- I’ll buy used, so don’t want latest and greatest. It won’t be my main laptop.
- to run linux obviously.
- good battery life, light, not too small to use, but large enough to type on (obviously can do without numeric keypad). not too fragile!
- I’ll be doing some light python work, perhaps some c/c++ but I’m not after a workhorse, just something for quickly fixing bugs, or making notes on
- sub 200 GBP / 250USD I guess
I’d be interested in hearing recommendations, and also what to avoid!
Don’t know where you are from, but I got a MacBook Pro 2015 for 150 and it can be forced to the latest macOS or just any distro of your liking. I will say that it can get quite hot and it’s recommended to switch the cooling paste and clean the fan.
For a cheap device it works fine and in this price bracket a better screen is barely possible.
I do have a surface book 2 that I will sell between 150 and 200, but I think Linux support is finicky at best. I ran popos on it, but there are just a bunch of things which would work a lot better on other devices
As much as I want to agree with this (I have a 2018 MacBook Pro that is running t2linux), this is a horrible suggestion.
Sure, if that’s the only computer (or laptop) you already have, go for it, but Linux on Mac, at least via the t2linux project is currently shaky at best. It does work, but absolutely not as a daily driver in my opinion.
Suspend is completely broken, the touchpad is barely usable, performance is horrible, audio quality is horrible, Bluetooth is unusable, battery life is abysmal.
And that’s not even mentioning the challenges you face installing it on your MacBook; firmware hacks, keyboard not working, etc.
DO NOT buy a MacBook specifically to run Linux on it if it’s going to be your daily driver. You will have a horrible time. Buy something more suited like a thinkpad.
Sucks to hear your experience being so terrible. Either I’m so coloured by the hellish experience of booting Linux on a surface (which is easy, but so many small issues after each update) or booting Linux on a mac is really easy.
BUT
I do agree, get something like a system76 for ease of use. I have dabbled with Linux, custom roms and other “hacky” stuff my whole life. I’m so used to it being hard that the experience these days feels as easy as booting windows
I have six MacBook Pro / MacBook Air computers. They all run flawlessly. Everything works. Everything, including all the social keys (screen, volume, etc). I do not have any of the problems described.
I daily drive more than one of them.
The best OS, in my view, for these machines is EndeavourOS, especially if you have one new enough to have a T2 chip. That said, I also have a 2020 MacBook Air running EndeavourOS. Absolutely everything works and it is quite fast but the fan will get quite loud (unlike any of my other machines). I have been meaning to replace the thermal paste in the hopes that it helps. I tend to use the older ones more as they do not have this issue.
My recommendation would be to go for machines before 2020. The MacBook Air 2013 - 2017 is the absolute best bang for buck.
I picked up a 2013 for $50 two years ago for a backpacking trip hoping I could use it for email and not caring if it was lost or stolen. I used it for 4 hours yesterday including for a Microsoft Teams meeting.