I was looking into buying a used or refurbished laptop and installing a Linux distro on it. Mostly want to use it for surfing the web, but I am sure it will have a lot of other uses. What are some good sites to buy a laptop? What should I consider as far as the type of hardware goes (Gpu, WiFi, etc)? What would be good distros to consider? I have been working with Linux for a long time, so I would not consider myself a beginner. Thanks for any advice.
Avoid any machine with an Nvidia graphics card for Linux. It’s more hassle than it’s worth. Source: my experience.
However, I have good luck with most laptops that have Intel integrated graphics. Specifically Lenovo machines. I am not exactly sure what budget you have, but you can get a second hand Lenovo machine that would work quite well.
If you don’t care about it being fully open source/libre, then from my experience you likely won’t have much issue with Wifi either.
As far as what you are wanting to use it for, you could get away with something fairly low powered. Depending on your preferences, I would suggest a number of distros for that purpose:
Fedora, it’s been a good distro in my experience. They offer different spins of it with different desktop environments. I personally love KDE, but you could go with Gnome too.
As far as hardware goes, if you are unsure about a machine being usable with linux, I would check here: https://linux-hardware.org/
Hope this helps!
What country/geographic region are you in? I have Canada and US specific sites about what sites and stores are good, what are overpriced.
You should be able to get Linux running on most laptops, whether every feature will work (camera, fingerprint sensor, audio, dedicated video card) can be a crapshoot but I’ve heard it’s gotten better on the software side in recent years, just use Ventoy and distrohop until you find one that works. Trying to use a Nvidia laptop graphics card is a huge pain in the ass, I’ll warn you in advance.
Old ThinkPads are a solid choice if you can scrounge one wherever you are.
Hi, I am in the US, Maryland specifically. I don’t care so much about fingerprint sensors, but audio is a must for web surfing. Thanks for the info.
Ok. Just wanted to make sure the info is relevant to you.
If you have any connections to the IT departments of colleges or your work, see when they do overhauls of laptops and if you can be sold any surplus. They will be not amazing but solid performers, tend to have decent compatibility and a good deal usually. Watch out for Chromebooks as they might be a little harder to configure than your standard.
Use your local online classified (craigslist, kijiji, FB marketplace etc.). You will have to arrange pickup and payment 1 to 1, quality may vary but you will get a decent deal. Test for boot up to a login screen at minimum before you buy, and when you get it check that the speakers/headphones, other hardware actually works before installing something new and wondering if it was functional to begin with.
Avoid Bestbuy, Newegg, Amazon as they are way overpriced for what you can get through these other methods. Warranty is the main advantage, but I’d suggest Microcenter or to support your local computer shop if you go this way.
Stuff like ebay may work, quality could be decent but unless you can spot an amazing deal, prices are only a little bit better than buying from a retailer.
I tried my national, online marketplace, but the quality was lacking. In the end, I went for a refurbished laptop. They are often of good quality, cheaper than new (and sometime equivalent) laptops, and have some extra warranty to boot.
Does it actually need to be portable? If not go with a minipc
Yes, I want something I can easily move. I have a RaspberryPi that I use for retro gaming, but having to move the monitor and kb/mouse is a pain. I want something I can put on the kitchen table while I eat (munch, munch).
