New computer or used system

[Member Noman01]

I have been looking at new computer or used in good shape systems to start replacing older computers, mainly small form factor or laptops. Been looking on amazon and other sites for ideas, some of the systems come with windows which will be immediately taken off and replaced. Just looking ideas or suggestions.

[Member fatmac]

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I usually buy older laptops, at least 6 months old, as newer ones may not have some drivers written for them yet, Linux always has to play catch up. 🙂

Linux (& BSD) since 1999

[Anonymous]

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This debian wiki page https://wiki.debian.org/Hardware leads to linked pages where folks have reported success using various hardware. You can drill-down to specific brands and models sold as systems, or check individual components.

I don’t have ’em bookmarked, but a websearch “linux hardware compatibility list” (and filter to show results only from past year) should lead to additional lists curated by ArchLinux and by Ubuntu.

[Member olsztyn]

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fatmac wrote:

I usually buy older laptops, at least 6 months old, as newer ones may not have some drivers written for them yet, Linux always has to play catch up.

– I do not have any driver problems with Linux because I never buy new laptops due to price and other reasons, such as non-replaceable batteries.
– Capabilities of older laptops are not much different than latest ones if processor and memory specs are comparable.
– You can buy Thinkpads on eBay for very reasonable price, such as T410 i5 < $100, T520 i7 IPS < $150 and small form X220 i7 < $100. I have the above as well as really small and old (I am typing this on in antiX) X61 (< $50). All of the above run antiX well. Another important advantage is easy availability of batteries or keyboards on eBay (circa $20) in case you rip a key or two from your laptop keyboard…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member ModdIt]

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Very much in agreement with olsztyn and fatmac, Newer Laptops seem to be shorter lived and of lesser quality than my favorites. Often also sealed boxes which I intensly dislike.
Recommend T410, T420, T430, they are excellent, often available with a decent screen, if not it is not difficult to replace low res versions. Only other change I like to make is slotting in an SSD which speeds them up a lot. Spares are readily available and affordable as are good 12 cell battery packs from a reputable Hannover (Germany) dealer. Easy repair is a big big plus.
Depending on processor and fitted RAM These T series machines are just as fast as most modern machines, have some of the best keyboards in the business and are tough.
Running Linux no issues, even the Broadcom wifi (if fitted) is now well supported.

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