Incidentally, this is such a great illustration of how fucked up the whole consumerist economy is. The article makes it pretty clear that most people are perfectly happy with the way their computer functions, but they're expected to be buying new ones just to keep the economy going. If people use the computers they currently have that's seen as a negative economically.
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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I'm currently using an old MacBook from 2015 that I installed LinuxMint on. I am considering a new laptop but nothing comes preloaded with GNU/Linux and I don't want a MacBook. If Huawei brings their HarmonyOS MateBook I might give it a try out of sheer curiosity, but their current offering where I live comes preloaded with Windows and has iffy Linux support.
I'd really love if somebody would make RISCV based Linux laptops that work similarly to Apple's M series where you have a SoC with shared memory. I'm really impressed just how much more performant this architecture is. Also curious if Huawei is doing something similar with their MateBooks.
preloaded
Is it really that hard to download Mint, stick it onto a thumb drive, and stick the thumb drive into a laptop and reboot it? Because if you genuinely don't like to figure things out about your computer I don't think you'll have a great time using Linux. At some point something will break, probably after an upgrade, and you will not be happy.
No, of course not. I just recently did it on my former work's laptop that I then gifted away. I just don't want to pay for the price of Windows which is factored in the price of a new laptop.
I have been using GNU+Linux for over 15 years now. I am just not comfortable with giving Microsoft -or Apple- any of my money even indirectly, and don't want a desktop.
Quite a few companies actually do sell laptops with Linux preloaded, but the selection of models is often very limited, so I'm not sure if that would work for you.
I can't find any locally. That's why I'm holding off until a purchase becomes absolutely necessary, and hoping that Huawei does release HarmonyOS here -so far they released it on tablets only.
I'm pretty sure you can get a Thinkpad with Linux preloaded, and they are great laptops for Linux too which is a plus, but they are quite expensive.
The newest PC I own is from 2014. The latest CPU µArch I know is Haswell. Zen Four? Sapphire Rapids? Funny fantasy names.
It annoys me though how newer video cards only come with DP and HDMI ports anymore. I'm still one of those people who actively use DVI and see no reason to get rid of my VGA/DVI Monitors, so I'm forced to deal with adapters. Fucking Capitalists.
I just don't send back the work laptop and install GNU/Linux on it. Though with the last job I left, I gifted the laptop instead.