I’m a Linux user since 1998 (my main desktop PC runs Debian), however I do have a couple of Macs around because I love their hardware (not so much the software though). In fact, I have three old MacBook Airs (mid-2011, 2012, 2015), all running Linux. The moment I got them, I erased MacOS and installed Linux pronto!
But my main laptop is a MacBook Air M1 with MacOS because it’s much faster than these older Intel-based MacBook Airs. Modern web browsing and video editing requires a lot of processing power.
So, I want to move to have my main laptop running Linux too. I DON’T want to install Asahi Linux on my M1, because I don’t consider it a proper solution for my needs (I want to run Resolve, you see, and most foss apps that I use would need recompiling). Also, I don’t like that Asahi is dependent on MacOS to exist, because you can’t boot with a usb to install it.
My issue is that I can’t find ANYTHING on the PC market that is as slick or full featured as a MacBook Air (minus its limited ports). What I need is this:
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Screen no larger than 13.3" inches, Full HD at least, preferably good color gamut (but not a must). I still need the laptop to be portable though. Basically, I’m not even asking for HDR, as the MacBook Air features.
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Keyboard to have backlight, without the numpad (I hate these laptops where the touchpad is off center).
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The touchpad needs to be glass or of equivalent feel. The Apple touchpads slide/glide with ease. I find every PC touchpad I’ve used so far to be “sticky”. My finger on some Chromebooks and Dell/Lenovo laptops is doing a “grrrkkk, grrrkkkk” when I slide my finger! There’s something special about Apple’s touchpads, I dunno.
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Intel 13th+ gen CPU, with passmark points over 17,000 on multi-threading. My M1 scores about 12,000 points, and it’s 5 years old. So obviously I’d need something faster than what I have now.
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Intel GPU (no AMD or Nvidia please, I need Intel’s superior video decoding abilities). On a Mac that isn’t a problem, because Apple does support these 10bit 4:2:2 codecs I need, with hardware acceleration. But on the PC side, only Intel provides good support for these without headaches (only the newest nvidias support that, but I don’t want to use Nvidia for too many reasons – AMD is a disaster on that video front btw). I don’t play 3D games.
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I need speakers that sound good. Every single PC laptop I’ve tried, had the worst sound ever. I need it to be hear-able on YouTube and not sound as if you’re listening via a can. I bought a Thinkpad x280 a few months ago and I can’t use it because its speakers are so bad! DELL (from 5 years ago that I tried) aren’t better either.
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I need a (supported) fingerprint reader!
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32 GB of RAM.
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1 TB of storage.
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Below a $1800 price tag. That’s the price I can get with a MacBook Air for all that.
Now, you might think that “well, it seems that you just want a new MacBook”, but that’s not true. I want a PC laptop so I can run Debian Linux instead of MacOS. But I need it to be a laptop that is “proper” by my own standards. The quality of the interaction between my palms, fingers, eyes and PC laptops IS NOT the same as with any Apple laptop I’ve ever used. The reason people buy Apple hardware is NOT because “MacOSX is lickable” (as it was suggested many years ago by Jobs). I’ve actually researched the “why”. It’s because the INTERACTION of your senses and the laptop’s design/quality FITS. It’s like a glove for one another. It’s difficult to explain but I know it now to be true. It was never MacOSX itself (although MacOSX’s gui smoothness helps the overall experience).
So the question is: am I missing that special, Linux-compatible, PC laptop somewhere? If you know that such a laptop exists, please reply with a link. I’ll buy it in a heartbeat.
This is a serious post btw. I spent the whole weekend trying to find that mythical PC laptop, and I can’t. I’m frustrated.
EDIT: I might end up with the Framework 13. Not 100% what I’m after, but probably the best solution right now.
Thinkpad T420
Did you even read the post with my required specs? :)
Refurb models come with i5 processor at 3.5Ghz and 4GB RAM but has another slot you can put another chip into (or replace both with 8GB RAM chips). The processor is also replaceable so you could hit a higher clock speed. Everything in a thinkpad is modular including the screen so you can pretty much do what you want with it.
Edit: Yeah, tbf I skimmed over your spec list. Not sure why the apple hardware or the CPU generation is important, especially for the latter where the clock speed is what really matters. Could probably put 16GB RAM in each slot.
Edit2: X1 Carbon or something from that series would probably match the lightweight requirement although they are less modular. No replacing the CPU.
The CPU generation is important because older ones don’t clock faster than my M1 macbook. If I’m going to buy something new, it better be faster than what I already have. GPU is also important, because before the 11th gen, 4:2:2 10bit video didn’t have video encoding/decoding, which I need. Also the trackpad is terrible (I have an X280 thinkpad), so is its speaker quality afaik. Thinkpads were great laptops for an older generation. I bought one because everyone was raving about them. Except its screen and keyboard, everything else sucks on it. It won’t even support some usb-c chargers (while other laptops don’t have an issue).
I’d be tempted to stick with macOS and get an M3, then run linux in a VM with QEMU or whatever. Given your focus on ergonomics I don’t see any other hardware that will match your expectations.
I understand. BTW, I am running Linux on my M1 macbook with UTM Qemu, and linux is really, really slow under emulation (faster if you run arm versions). Even on M3/M4.
There are a few projects like lima and crossroads (not sure about name, might be crossover) by canonical which create a new user in /home and runs ubuntu “natively” on M series chips.