I’m unemployed and my current laptop died. Is ThinkPad T480 still the goto and does it still work for software development? Thinking of getting a Framework but I don’t want to spend that much right now.
I’m unemployed and my current laptop died. Is ThinkPad T480 still the goto and does it still work for software development? Thinking of getting a Framework but I don’t want to spend that much right now.
I think OP is right that most laptops run Linux fine and the business lines are best. I did have to flash my HP laptop BIOS/firmware using Windows as HP has no Linux tools for this yet. But with that said, I own seven or eight Thinkpads and run different distros (Mint, Cachy, Solus, etc). All work very nicely. I could not discourage you from buying a 480 at all.
For HP laptops you can just a flash drive now. You can extract the bios file and signature file from the bios updater.
Same with dell. Download the file, put on fat32 (I think) flash drive, boot to bios, flash. Ez Pz.
I’ve used HP laptops in the past, my first one only lasted like 2 years before the motherboard randomly died, the case was falling apart within a year of usage, the WiFi was shit and getting it working on Linux was a pain. My next one is better which I just started using again, although right now it’s barely in tact as a desktop and not usable as a laptop and certain components on it also suddenly died after 2 years (and the touchpad was already wearing down after only a week). Additionally I can’t enable secure boot on it because they locked down the BIOS, some of the components don’t work on Linux at all, and the SSD/battery is difficult to access and for whatever reason it rejects certain well-known SSD models. It’s also not a well known model so there’s not as much part availability, and while I could repair it there’s enough stuff that’s broken on it that if I could get a better laptop for $200-300 I’d rather do that.
Totally get it. I don’t directly recommend buying an HP laptop, but I only mention it as it runs CachyOS fine. This one is a gamer and just happened to be the right price. I would go Thinkpad, then Dell business, then HP business (all used).