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The last time I tried thinkpads, I thought I'd done my research but somehow got one that couldn't use it's wireless card in Debian out of the box (and lacked an ethernet port :/)

Do you have any specific models/lines you'd reccomend? I'm probably just going to throw something XFCE flavored on it and remote into VMs when I need actual processing -- I just need something to do word processing, browsing, maybe watch some videos in VLC.

My Macbook air has great battery life and a nice screen but if anything fails it's a 1k fix -- everything is fused to the motherboard now so when one part fails you have to replace everything

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> Do you have any specific models/lines you'd reccomend?

My current thinkpad is a T14 5th gen w/ AMD, and everything worked OOTB with both Ubuntu and Fedora.

You can always double check particular models/configurations on ThinkWiki(https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki), or Ubuntu certifications (https://ubuntu.com/certified/laptops?q=&limit=120&vendor=Len...) or RedHat's equivalent(https://catalog.redhat.com/en/search?searchType=Hardware&par...)

Generally, the newer the hardware, the more you need a more recent kernel which may have been what you ran into with Debian. I've had laptops that worked in Fedora & Arch, but Debian & Ubuntu didn't have a recent enough kernel for the WiFi adapter. If you still have that laptop might be worth it to give it another shot depending on how long ago you tried, Trixie may work on it.

Thanks, I think the thinkwiki is a link I didn't have last time I looked into this.

I'm more a fan of debian than ubuntu due to the advertising things they've done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu#System_terminal_adverti...

But honestly I'm not someone who's got strong views beyond my controverial view that XFCE style graphics are both artful and functional and that going beyond that is a waste of resource ;)

I'll look around on Craigslist for a used laptop and then run it through thinkwiki.

This was a long time ago BTW. As in, the end of the Bush administration -- but I was in uni and didn't have time to troubleshoot, and then I went into the workforce and as VMs became ubiquitous, I glommed onto MacOS since Apple Stores are great about fixing hardware quickly and software wise, I could beef up my ram and run Debian or Kali or whatever as needed.

(As an aside I've found Parrot more well run than Kali's "try harder" anti-user philosophy in later years)

DELL XPS

>DELL XPS

I'LL LOOK INTO IT