I am new to Fedora, finally had my fill of Apple. I have played with Fedora on a live boot stick and loved every minute of it, now selling Macbook Pro to fund a used (possibly new) laptop purchase. But I really want to avoid all the Terminal commands (like i used on Macbook) to get all the hardware working.
Can anyone recommend a few brands/models which are known to play nice with Fedora straight after install, without needing Terminal commands to get full functionality?
Looking at pretty decent spec, 15" screen with at least 16GB ram and 1-2TB HDD and at least 4GB VRam.
Thanks thatās a very useful link by the looks of it. Will have a good read through later.
Re the shell commands - dont get me wrong, I am not too scared of it. BUTā¦ when I had to make so many modifications in Terminal for the macbook pro 2013, i got lost in a chain of commands (10s or hundreds as I tried different instructions and commands found all over the web) until I finally got webcam, wifi, bluetooth etc working.
I am making a big commitment to move my 2TB of data, files, and business stuff onto it. So itās a huge leap after 15+ years on Macs. I could foresee a day when a kernal or OS update comes in, and poof go my modifications. I also felt ādirtyā knowing I had run a ton of commands in Terminal which I really had no clue about from a fundamental level. I like to understand what I am working with.
If I can get a laptop that plays nice out of the box (I donāyt mind the odd command so long as as they will stick, and I can understand them, i.e. sudo dnf update ) then I know I will enjoy Fedora all the more and mostly will enjoy being free of the Apple walled garden at long last.
Yes, Itās a bit hard in the beginning. I fully sympathize with You. But, trust me, itās much easier to install Linux on a Mac then to install Windows on a Mac. (I did it once, and now thereās another one awaiting.) If You buy a x86_64 based computer and visit https://linux-hardware.org/ for some research You should be fine. Another confession from me: Iām not into fancy stuff like fingerprint readers, touch bars and such. I often have to work with hands where I can get burns or scars so I rely on good old passwords. And one more thing. Broadcoms hybrid wifi/bluetooth devices and Nvidia graphic cards can make You ādo some web search and typing in terminalā. Hope that helps. Good luck and welcome.
You canāt go wrong with a ThinkPad T-, X-, or P-series. In my experience, they run Fedora flawlessly and are an excellent laptop overall (superior durability, excellent keyboard, and the TrackPoint is addictive once you get used to it).
x86_64 - Is this the type of hardware? If so, how do I know, I donāt see it in adverts for laptops. Are you saying I SHOULD go for x86_64, as that will give me a more compatible machine for Fedora?
Fingerprint/touchbars - Iād pay NOT to have them! No need. I just want good processing power, bells and whistles are of no use to me and just annoy me by usually sacrificing keyboard in some way! I detest that red magic mushroom in the middle of Thinkpad keyboards!!
I am trying to learn what processors are āgoodā. Is it still purely based on speeds, or am I right in thinking that can be deceiving, i.e. one processor with a speed of 2.1ghz could actually be faster than another one claiming 2.3ghz, due to ābus speedsā or ānumber of coresā and all the other complicated factors?
AAAGH, I have a feeling youāre referring to that magic mushroom bang in the middle of where my index finger lays when typing, constantly making me jump like i dropped cigarette ash on my keyboard If I had one, Iād rip it out, not a deal breaker if the machine is good and I do think those Thinkpads may be the best choice for Linux.
One question I have thoughā¦ on Macbook Pro i could use 2 fingers to scroll, 3 fingers to swipe between full screen apps (or desktops on Fedora), and so on. I see the Thinkpads still have clicky buttons, which I quite like to see actually. But can you still do those 2/3 finger gestures on the trackpad, or is it only the old function of moving pointer with one finger and then clicking buttons to left/right click?
Thanks for the comments, exactly what I was hoping for.
Iād be very grateful for some honest opinions on whether this would suit my needs and run Fedora well?
I didnāt look for a machine with touch screen (no real use for that at all, maybe I could find a use but not sure). It just seems a huge bang for buck to me, unless I am missing something? (I suspect I am)
PS Iād probably go for 15" equivalent which is similar price and same model/features.
Those are Intel or AMD processors. Hereās my recent experience. After long years of working on aged, abandoned, or refurbished from trash machines, I decided to save for something contemporary. Here in Croatia we abandoned our currency for āeuroā. Everything became expensive in few months. I collected coins (2 euros) for five months and watched whatās selling. I wanted a decent āworkhorseā, good processor, enough RAM and connectors (USBās, Ethernet ā¦). The budget was tight so I had to choose carefully. I settled for Acer Aspire 5. But there are many that are sold under that name. Many submodels and with different configurations around the world.
Mine should be:
āUM_A515-47_515-57-57G_GT_T_(Ganymede_ADU_BCU)ā
12āth gen Intel: ā10-core (2-mt/8-st) 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U (-MST AMCP-)ā
32 Gigs, 500G NVMe with additionall slot inside.
Trackpad is huge and works with one/two/three finger yoga gestures. Itās also like that Mac āgravityā trackpad - You can press it down. Keyboard has backlit (which gracefully shuts down while keyboard is not used).
I donāt know what else to say, except that it was sold without OS, so prepare installation media (well, there is Acers shell inside, but I spent just few minutes with it), and it costed me 800 euros. Iām happy with it.
Linux is widely used on Intel and AMD x86_64, but Windows is far more widely used, so vendors put more effort into making sure the rest of the hardware (mass storage, network, display) work well in Windows. Apple systems are popular with linux users because they are generally well built and use quality components. Large Enterprises are starting to use linux, so some enterprise level machines from major vendors are sold in a linux friendly configuration, but I once tried to by a small quantity for students working in our lab and was told the minimum order was 1000 units.
Have you tried installing linux on your Macbook Pro? Search for your model on Linux Hardware to see if any of the hardware components have issues with linux.
Windows and macOS come pre-configured, so GUI tools can be used to tweak settings, install updates, etc. , and troubleshooting help is available from vendor support. Solving problems with linux often requires using command-line tools, so while you may be able to find a system that works out of the box, at some point most users will need command-line tools. Tasks such as applying the same processing to 1000ās of files can take a GUI user weeks of mouse pushing to complete or a few hours to carefully craft one command line.
Fedora works flawlessly with my ThinkPad X1 Carbon, except for the camera. I got the OLED display and Linux is not compatible with the special camera. If you got a display other than OLED, the camera should work.
I switched from a MacBook Pro 14 to the ThinkPad and Iāve never been happier. Its an outstanding laptop. Very high quality and performance.
It would be good to find out if network/wifi/bluetooth are Intel based chips. If they are something from Realtek, or even worse, from Broadcom, you will have to find the right drivers and for sure use command line to install them.
I am not familiar with the Yoga line and what components are being used but I second @jasoneckert opinion that if you buy a Thinkpad T, X, or P series (the X series has 13 inch models!), which are based on Intel chipsets, you get a flawless out of the box experience
Thanks everyone. Yes, I have no problem using Terminal when essential. But if I can choose a machine which doesnāt need Terminal to just get the hardware working, I would go for that. Thatās what my objective is here, not to avoid ever using Terminal in the future, just to start out with a. machine thatās fully compatible OOB, or as near as possible.
The Thinkpads sound good. I did hear some reports of X1 getting very hot when doing any real processing. Maybe thatās old news.
Anyone know if the V series are equally compatible? I spotted this which seems a good deal https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF27KPFP
P.S. Iāve never seen RAM in those increments before (40GB?!). I take it thatās not a red flag of a fugezi?
I looked at the link and see that it may be that for all values greater than 16 GB it might be that 8 GB is reserved for graphics (or soldered in). I cannot say for sure but the increments are 16, 24, and 40, which could easily be 8 + 8, 16 + 8, and 32 + 8; with the +8 being graphics
x86_64 ādescribes how your Processor is builtā. Its the standard for PCs, everywhere. Its not great, but its used and works, somehow.
Android phones for example use ARM most of the time. Some old ones use 32bit, the newer ones 64bit too. Some Laptops like the Pinebook or the new Macbooks use ARM architecture too, as well as Raspberry Pis, Orange Pis and many other mini computers.
ARM is proprietary = ānon-Free and Open Sourceā architecture, which means its not as trustworthy as it could be (afaik)
Then there is RISC-V, which is another āset of CPU instructionsā. Its basically a new way to build CPUs, with fully working Computers available, its still in early steps but the general idea is to have as little instructions (= things that the CPU should do) as possible. This means its faster and more energy efficient than x86 CPUs, which just got more and more instructions over the decades they exist.
Note that the RISC-V processor referred to is a newer version of processors that have been in use for many years. The processors used by Sun, Ibm, HP, Dec Alpha, PowerPC, Motorola, etc. were all forms of risc processors beginning in the mid 80ās. That style processor has lagged but seems to be making some amount of comeback with the RISC-V architecture.
Donāt avoid shell commands if You fell in love with āUnixoidā system. Shell is a great tool. I strongly suggest to invest some time to learn and get comfortable. But, for a starter, You can try some of those: 
If I had one, Iād rip it out, not a deal breaker if the machine is good and I do think those Thinkpads may be the best choice for Linux.
