Buy Computer & Laptops The 8 Best Linux Laptops of 2019 Find the best computer for this alternative OS Share Pin Email Print The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide Introduction Laptop Basics Laptop Size & Weight Guide Laptop Networking Guide Laptop Memory Buyer's Guide Laptop Processor Buyer's Guide Display & Graphics Guide Types of Laptop Drives Guide Netbook vs Laptop Hybrid vs Convertible Laptop Understanding Laptop Warranties Best Laptops Best Laptops Best Places to Buy a Laptop Best Linux Laptops Best Windows Laptops Best Laptops for Under $200 Best Laptops for Under $500 Best Touchscreen Laptops Best Laptops at Walmart Best Workstation Laptops Best Laptops by Size Best 14- to 16-Inch Laptops Best 13-Inch Laptops Best 17-Inch and Larger Laptops Best Lightweight Laptops Best Mini Laptops Best Laptops by Brand Best Lenovo Laptops Best Dell Laptops Best Acer Laptops Best ASUS Laptops Best HP Laptops Best Gaming Laptops Best Gaming Laptops Best Gaming Laptops for Battery Life Best Gaming Laptops for Under $1,000 Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500 Best Laptops for Fortnite Best Laptops by Lifestyle Best Business Laptops Best Laptops for College Students Laptops for Engineering Students Best Laptops for Graphic Design Best Laptops for Kids Best Laptops for Photography Best Laptops for Video Editing Best Laptops for VR Best Laptops for Writers Individual Laptop Reviews Acer Aspire E 15 Review Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch (2019) Review HP 15-BS013DX Review HP Notebook 15 Review HP Pavilion 15z Touch Review HP Spectre x360 15t Touch Review Best Laptop Accessories Portable Battery Chargers Compact Desks & Stands Rolling Laptop Bags Best Laptop Backpacks Best Laptop Bags Laptop Cases and Sleeves Laptop Cooling Pads Best Laptop Mounts Laptop Computer GPS by Christian de Looper Christian de Looper is a California-based tech reporter. His work—on everything from smartphones to artificial intelligence—has been published by Business Insider, Forbes, Digital Trends, and TechRadar, among others. Updated October 22, 2019 Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links. Our Top Picks Best Overall: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition at Dell"The clear top choice for those who want a stylish, powerful, and lightweight laptop with Linux."Best Budget: Pinebook 64 at Pine 64"For the price, it’s a great choice for those who simply want to try Linux a little."Best for Power: System76 Serval WS at System 76"Features desktop-class Intel Core i7 and i9 processors."Best for Security: Purism Librem 13 at Purism"Features two hardware kill switches that turn off the microphone/camera and wireless/Bluetooth."Best for Customization: ZaReason UltraLap 6440 at ZaReason"Offers the ability to choose your hardware options and your version of Linux."Best Macbook for Linux: 2018 MacBook Air at Amazon"Beautifully designed and features relatively powerful hardware."Best Windows Laptop for Linux: Lenovo ThinkPad E570 at Amazon"Known to work pretty well with Linux, plus they’re built like a tank."Best Chromebook for Linux: Samsung Chromebook Pro at Amazon"More than powerful enough to run Linux, plus it’s relatively sleek and stylish." Linux is an operating system that many consumers, businesspeople, and developers swear by it. It may not have the backing that the other big operating systems have, but it’s still a very capable, not to mention free, operating system. There are at least a few laptops out there that come with Linux pre-installed, but your options are limited. The fact is that the majority of major computer manufacturers simply don’t build laptops with Linux — but the trade-off is that there’s plenty of room for smaller companies, many of which are quite good. Our Top Picks Best Overall: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition Courtesy of B&H Photo Buy on DellBuy on B&H Photo Video The Dell XPS 13 is already considered one of the best laptops out there, period, and the fact that it’s available with Linux too makes it the clear top choice for those who want a stylish, powerful, and lightweight laptop with Linux. Under the hood, the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition has a lot to offer. The base model comes with an 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. That's more than powerful enough for the Ubuntu 18.04 build that it comes with. The computer can, however, be customized to include an Intel Core i7 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The base model’s 13.3-inch display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080, though you can upgrade it to a 4K display. Weight-wise, the computer is only 2.67lbs. You may also want to check out our selection for the best places to buy a laptop. Best Budget: Pinebook 64 Courtesy of Pinebook Buy on Pine64.org This laptop certainly isn’t the most powerful device out there — but for the price, it’s a great choice for those who simply want to try Linux a little. Under the hood, the laptop features a quad-core ARM Cortex A53 processor, coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage. There are also two USB 2.0 ports, a MicroSD card slot, a digital video port, and a headphone jack. The display on the base model comes in at 11.6 inches (though it can be upgraded to 14 inches) with a resolution of 1366 x 768. It’s pretty thin and light, too, with a thickness of 0.47-inches and a weight of either 2.30lbs or 2.78lbs, depending on the size of the model you go for. For more deals, check out our picks for the best laptops for under $200. Best for Power: System76 Serval WS Courtesy of System76 Buy on System76.com If you want a Linux laptop and simply need the most powerful option out there, then the System76 Serval WS may well be the laptop for you. Unlike many of the other options out there, this laptop features desktop-class Intel Core i7 and i9 processors, which are quite a bit more powerful than the laptop-class i7 chips you’re likely to find on other computers. Not only that, but the Serval WS also features NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-series GPUs, which makes the laptop even better for graphics-based computing. The base model of the computer comes with a 15.6-inch display with a 1080p resolution, along with a GTX1060 GPU, Intel Core i7-8700 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 250GB SSD. The computer can, however, be upgraded with up to a 17.3-inch 4K matte display, a GTX 1080 GPU, Intel Core i9-9900K processor, 64GB of RAM, and a 2TB hard drive. By default, the laptop comes with System76’s Pop!_OS Linux build, but you can opt to have it ship with Ubuntu 18.04 instead if you choose. The only real downside to this computer is that it’s relatively pricey and a bit bulky, weighing in at 7.5lbs for the 15-inch version or a hefty 9.2lbs for the 17-inch version. Still, if what you want is power, then that extra weight is pretty much unavoidable. Best for Security: Purism Librem 13 Courtesy of Purism Buy on Puri.sm Security is becoming more and more of a concern in the tech world, and while there’s a lot more malware out there for Windows, Linux can still be a target. That, however, is where the Purism Librem 13 comes in. This laptop is specifically designed to protect your files, featuring two hardware kill switches that turn off the microphone/camera and wireless/Bluetooth. It also has PureOS, Purism’s version of Linux that has an emphasis on security. Under the hood, the Librem 13 features an Intel Core i7 processor, coupled with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 4TB of storage (though the base model has a 120GB SSD). The display on the laptop sits in at 13.3-inches, and the device features two USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI port, and an SD card slot. The laptop is pretty thin and light too, coming in at 0.7 inches thick and 2.2lbs, which makes it a great option for those who want a device they can carry around. Best for Customization: ZaReason UltraLap 6440 Courtesy of ZaReason Buy on Zareason.com ZaReason is known for its Linux server equipment, but it builds more consumer-facing products too, like the ZaReason UltraLap 6440. The laptop is a great choice for those who want some customizability from their laptop as it offers the ability to choose your hardware options and which version of Linux you want pre-installed on the device. That’s good news for those that don’t necessarily want Ubuntu, which is the more popular version of Linux. Under the hood, there’s the hardware you would expect from a top-tier laptop. The base model includes an Intel Core i5 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM and a 120GB SSD, but the laptop can be customized to include up to an Intel Core i7 CPU, along with up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 2TB hard drive. You can even choose to add a second hard drive to the computer, which means you can get a total of 4TB of storage. Port-wise, the laptop comes with a USB-C port, two USB 2.0 ports, and an SD card reader. The laptop isn’t exactly "lightweight," but it’s not too heavy either — it has a thickness of 0.87-inches and a weight of 3.6lbs. Best Macbook for Linux: 2018 MacBook Air Buy on AmazonBuy on B&H Photo Video Just because a laptop doesn’t come with Linux pre-installed, that doesn’t mean that you can’t install Linux on it yourself. MacBooks are loved for their great design and powerful hardware, and there are plenty of guides out there on how to install Linux on your MacBook, though it’s something we only recommend to those who know what they’re doing. If you’re interested in this, we recommend the new 2018 MacBook Air, which is beautifully designed and features relatively powerful hardware. Spec-wise, the base model of the new MacBook Air comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, coupled with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It can be upgraded to offer up to 16GB of RAM and 1.5TB of storage. Apple has adopted modern ports for the laptop too — you'll get two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. As you would expect from a MacBook Air, the 2018 version is nice and light, with a thickness of 0.61-inches and a weight of 2.75lbs. Interested in reading more reviews? Take a look at our selection of the best laptops. Best Windows Laptop for Linux: Lenovo ThinkPad E570 Buy on AmazonBuy on B&H Photo VideoBuy on Newegg.com You don’t necessarily have to buy a laptop that has Linux pre-installed. Alternatively, you could buy a Windows laptop and install Linux on it, though we recommend that only to those who know what they’re doing. If you want to simply buy a Windows laptop and then install Linux on it after the fact, then we recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad E570. Why? Lenovo’s ThinkPad line of laptops are known to work pretty well with Linux, plus they’re built like a tank. Under the hood, the Lenovo ThinkPad E570 features an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage, which is more than enough power for running Linux. The display on the device should be big enough, too, at 15.7 inches. It is a bit bulky at an inch thick and a little over five pounds, but if you can deal with the heft then it’s an excellent choice. If you're unsure about Linus, find out some reasons why Linus is better than Windows and learn what Windows users need to know before installing. Best Chromebook for Linux: Samsung Chromebook Pro Buy on AmazonBuy on Samsung Google’s Chrome OS is known to work well with Linux, so it makes sense to buy a relatively low-cost Chromebook for Chrome OS. The Samsung Chromebook Pro is more than powerful enough to run Linux, plus it’s relatively sleek and stylish, which is always nice. A word of warning: we only recommend trying to install Linux on a laptop if you know what you’re doing. If something goes wrong, you could end up with an expensive paperweight. The Samsung Chromebook Pro comes with an Intel Core M3 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of flash storage. The laptop is relatively slim, with a thickness of 0.5 inches and a weight of 2.38lbs, which means that it’ll be nice and portable. It’s not overly expensive either. Looking for an operating system? Check out our roundup of the best Linux distros for beginners. Continue Reading