intel, nvidia, and hp are under BDS so try to get an all AMD system (also better hardware support on linux and hp hardware is unreliable)

used thinkpad off craigslist

Thinkpads, HP elitebooks. Get a refurbished office surplus one.

Look for ex-government or ex-corporate laptops. These are often in good condition, commonly are thinkpads, get replaced every few years on a schedule rather than because of any actual problem with the laptops and often were plugged in to power for most of their operating life so the batteries can be good for the age.

Also look out for clearing house auctions of laptops from bankrupt businesses.

When buying second hand though I recommend that you price in a replacement SSD as they often are at end of life.

The meme is Lenovo t480. They’re real good.

People rebut and say the 490 and t14 are just as good or that the t450, 430 etc are worth considering too.

Dell and hp have good options too, but I don’t know them so I don’t recommend them. If you don’t know what you’re buying they have too many pitfalls for me to point people towards.

The dark horse and therefore correct answer is an m1 macbook air. Asahi is coming along nicely and it’s a baller computer for everyday stuff. Make sure you get the one with the amount of ram you need because it’s soc so the ram’s in the processor and you can’t upgrade it later.

Any Lenovo Thinkpad X-series. For example, I am using an X240 to write this reply. They are very easy to work on, highly compatible, and very light and portable. You can find them refurbished on Newegg, or if you have a local computer recycling center, they may have a thrift store where you can buy refurbished laptops, and Thinkpads are popular among that crowd, so you might find a good deal there.

Alternatively, many of Dell’s Insperon professional laptops are excellent, and in my experience they often have better quality displays than Thinkpads for the same price point (above HD resolutions, touch screens, and better color range), so definitely worth considering if that is important for your use case.

Used Thinkpad is your best friend. Look up the system requirements for some of the games you enjoy and see which generation best fits your needs. From there decide if the build quality or other features suffice. I’ve been tossing around an x230 for nearly a decade. I can swap batteries, added Linux Mint and extra RAM. Still going great.

Do not buy Nvidia. No matter what. The driver is bad.

I got a ThinkPad L14G1 AMD and it kinda slaps. Picked it up for $200 on eBay last year. It’s been a faithful companion for my workshop ever since. Threw Debian with GNOME on it and it runs like a champ. Couldn’t recommend a ThinkPad more highly.

For sure a refurbished thinkpad. Generally thinkpads have good support in all the popular distros, their build quality is decent, and it’s easy to upgrade and repair.

I have a cheapo lenovo idea pad I use with Linux and it works pretty well for that.

Surface Laptop Go. It’s the nicest little laptop you can get for $200. Also, running Linux on a piece of hardware dripping with Windows logos is so cursed I love it! They also come in cool colors if you like that (I got the standard silver one, but still drool over the ice blue and sandstone colors, but not enough to buy another one!)

I’m typing on one now. It’s just… nice! (just don’t get the 4 GB ram model).

Ubuntu (and most other distros) work out of the box, and there’s a GitHub for a custom Surface kernel if somehow you run into something not working.

As far as hardware, the screen is slightly under 1080p, but at 12" it’s plenty sharp for a laptop. More importantly, the colors of the display look very good and accurate. I’d take a nice “low-res” display over a shitty 4k TN panel any day. The fingerprint reader doesn’t work on Linux, no drivers, but that doesn’t bother me. The trackpad and keyboard are pleasant, and there’s a USB-A, USB-C, and audio jack on the left. The rubber feet were peeling off the bottom, but easily reattached with rubber cement (I used clear bath silicone since Home Depot was out), good as new.

Battery life is about 3-5 hours, which is expected for running Linux. I get around 5 now after using some power optimization settings. The surface connector is nice for charging, and takes about 45 minutes. My battery was a little degraded from the previous owner, so you might even get 6 hours on a fresher device.

I always double-check laptops by searching forums and stuff for the model number, finding the quirks and user experience. The nice thing about older laptops is they usually have drivers and kinks worked out. Larger distros will generally have more success, and the Arch wiki is always a good reference for hardware too.

If you’re a g*mer or do any work with AI (preferably open-source), pretty much anything relatively recent with a graphics card, used is better for driving down price while still getting a good deal.