In addition to Thinkpads, I would recommend Acer C720 which costs around $200 and everything works out of the box because a dedicated developer created distros just for C720.
If you are not a gamer this is a perfect machine for Linux users.
I really like this distro-per-hardware approach because people don't have to duplicate efforts in hunting for and following complex and lengthy tutorials and applying fixes.
I'd also like to recommend the UX* line of ultrabooks from Asus. They range from decently-priced to fairly expensive and they are absolutely fantastic. They all work flawlessly on Linux (though I did not test the touchscreen from UX303LN on Linux yet).
They are also really nice laptops. Similar feel to the Macbook Air. (I do not work for Asus)
The UX302LA is great, especially after swapping the spinning disk for an SSD and maxing out the RAM.
I had lots of issues with the graphics when I first bought it (April 2014), though, and had to run with a kernel patch to the 'quirks' code in the display-panel detection. Fortunately a dedicated developer put all this together with a kernel build script ([1]) so it wasn't too bad (... for an experienced Linux guy) to get Arch running.
In general though I think several-year-old ThinkPads are more painless because stuff like that has made it back to mainline already.
The thing about the MacBook Air (contrary to what you'd expect), is price. I bought mine in Sept 2013. At the moment, it was the cheapest ultrabook with an SSD, Haswell, and 8GiB RAM. And since then, Apple has dropped the price quite a bit, so it must still be quite competitive price-wise.
The second point, is that all hardware (except the webcam) is known to work fine. Asus has a ton of models, and researching which work and which don't take time. Apple has a single model per year, making it trivial to see if it works (or not).
The Asus UX31a served me for two years until its issd died. Asus' customer service has been excellent in repairing and replacing parts that broke and they did not even touch the Arch Linux installation (which worked out of the box).
I'm hoping more people/companies release Linux distros (as oppose to how-to-fix-broken-stuff guides) that's tailored for different laptop models (with all the keyboard shortcuts and other hardware quirks properly configured).
I did have some issues with defects on the laptop, but as I said, Asus has been extremely good on replacing parts that broke.
Re keyboard shortcuts and such, those are usually extras handled by bloatware on Windows as well. I'm not sure I'd prefer companies releasing their own distros for this kind of stuff... we all saw what happened with android customizations.
I'm not trying to be harsh on Asus or anything, but in the Amazon review I linked above, there are many people who were very dissatisfied with how Asus dealt with the defects.
So while it's great that you got lucky in this regard, I wouldn't recommend people this particular model because of the high defect rate alone (even if they choose to use Windows).
> I'm not sure I'd prefer companies releasing their own distros for this kind of stuff
It's not just keyboard shortcuts though. For example, take a look at all the modifications made for C720 from plain Ubuntu:
I just don't think it's a good idea that lots of smart people get frustrated and waste time going through hardware-specific documentation and applying fixes like these.
Writing good documentation (like the Arch one you mentioned) is a better-than-nothing solution, but in my opinion releasing distros with all the right configurations for that specific hardware is the right solution.
I can also recommend the C720, I'm typing this comment from one. I am also running Arch, which is a perfect match for this machine with its minimal nature. This machine is small, lightweight, and the battery seems to outlast me most days. My only real complaint is with the limited amount of RAM (I have the 2GB model), since it isn't upgradable. I recently tried to launch Android Studio without a swapfile active, and let's just say that was an exercise in patience that eventually resulted in a hard reboot :). I did find the shiny display bezel a bit distracting, so I popped it off and sprayed it a similar color to the laptop body.
So my plan was to run alpine linux or maybe nix on one of these guys, I've done arch in the past and don't mind that but upgrades in arch can be ugh if you don't pay attention to the site and update frequently. And well, i'm getting annoyed in my old age with incessant tinkering.
Is Alpine really more stable than Arch+grsec+paxd packages? Considering it has a smaller userbase and uses it's own package manager?
I find if you don't update Arch obsessively and wait a week or two, then it is very stable.
I previously used a Macbook + Arch and had nothing but problems. But using a Thinkpad + Arch and being careful with updates and I've had zero of the issues I experienced non-stop last year.
The most important thing is hardware choice. Using good and common hardware means you eliminate about 90% of problems with Linux. Using stable software solves the other 9-10% of issues.
So my plan for alpine linux was to see how well a busy box + musl libc based distro would be for day to day use. That and its on disk size was mostly the motivation. The grsecurity stuff was less a focus to be honest. Stability wise as long as it doesn't oops too often i'm happy.
A counter to the wait a week or two idea: I remember the update that changed the md device numbers from 0->128 etc.. I hit that accidentally before it was on the site, then the next week didn't look at the site and it got changed back. Piddly stuff like this that you only find when you reboot starts to grate on me is all.
I'm not anti arch by any means, more just not wanting to constantly update with a rolling distro. I found a blog post about nix on the c720 and so I guess I will go buy one some upcoming week. My needs are pretty minimal though, browser+emacs+commandlineish stuff. The rest I can do on my macbook pro which is feeling to me to be more a desktop of late.
I paid a bit more for 4GB. With 2GB investigate using zRAM (compressed swap in RAM). My pre-built Ubuntu image came with it configured. Many say it can help running many instances of the same applications (browser tabs).
Yeah, I would have gone with the 4GB model, but I got this one through a Groupon deal for $130...
I remembered reading about zram being enabled in ChromeOS, not sure why I didn't think to investigate it. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely check it out!
My main problem was the very bad build quality of the laptop it self. I'm used to mechanical keyboards, I never got used to the c720 one.. The screen is also really bad. Given the price tag it's hard to complain though.
I finally put chromeOS back and gave the laptop to my SO. I got a used x220 in perfect condition for a bit more of the c720 asking price. I replaced the screen with a new IPS bought from ebay.
Best linux laptop I ever had.
You won't experience the GPU lock/hang problem if you use any of the distros from Hugh Greenberg in distroshare.com (the same guy who shows up in the bug report thread you linked).
I wouldn't say the keyboard/screen of C720 are my favorite but they are decent enough for me, especially for the price.
+1 got the c720 with i3 CPU, for traveling. Upgraded SSD to 128GB, had to use distroshare pre-made ubuntu image. So far so good. Even started to use it instead of my Thinkpad T60, around the house.
https://www.distroshare.com/distros/get/12/
If you are not a gamer this is a perfect machine for Linux users.
I really like this distro-per-hardware approach because people don't have to duplicate efforts in hunting for and following complex and lengthy tutorials and applying fixes.