[Linux-aus] Inexpensive laptops (was: ARM laptops)

[Russell Coker]

On Saturday, 21 October 2023 16:59:02 AEDT Mike Carden via linux-aus wrote:
> I'm typing this on a circa 2010 Lenovo X201 laptop which I bought second
> hand in late 2012. It has an Intel i5 M 580 (4) @ 2.667GHz CPU and 7728MiB
> of RAM. By modern standards it's a tad chunky, but its keyboard is perhaps
> still the best laptop keyboard ever made with proper full-throw keys.

I had an X301 I got for free for a while and it was nice.  After the battery 
died on that I moved to the Thinkpad X1 Carbon series as I wanted small and 
light but decided that if I was going to pay I'd get something a little 
faster.

On eBay you can get Thinkpad X1 Carbon series laptops for under $300 with SSD 
and good battery (which incidentally you can't easilt replace).  The older 
ones like the X301 and X201 are hardly worth the savings.  If you get a new 
SSD and battery then you are getting into the price range of an X1 Carbon but 
with a lower resolution screen, less RAM, and slower CPU.

On Saturday, 21 October 2023 19:55:24 AEDT Les Kitchen via linux-aus wrote:
> Even though it's expensive, the MNT Reform is a very interesting
> machine.  Besides the keyboard and trackball (and the very solid
> construction with repairability in mind), of particular note is
> that the CPU and RAM are on a daughterboard, and the machine
> runs off a bank of eight standard 18650 LiFePO4 cells, instead
> of a bespoke battery.  MNT are already selling daughterboards
> with faster CPUs and more RAM.  Well worth looking into as a
> machine with a long life (good for the environment) and with a
> commitment to Free Software (good for everything ;-) ).

https://mntre.com/index.html

The MNT Reform looks nice but starts at E1,199 which is a lot.  I've paid more 
than that for laptops in the past, but now that there are so many cheaper 
options and so many nice laptops that are hardly used on eBay it's hard to 
justify.

Buying a new laptop for $300 every time an important part breaks is cheaper 
than E1,199 for something that can be repaired easily.  MNT are ARM based 
laptops which are good for developing portable code, but I think a PineBookPro 
is better for that as you can run phones in the same way.

https://frame.work/au/en

The Framework laptops have an interesting design as well, but at around $1,369 
(I think Australian dollars) it's cheaper than MNT but still a bit expensive.  
Also it doesn't have a trackpoint as an option which is a big deal for me.  
They have Intel and AMD CPUs so seem very similar to regular dekstop/laptop 
systems which means it's easier to get it working but not as good for 
portability or power use.

On Monday, 23 October 2023 13:29:56 AEDT Stephen Hocking via linux-aus wrote:
> My daily driver is an Acer Chromebook 514, as it runs the Android apps that

Some of the Chromebooks provide really good value for money on the hardware 
specs.  If there are some that are easy to jailbreak and run Debian on then 
that might be nice.

-- 
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