, and do a quick search on the model for incompatibilities. If there's something critical or long-term, like a very specific hardware module not working well without its proprietary driver, consider changing, but most of the time, Linux will just work.

For distro, PopOS is good. It doesn't come with a bunch of bloatware, but it is also not barebones. Mint is also a great choice.

Not a laptop, but I replaced my old laptop with a micro PC from minisforum EM680 and I'm very happy running Linux Mint in it. If you tend to use your laptop on the same spot, it's a great way have a more performing and ergonomic PC for the same or lower price.

I can power it from my monitor, so I can have only one cable at the desk. Bluetooth and wifi working out of the box.

At any rate, I suggest you stick to AMD graphics as they have native open source support.

Lots of good Rocco's, but if you need to balance price and still get a high end machine, Lenovo Carbon. Runs fantastic out of the box, including S3/etc.