12 Years ago I had a Sony Vaio. I quite liked it. Then in my next job, 2017 or so, I went for a Toshiba Portege, and absolutely loved it.

Guess what the above two have in common? Yup, they stopped making laptops for the professional market. So now I’m a bit at a loss. Any recommendations?

Requirements:

  • Lightweight and easy to carry around.
  • 13-15" display, preferably
  • Decent battery life
  • It absolutely must have an RJ45
  • Works well with linux
  • Good keyboard quality
  • ISO keyboard availability
  • Touchpad. Bonus points if it has the touchpad buttons ABOVE the pad itself.
  • Joker
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    8 months ago
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    Framework if you want to repair it yourself and Lenovo if you don’t. Lenovo makes a good machine and has very reasonably priced on-site support options.

    • Brkdncr
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      8 months ago
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      Is this a joke? Framework as a work laptop?

      • Joker
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        8 months ago
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        Then what’s it for? Looking pretty?

        • GBU_28English
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          8 months ago
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          7 months ago
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          Hobbists and home devs I think.

          Edit if anyone can link an example of a real sized business going with framework I’ll eat a delicious lunch very quickly so I become slightly uncomfortable

          • ManzasEnglish
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            7 months ago
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            Why would a business not like a laptop that they don’t have to replace?

            • GBU_28English
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              7 months ago
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              Because most businesses don’t think like that at all. They don’t want employees taking things apart either.

              ThinkPads and similar are far more popular because they can be bought in large contracts

      • Sethayy
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        7 months ago
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        I’m genuinely asking, bought prebuilt what would be the difference from a normal laptop?

        Cause I could see lower longterm costs being a great benefit to a business, and if one part fails not losing 100% of your data, just let the IT guy replace that part

        • Brkdncr
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          7 months ago
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          Long term costs aren’t an issue, framework costs 2x as much as a comparable enterprise laptop.

          With a warranty parts are replaced if needed by the vendor, the IT guy doesn’t need to do anything. They even come to your home.

          Drivers are regular updated tested, verified, packaged together and deployed through a repository and management apps.

          since many companies have the ability to switch vendors, costing a company like dell or Lenovo $100k+ per year by doing so, the vendors pay attention to issues.

          • Sethayy
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            7 months ago
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            Yeah but it isn’t exactly ideal to have to fully stop operations when something goes down, especially given the opportunity to solve things within 10 min.

            I suppose this would be even greater benefit to smaller town/out of city center businesses, but still framework is a company, so they do go through their own quality testing

            • Brkdncr
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              7 months ago
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              You can buy a 2nd spare laptop for the price of a framework.

              Lenovo posts their compatibility with each windows release. They also provide specific driver packages to use.

              They also have tools to remotely test and troubleshoot hardware issues, online and offline.

              I’d love to have a framework and I support the idea they have for multiple reasons, but it’s not a legitimate business device yet.

              • Sethayy
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                7 months ago
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                Shit I’d love to see where youre finding a laptop with comparable specs at $750, I’ll probably pick one up

                • Brkdncr
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                  7 months ago
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                  I just spec’d a framework for $2000+ and a comparable Lenovo Thinkpad for $1000.

                  Another item important for work users availability. I wouldn’t the Lenovo in a few days. Not sure about the framework.

                  • Sethayy
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                    7 months ago
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                    Sure if you buy top of the line it’ll be expensive, but what makes you only choose that option? 1.5 k is still more than reasonable for most jobs, and I can’t seem to find any lenovo without 720p displays at half that price

      • ___
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        7 months ago
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        You’re getting downvoted, but the only way a business buys frameworks is if they’re running a pilot program. They are just not proven in that environment yet.

        For a dev going to a coffee shop sure. It’s your work laptop.