[hucklebuck]

I have an uncle that doesn't want to spend much money but wants to get a new laptop and have me install Linux Mint on it. Which has more compatibility AMD or Intel? He just surfs the web and watches Youtube mostly. What are some suggestions?

 

[NexusRed]

Honestly, whatever is in your uncle's price range. Linux Mint is extremely compatible with almost all hardware. Newer is better. Just head over to your local shop and pick up whichever one you fancy.

 

[Sandy Silva]

I would suggest ASUS ZenBook 13 or Dell Precision 5530 for Linux. But, I doubt your uncle is willing to spend that much. Since, Linux Mint is compatible with most of the devices available, do some local shopping to find the best one that suit your uncle's budget.

 

[Awsan]

Vivobook 15 seems to be a good budget laptop

 

[Liranan]

Any laptop will do. Even a 4W Intel Atom APU such as the 3735 would be fine for his needs, so get whatever is in his price range.


My five year old A8-6410 is perfect for Linux, it performs much better under Linux than Windows but I have to use Windows as Vegas Pro is problematic in Linux (rendering is much, much slower than Windows).

Edit: I would recommend looking into a laptop like mine. Older CPU's/APU's still perform perfectly fine for surfing the internet and watching films. If the latop is a desktop replacement you should just get him a cheap PC. Anything like a cheap 2200G with 8GB RAM and a small HD will do just fine. If it does have to be a laptop as it needs to be portable then an older machine will be more than enough.

 

[621670]

Used ThinkPad off eBay, something like a T430 is good enough for basic web browsing under Linux.

Factory screens on ThinkPads are dog**** though.

 

[hucklebuck]

Thanks everybody. He got a Dell with an i5. I have heard that currently intel is better to go with for linux?

 

[Liranan]

Thanks everybody. He got a Dell with an i5. I have heard that currently intel is better to go with for linux?

That hasn't been true for 10 years. Linux runs perfectly on AMD as well.

 

[skupples]

i'd grab a used lenovo from Ebay. T440-T550, and a small SSD = win.


though that $200 ryzen laptop advertised on the front page would probably be great as well.

 

[JackCY]

Since this is not 2009 or earlier you are fine with almost any laptop. Back then you had to be cautious because some WiFi cards were not supported at all etc. At least when it came to the more interesting use cases of WiFi, maybe the basic user functionality worked but you couldn't do advanced stuff.

OS doesn't care what CPU or GPU etc. you have. Sure some odd configurations such as multiple NUMA nodes are better supported on some Linux than on some Windows variants because of focus more on servers, but for surfing web and regular parts, it doesn't freakin' matter.
For the web and videos even a phone has the needed functionality and performance nowadays for common users, just the screen size is small.