I am looking to buy a new laptop, and I’d be interested in the Framework laptop. What I like are the replaceability and upgradeability of parts, and the fact it is not (to my knowledge) tied to any large corporation.
However, they are not available for Switzerland, and there is no telling if and when they will be. I’m not dead set on having replaceable parts, but I’d at least like to have something that would not cause issues if I were to install a Linux distrib’ on it (I had a Surface Pro, and had trouble setting up a Mint on it due to missing drivers for the keyboard). And helping smaller companies is a nice plus.
What would your recommendations be?
System76?
+1 for System76. Linux support by default and they ship to Switzerland
Just fyi, there plastic can be pretty bad. I have two of their laptops and they use very cheap plastic. Both have the hinges messed up. I can’t take them anywhere anymore.
Love popos and their desktops, but until they fix their laptops, I wouldn’t buy one of them again.
Yup, my Lemur has completely lost one hinge; I’ve actually got the case duct taped together at this point. Their customer support was really bad when i contacted them about it; they tried to get me to agree to charges before they even told me what they were charging me for: it took me days of escalation to get the answer that they were going to ship me a part but had no instructions or videos for installation and didn’t recommend end users do it. I’m actually looking at Framework now instead; I’m pretty done with System 76 at this point.
Yep here’s mine https://imgur.com/a/FS4d5e9
The plastic on the bottom that connects to the hinge is warped. If they put a tiny bit of metal like some dells it would help them.
Old Thinkpad 😎
I’ve heard good things about Tuxedo . No idea if they’re available in Switzerland.
I’m honestly looking for something with a bit more vram than either of these companies offer. I’m 99% new to Linux, I want to play games on my laptop, but I’m dead set on not getting tied down by Win 11.
I got a Slimbook executive 14 (spanish company), which is identical to Tuxedo’s infinity book pro 14.
Loving it so far! Not helpful on the vram front though.
The only thing that might do it ( assuming you want thin and light) would be a razer blade with a 3000 series nvidia they must be fully compatible with linux, otherwise their lambda labs tensorbook collaboration wouldn’t work.
There’s nothing truly like a Framework, because they’re a whole unique category of one. But if you just want something that is user serviceable there are other options.
I’m a big fan of my Star Labs laptop. It came with complete disassembly and reassembly instructions, and pretty much every part is available to buy individually as a replacement. It’s not magically “plug and go” like a Framework, but if you’re comfortable with a screwdriver you should have no trouble.
They’re a Linux specialist small independent producer, too. And being based in the UK, imports to Switzerland should be more straightforward than imports from the States.
I have been using Linux on laptops as main/only compute since around 1997 (started with an Inspiron 4000, PII-400 IIRC), Dell is generally extremely boring and very Linux/BSD compatible. I have been buying gently used Precision models (typically using local marketplace, Craigslist in USA) as they tend to have better build quality and non-janky custom parts (think “winmodem”). They last forever, pretty much every Linux/BSD distro works. The most important thing is to stay away from Broadcom chips and look for Intel eth/wifi. Stay away from Inspiron to avoid hardware problems, in modern times those are the bottom of the barrel janky hardware.
The Dell Latitude line used by businesses are even more boring than Precisions and really always have been - their BIOS has a somewhat unique charging profile “always plugged in” to extend battery life - I use two ancient E6330 models tuned to super low power modes as mini-servers (think anything you’d use a raspberry Pi for) that have been chugging away for probably 5+ years just running cron jobs, backups, Syncthing services and whatever I toss on them. Throw an SSD in anything and it just works - power goes out, batteries act as UPS. $100 USD each, “just work”.
Thinkpads have always been a Linux favorite, at least the old models when IBM owned the brand but not too sure about the Lenovo modern ones. Last Thinkpad I owned was a 32bit one back in like maybe 2010 and it worked just fine. They tend to be more expensive used than Dells (retain their purchase price better, like a nice used auto).
