Linux

I would recommend a Thinkpad. I have an E14, you can get them for under 800 Bucks. The Linux support is awesome ,under Fedora everything works out of the box.

https://starlabs.systems/

Thinkpad t480 with libreboot from minifree

Best is Framework in every regard. Works 100%, great Linux support, specify exactly what you want and it's fully repairable. (They're also by far the most satisfying machine to unbox, given you have to plug it all together yourself)

Lenovo and Dell are okay, in my experience. The odd thing but generally fair quality hardware and reasonably compatible. (Thinkpad quality isn't what it used to be, so don't pay a premium thinking it'll last, Lenovo are trading on its past glories)

Avoid HP - shoddy flimsy things now, and with a lot of bespoke drivers (graphics and audio, plus function buttons in particular)

There's quite a lot of random-branded Chinese laptops around now. I've no direct experience of them, but I imagine they're exactly how you'd expect them to be. Cheap, tailored for the OS they ship with, but will probably work to some degree. Linux is past its initial hardware problems (and to be fair, hardware is problematic now)

There's another thread that's a few years old, but still contains some useful info - such as "Check the Arch Wiki"

I have a thinkpad t470 from some years ago as my personal laptop has still works perfectly fine. I destroyed a few things in it, like usb ports and have some scratches on the screen, but linux support has always been good. Best think It has is the hardware design that if you drop liquids on top of it then it doesn't reach the motherboard. It saved it when I dropped a full latte on top and I really though it was gonna go to the trash... Fortunately I only had to buy a new keyboard that is something easy to replace.

Anyway, I will also need to buy a new computer soon fro work and am very interested in getting a framework laptop or another thinkpad if it has things like the great feature above still in place.

Also been eyeing with extreme interest some tuxedo laptops.

These are the well known to work I guess.

I would reccomend the current configuration that I am running, It is a customised lenovo laptop that I got for little less than $390 (Not us citizen, and we have mid-high taxes, but i got roughly 5% off as student discount and another 5% for credit card payment, and you also apply the CUSTOMOFF coupon for rougly 5% more) - It is lenovo v14 G4 (you can also try to get 16 inch if you prefer that, differnce is roughly $10-20) - 2 things to note - I did not select a ram or storage upgrade - it comes with 8GiB soldered, but there is one slot free, and I added 16GiB which I already had, also I had my 512 GiB SSD, which i swapped with its 256 GiB one. If you would like to, you can get both of these upgraded for about $50 USD. Also you can choose between a 3 cell battery, or a 2 cell and a harddrive (this choice is only available in 16 inch one though).

List of upgrades that I did

Processor AMD Ryzen™ 7 7730U Processor (2.00 GHz up to 4.50 GHz) selected upgrade Display 35.56cms (14) FHD (1920 x 1080), IPS, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 45%NTSC, 300 nits, Battery 3 Cell Li-Polymer 45Wh selected upgrade

Here is a link for configurator (not affiliated or anything else)

https://www.lenovo.com/in/en/configurator/cto/index.html?bundleId=82YXCTO1WWIN1

I checked this config not available in US

Whats your use case?

Was somewhat recently considering a linux laptop myself and ended up deciding the steamdeck fit my needs well.

A dock + portable keyboard & mouse for when i need to do typing or w/e, and a fun handheld console for when i want fun.

That being said, depending on what your "older" laptop is, it might not actually be much stronger, or it might be wildly overpowered for what you need.

If something supports linux-libre kernel, it supports all distros. See https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Hardware-Considerations.html

Also: https://www.h-node.org/

If you're using Debian, do you really need to upgrade?

h/j

But seriously anything with an AMD CPU/GPU in it and an Intel wireless card is probably all you'll need to be mindful of, provided it fits in your budget.

Also, don't worry about touch-capable screens or HDR. The support for those is still a work in progress, and you'll likely have a bad time with them if you're using Debian.

You said not a high budget, and yet everyone here is saying Framework even though the they are $900 to $1,000 at the low end. To me that is not budget.

Pine64 is affordable but maybe too slow to be a daily driver, unless you feel confident finding your way through ultralightweight software and the command line and can do most of your problem solving that way.

For other pre-built options, there's Starlabs and System76 but those are similarly priced to Librem and Framework.

Beyond that I might just research Windows laptops that are agreeable to being formatted.

I bought the Asus Tuf A16 AMD Advantage laptop. I installed Arch on it and it's been great. Got it for $600 on eBay. Put 32gb of RAM in it and a 2tb nvme drive into the second slot. Left the 512gb drive it came with.

Thinkpad X1 Carbon if you're swimming in money and want the lightest possible laptop, Thinkpad T14 if not.

Asus Zenbooks are kinda neat machines too, and taiwanese instead of chinese, but probably not quite as reliable.

Currently in the process of fixing up my old Asus TUF FX505DU with Debian & KDE Plasma.

Setting up Nvidia Optimus would be a pain if it weren’t for Envy Control, run one command and boom GPU’s speak nicely to one another.

I have had a Tuxedo InfinityBook 14 Gen7, and I've been happy with it. They focus on hardware that has a good compatibility with Linux, so it works well out of the box without any tinkering. You say you don't have a high budget though, so these might be too expensive (I believe you can get similar specs at a lower price), but I've also been very satisfied with the after sales service they have provided - I've had some issues with it since I got it, but if it was Tuxedo specific (or appeared to me to be Tuxedo specific), and thus not easy to find general troubleshooting help online, I contacted them and I was helped out promptly, both via e-mail and the phone.