I'm looking for a new work laptop and I'd like to jump to Linux at the same time. I was hoping to get some input from here because I'm still undecided!
Maybe some context first : the switch is not urgent. My current machine still works. I'd like to change it because of a few quirks and problems (for me) it has, it will find a happy owner afterwards. As for the job, I'm a dev (mostly Java and web). I need something that can run a few docker containers, multiple instances of intellij, but that's pretty much it and it's not a complicated requirement to fill. Also, I'm in Europe.
I've been looking mostly at Tuxedo and Framework, with a preference for the later 16 inch model.
Does anybody have experience with Linux support on the framework 16? With, for example, Fedora? Other than that, any recommendation / thing to pay attention to? I have some experience with Linux but it's been a while since I've run it as a desktop os, and my knowledge has never been in depth, so any help will be greatly appreciated :)
I had a first gen Framework 13 and definitely felt the sleep drain issues mentioned elsewhere here, which was why I sold mine. That said, as I understand it that was fixed in later hardware revs and possibly on gen1 by way of a BIOS patch.
The machine otherwise was pretty great. Very thin and light, great display quality, and generally felt very stable and good quality. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.
That said, there's a caveat- you'll be paying a significant premium for a Framework relative to other equivalent options. It's a great machine, but it's not twice as good as a used Thinkpad for your use case. If your budget is such that you can pay that premium to support open hardware and a company trying to do something new and different to cut down on planned obsolescence and it's associated waste, by all means go for it. If not, though, you could get a used machine, donate some of what you saved to the EFF or FSF or your environmental npo of choice and still feel pretty good about the transaction.