[svlug] recommendation for Linux-friendly laptop?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Roger E. Rustad, Jr. (roger.rustad at gmail.com):

> Anyone have any suggestions for a smaller (13-14") laptop that 100%
> supports Linux?

The best experience I've had with laptop support, consistently over a
period of many years, has been buying, _used_, laptops that have been on
the market 1-2 years.

But you're looking at new models, which is exciting in ways both good
and bad.


In my experience, you're better off steering clear of laptops with major
components by chipset manufacturers Nvidia, Broadcom, and Marvell if
possible, as those firms are poorly cooperative with open source.  
(Other people hold different views on this.  They have their opinions, I
have mine.  FWIW, I spent some years in the late 2000s doing all
certification of review units of new Linux and Solaris hardware, for
Cadence Design Systems.)  

And also, as you are already seem to be doing, avoid product lines aimed
at home users and gravitate towards the 'business' product lines (where
such a distinction exists).

(Not an entirely serious suggestion:)  If opportunity beckons, you in
theory could adopt the approach I took back in 1998:  Go to a major
conference attended by major Linux kernel coders, and observe what
laptop make/model is most common among the ones they run Linux on.  Then
buy one of those -- because you can rest assured that the kernel coders
either encountered no driver issues or fixed the ones they ran across.

And, sorry, I know I didn't name a specific recommended laptop.  The
marketplace offerings change frequently, and like most people who
aren't, say, spending their days doing my old Cadence job, am not
totally on top of what sucks and what doesn't.

Buying from System76 is of course one of the ways to make sure you have
absolutely _no_ driver problems.  FWIW, SVLUG does its best to stay on
top of the Linux-focussed retail OEM picture, here:
http://www.svlug.org/farm.php#hw-vendors


> I'm currently looking at the Dell XPS 13
> http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9350-laptop/pd

Gosh, looks really nice in the eye-popping photo, doesn't it?

Dell XPS 13-9350's specs (which I also supplemented from
http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-13-9350-laptop_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf):

CPU: Intel i3-6100U, or i5-6200U, or i7-6560, depending
Video:  Intel HD Grapics 520 or Iris 540, depending
Motherboard chipset:  unspecified
RAM:  some form of low-profile DDR3 SDRAM at 1866 MHz
Storage: SSD, 128 or 256GB (either's a little small), interface chipset 
         unspecified
Ethernet:  unspecified
Wireless:  Dell Wireless 1820A (whatever that means), 802.11ac (or other
           depending on options selected).  The 'Dell Wireless' branding
           obscures what _actual_ third-party equipment this is.
Sound:  Realtek ALC3246 with Waves MaxxAudio
Thunderbolt:  unspecified
Slots:  two M.2-card slots, one for an SSD, one for WiFi, Bluetooth, and
         Intel WiDi combo card
Other port:  SDXC/SDHC slot

Notice all the 'upspecified'?  That's because this is Dell Computer,
which (like HP) is really poor at giving detailed chipset information.
(Drivers are specific to chipsets, so determining the adequacy of driver
support in any thorough way via the research method starts with figuring
out the chipsets.  The other method is just to boot a cutting-edge Linux
live CD on the unit of interest, and observe what hardware it finds
through autoprobing.  My favourite Linux live-CD distro for this purpose
is Siduction.

This Arch Linux page suggests cutting-edge Linux distros will support it:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_(2016)

Notice Arch Linux gives you information that Dell Computer doesn't,
e.g.:

SATA interface:  AHCI (which is good news for Linux support)
Wireless:  Broadcom BCM4350, requires driver brcmfmac in Linux 
    kernel 4.4.1-1 or later, and requires a binary firmware BLOB.
Video:  uses i915 driver
CPU:  Is the Intel 'Skylake' architecture aka 6th Generation Core, 
    which had some serious problems with power management and other
    things under Linux before Linux kernel 4.5:  
    https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/41713.html

Basically, the Dell XPS 13-9350 suffers the usual problems of laptops
with shiny new chips that are supported on open source OSes only with 
very cutting-edge driver software and distro installers.

Which is one reason why it's less painful to just get a 1-2 year old
laptop on the used market.  But that, of course, is less exciting.
And cheaper.  ;->

Compare some Ubuntu users' response last December-ish to a question
about Ubuntu support for this model:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/709794/dell-xps-13-9350-compatibility

Report from a fellow who did Arch Linux on it, in February:
https://www.linuxserver.io/index.php/2016/02/04/installing-linux-on-the-dell-xps-13-2016-9350/


Above notes on the Dell XPS 13-9350 were about a 15-20 minute Internet
research project, which would get tiresome if you had to do it for a
dozen or more models you're considering.  Much faster, if you're in
front of an example unit, is to just boot your choice of live CD on it.