I am thinking of buying a relatively cheap laptop that is reasonably powerful. I am at loss when it comes to new CPU naming and its compatibility with Linux (from both Intel/AMD). I prefer Ryzen 5 or Core 5 above with atleast 16GB RAM.
Framework laptops are not available where I live.
I saw some Reddit posts claiming AMD being not optimized for Linux particularly for arch related distros (I use EndeavourOS). I am thinking of buying a Thinkbook from Lenovo, but confused b/w team blue & red.
Which of these CPUs are better for running Linux long-term with respect to optimizations, power management, thermals, track pad support etc. If anyone has a laptop recommendation, please feel free to comment down below.
Also, should I go for a high end Laptop like Asus Zenbook S14? A lot of reviews are picking it as the best compact laptop to buy this year. Its expensive. But if it keeps working for a long time, like 6+ years, then I don’t mind investing.
Edit: I use Gnome as my DE with EndeavourOS, but can also try Debian 12 with Gnome.
I wouldn’t be worried about buying AMD in terms of thermals, their laptop CPUs are fine. Usually, it’s the WiFi card that poses the biggest problem in terms of driver availability, in which case you can purchase an Intel WiFi card from Amazon for $15-$20. Battery and “optimizations” depend on your config and distro. Most plug-and-play distros should be fine OOTB, if you’re setting up Arch from scratch I assume you don’t have a problem in looking for drivers/compiling code.
Edit: I personally do not suggest that anyone buys a new laptop unless they do not have a choice (horrible used market or the like). There is a heavy mark-up on new devices and the used market in the West (especially in the US) is excellent if you’re OK with fiddling with some parts of your laptop (or not - sometimes you don’t even need to do that). But being in c/linux that’s about granted, eh?