So, I’m finally getting around to buying a Linux first laptop. I’m familiar with Macbooks, and so far liked them. I’ve also live stick used Fedora w/ KDE (though Gnome might fit too) and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and liked them.
But I do want to have more freedom and privacy. My most important considerations are:
- The laptop is European (or at least, not from the US, unlikely to go Chinese either).
- Good specs for gaming (if need be I could virtualise for playing Mac games). I don’t play shooter games, but do play Paradox games which iirc are more CPU heavy. Edit: the most intense user case is probably Cyberpunk 2077. I have no idea what makes a good processor - at least with SSDs and the like it’s clear that ‘higher number = better’. For me, battery life is important, as well screen resolution, clock speed, and graphic card and processor.
- Looks - I like the Macbook touch and feel. I don’t want a numpad.
The four main laptops I’m considering are in no particular order:
- Star Labs (Starbook Horizon or Starfighter). British. Lookswise they are a great match but the specs I’m not sure. How well would they hold up to an Intel Macbook Pro from 2017?
- Tuxedo (Infinitybook Pro 14 or 15) Bit more well-known German brand.
- Slimbook (most likely the Evo). Spanish brand. Seems more customisable but again, I do not know shit with graphic cards and processors.
- Novacustom (PrivacyGuard V54). Dutch brand. Not a fan of the tiny ass arrow keys. 7 hours for battery life is also not much, imo.
If any of you know something better, please do tell!
Framework 13 pro. Its US, but it looks like a solid laptop with excellent battery life, premium build quality, it has modular forward and backwards compatible upgrades between generations, and ships with Linux. Not a lot left to be desired with this one in my opinion.
System76 is Linux first. They’re the ones developing the cosmic desktop environment, which is a gift to humanity, and may help ease your mind when buying from the US.
Not what you’ve asked, but I’ll give you this as a perspective (which you can discard if you wish):
Gaming laptops combine too many compromises to be worthwhile. Big, hot, noisy, expensive, nerfed performamce. Portable gaming can’t really be portable if you have to find a desk and a power socket and carry around a controller separately.
I would recommend:
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Buy a secondhand enterprise laptop (Dell or HP or whatever you like, as businesses like these and they tend to flood the secondhand market after spending their prior life on a desktop dock in some office). If it’s just for office work, browsing, etc then just get an 8th or 10th Gen Intel or something. I got a pristine condition Dell with i7 10th gen and 16gb RAM and 512GB NVME for £150 (couple of years ago). It has been great for work. Put Linux on this.
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Buy a proper handheld console for games. Steam Deck used to be the obvious option, but after the price hike some of the secondhand ROG devices give better performance and price. Put Bazzite on this.
Both of the above combined will probably still be cheaper than most decent performance options for gaming laptops.
If you’re going to have a desk based workstation then the handheld console alone might be good enough with a USB C dock as your desktop PC too. This is how I got into Linux in the first place… Sold my laptop to fund a new PC build and had to use the Steam Deck as a full time workstation for 2 months while I waited for good deals on PC parts. Works out surprisingly well.
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As someone running Debian on an old MacBook Pro from 2012, MacBooks are not Linux first. You can run it on all but the newest M-series, but be warned you’re likely to encounter some broadcom driver issues with the wifi/bluetooth. They can be fixed, then they may break again with some random kernel update. It’s not a fire and forget solution.
Have you looked at Framework yet? Linux friendly, designed to be upgradeable and user-repairable. Definitely plan to buy a Framework for my next laptop (ideally once ram/storage prices stabilize)
For the M* series I haven’t noticed wifi/bluetooth issues but it’s an entirely different platform that requires a custom kernel and it has a different set of quirks. Overall the hardware is really nice aesthetically and the processing power is good, but you have to put up with Apple’s bullshit.
Yup, I noticed wifi and bluetooth issues as well when running Linux on my Intel macbook.
RE Framework: I did check it. It looks nice, but it is American and I’m a bit wary of whether they have ties to rabidly right-wing tech bros, considering the Hyprland controversy.
Framework sponsors a lot of open source projects, the Hyprland controversy is overplayed IMO and they aren’t really worse than mainstream brands
“Might try out cyberpunk if I have the time” is a terrifyingly vague system requirement.
Haha fair point, I mostly said that because I’ve heard it’s intense regarding system requirements.
It was very intense at launch. These days you can run it on a Steam Deck.
Well its going to push it to high end gaming laptops as the only options.
Tbf, the main priority on the gaming regard is Paradox games.
“Maim priority” doesn’t really work. Do you want to play cyberpunk or not, you can’t just half meet the requirements.
Let’s say no, but I do like to play the Paradox games without too many issues (using virtualisation, steam deck or whatever).
In that case probably start from i5/ryzen5 and 16GB RAM as a starting point and go higher if budget allows.
Arent Tuxedo, Slimbook and Novacustom just rebranded Chinese Clevo/Tongfang laptops?
I dont know about Star Labs though.
Laptop with Linux def is, they also explicitly label it as such. Novacustom’s laptops seem very similar to Laptop with Linux’s ones.
Doubt it for Tuxedo and Slimbook, though.
Tuxedo/Slimbook are 100% Clevo/Tongfang rebrands because the Tuxedo Stellaris 15 is the exact same laptop as the Slimbook Hero.
Look at the ports on the back and the vents. They’re exactly the same.
I bought the Starbook Mk VII Ultra in 2025.
I… would definitely not recommend it. I already sold it. The build quality is mostly pretty nice, but everything else is not great.
- The laptop is heavy at 1.4 kg. I initially considered this a good thing as it makes the laptop feel more solid… but it ended up being a little annoying.
- The laptop runs HOT. Using on my lap was no good. Using it on a desk was better, but the fans would still turn on at max speed for short periods every now and then.
- The hardware was buggy? Like, it worked… but it was subtly buggy. For example, the keyboard was very sensitive. Every 5th (estimate) keypress would emit the keypress twice. That’s annoying when writing because sometimes you’d get “sometthingg likee thiis” and it was super annoying for keyboard shortcuts because the shortcut is
ctrl-vnotctrl-vv. - The printscreen key is odd… but not buggy. For some reason, they decided to have the printscreen key emit the wrong keycode? This means the printscreen key doesn’t work properly in GNOME.
- The LEDs on the laptop are extremely bright. I didn’t notice during the day, but it was extremely annoying at night. The most annoying part is that there is a bright, pure blue, LED right below the screen. I tried putting tape to cover the light, but it was so bright that you could still see the light through the tape.
Next time I get a laptop I’ll probably try a Tuxedo laptop.
(I ended up trading the Starlabs for a Lenovo T14 Gen 7, which works well with Linux, but doesn’t meet your criteria.)
Looks - I like the Macbook touch and feel
I would just like to caution you about wanting to maintain the Apple taste, but runs Linux. You may have to adjust your taste preference if you want a laptop that runs Linux well.
Thanks for your explanation, I appreciate it :D - this was the kind of answer I’m looking for; someone who had experience with one of these models.
- 1.4 kg is about equal to my current laptop, so I don’t mind that at all. I actually feel it’s relatively light.
- It running hot is less good news. Did this occur with intense programs only, or for casual usage as well?
- Interesting about the hardware and keyboard. Is there no way to adjust key sensitivity?
- What do you mean with the wrong keycode? I intend on using KDE Plasma and making it look more like MacOS’ interface, but this is good to know. I use a Cheatsheet programme that shows me all the available keybinds for whatever program I have open, maybe that could help.
- What do you mean with the LEDs from the laptop? As in the screen brightness, or the keyboard backlit, or the light for the webcam, or-?
As for the Macbook touch and feel thing, it’s moreso the general ‘feel’. I don’t mind if keys are a bit different, but I like the sleek feel. The models I gave all kind of satisfy that requirement, so Tuxedo should also work!
Here are my old notes: https://lemmy.world/post/35121451
Is there no way to adjust key sensitivity?
I never found away. I think I remember opening a support ticket, but it didn’t go anywhere.
What do you mean with the wrong keycode?
Technically, the keyboard doesn’t have a “Print Screen” key. It has a Sysrq key, which is used for the same purpose, but it’s actually a different keycode. See https://github.com/StarLabsLtd/firmware/issues/28 Maybe Cheatsheet programme could help?
What do you mean with the LEDs from the laptop?
So above the function keys, but below where the screen actually starts, there are some LEDs. lol. I just checked and realized they conveniently edited out those LEDs from promotional material. Above the F2 and F3 keys there are BRIGHT LEDs that used for different statuses. There are also some LEDs on the side that turn on when the laptop is charging, which are also SUPER bright. I would normally toss a shirt on top of the laptop so I could charge it at night and not be bothered.
I don’t know of any end-to-end electronics fabrication in Europe… Having the final assembly done in EU is kinda misleading if everything else comes from elsewhere, no?
Gotta begin somewhere. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I recommend you tuxedo. I own one and everyone which has followed my recommendation is happy with it. My previous laptop was a XMG (same company as tuxedo, but windows optimized) doesn’t work as good as the tuxedo.
Tbh you should just get a mac.
You can have privacy on them with a little less effort than on windows and they’re already decently secure. They can play cyberpunk and you already have the linux (bsd) toolkit. They’re already the kind of computer you like with the good trackpad etc.
I would drop your “be European” requirement.
