So my 2017 MacBook seems to be on its last legs, the battery is just randomly dying between 15-30% so I’d like a new laptop. I do enjoy macOS as I have an iPhone but I’m fascinated by Linux and love the community surrounding it. Hence, I’ll probably buy a Framework 13 since I love the values of the company and their commitment to repairability and being honest when there’s problems.
I’ll be at uni for the next two years so realistically I just need it to last that long. I study cyber security so my workload is effectively some networking software (Wireshark, packet tracer etc.) and some smaller coding/web development tasks so I don’t need the absolute most powerful option. Ideally I’d like the one that got a longer battery life, which I think is the Ryzen 7. Given that I’ve never used an AMD CPU in my life, does AMD work well in Linux (distro will probably be Fedora or Mint) or would opting for the Intel COU be a safer bet?
Sorry if the formatting isn’t the greatest, I’m on mobile and it’s also midnight as I write this.
Performance wise they should be similar (unless you are gaming in which the AMD is much better). Battery-wise AMD is much better.
AMD has better linux compatibility and honestly a 7840u is just a really good chip.
There are only a handful of highly specific cases in which it makes sense to go intel here. AMD is in my opinion far superior at the power targets of a framework laptop. The differences should be large and noticable
Phoronix recently did a review of the AMD version and gave it favorable scores. The AMD version also appears to have better battery life than the Intel version.
The only problem with the AMD one is that I’m still waiting for mine.
I’ve got an older Asus AMD laptop (it’s falling apart physically), and it is crazy fast. Zen 2, Zen 3, and Zen 4 have all been fantastic.
AMD works perfectly fine on Linux. I’ve been using both Intel and AMD on Linux (alternating depending on which has the better options at any given time) since the original Athlon processors came out more than 20 years ago. I have 2 AMD machines, running Linux, in front of (and beside) me as I type - And another with WintendoOS 10 (only Wintendo I own).
Unless you need a laptop within about a week or can name/explain a specific Intel-only feature you explicitly require, go with AMD. Why? Better performance, better battery life, better integrated graphics, and no e/p cores to cause headaches with virtualization. Intel’s e/p core big.LITTLE split causes headaches with virtualization due to a bunch of the cores (efficiency cores) not having the same features/performance as the others (performance cores).
Framework has indicated in a blog a few weeks ago they expect to be caught up with AMD FW13 pre-orders by the end of the year. Based on subreddit posts they’re up to starting batch 7 processing, making it appear they will likely reach the “in stock” estimate.
If you do go with Framework, save yourself a bunch of money going with the DIY option. You can get RAM and SSDs much cheaper pretty much anywhere. The power supply can also be sourced elsewhere - Choose a USB C charger of at least 60w, ideally using modern GaN technology, from a reputable vendor such as Anker, Ugreen (among others)… Don’t go with a brand nobody’s ever heard of with a name that looks like it was created firing darts at a dart board (eg: don’t do a ‘sort by lowest price’, ordering the cheapest option).
To be repairs advocate.
If your MacBook is from 2017, then it is an Intel machine. Intel machines can run Linux, you can just install it instead of MacOS or even dual boot it.
And if it is a MacBook, you can simply replace the battery. It is super straightforward to do so. You buy the new battery, you don’t need to get it from Apple, and you need the oentalobe driver and the torx driver. Open up the back and replace it. Apple stores will even take the old battery off your hands.
You might not be able to upgrade storage or ram, but with a new battery and your linux, you could absolutely get more life out of your machine.
Having just looked at an iFixit guide to replace the battery, it does seem rather involved. I do like the idea though so I’ll definitely consider it, I hadn’t thought of it before since I’m so used to Apple making things very difficult/impossible to change!
If you need an AirDrop alternative on Linux, try LocalSend, it works pretty good