What is the best current gaming laptop that comes with Linux pre-installed? I don’t want to “pay Microsoft” by buying a Windows-licensed machine. Please suggest the best value-for-money option (original retail price) with 32 GB or more of RAM. I’m willing to upgrade hardware myself, but I want a high-quality, durable machine — I plan to use this laptop for more than five years.
“What is your budget?”
around $1,400 USD, but if there is a $2000 laptop with higher ratio of quality / price I would choose that one.
“What size do you want?”
Any normal size.
“What screen resolution?”
Any, as long as it’s not 720p.
“Which GPU?”
As good as possible, I care more about highest ratio of quality / price
“And if you want warranty, which country are you in?”
I don’t need a warranty.
Linux preinstalled is going to remove a lot of candidates. If you relax your requirements to include known setups/components that work well with Linux then that would help expand your options. The amount that Microsoft gets from the preinstalled license is likely negligible.
The only reason I’m asking linux is I don’t want my money taken by microsoft. I believe most laptop like dell would work with linux well enough. If I’m good with windows preinstalled, which laptop would have the highest ratio of quality / price?
I was going to suggest Framework. You can buy them without any OS at all. But it’s going to be easily >$2k with a GPU.
Your option is basically only framework if you want good hardware.
If you don’t mind low end stuff then you have plenty of options.
Do your research because it varies by year and components. But if I was going for new I’d be looking at Asus TUF or Strix at the 1.4k price point.