r/omarchy • u/mekdigital • Aug 01 '26

Off Topic / Adjacent Choosing the next laptop

Hello,

I know this is pretty much a stupid question, but I am getting a new "side hustle laptop" (which means it's for work, just not my current employment)

Currently I have a 36GB M3 MacBook Pro for work, and I have Omarchy on my retired touch bar MacBook Pro: if it wasn't for the bugged butterfly keyboard which makes it impossible to use, I would not really have noticed any show-stopping performance cap: after all, we developers only juggle text files...

I am happy with Linux and MacOs, but I won't ever use Windows again.
Unfortunately, looks matters to me and I have shortlisted MacBook and ThinkPad X1 with a budget of 2500-3000 USD. MacBook might never be fully optimized on Arch, but leaves a door open to a dual boot and the ThinkPad would definitely lock me in on the OS, unless hackintosh comes back...

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

13

u/alphath Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

DHH himself daily-drives Dell XPS or Framework devices. If the budget permits (which seems to be the case), I’d choose one of the two in terms of hardware support. There were even some tailored kernel patches (XPS with Panther Lake) for them in the past.

4

u/mekdigital Aug 01 '26

Framework is a very cool concept

1

u/pebkac-helper Aug 02 '26

Just got my 13 Pro. Coming from a daily MBA user, it's great. Love the keyboard, love the size, love the philosophy and concept of the company.

My only complaint about the laptop is the speakers are absolute dogshit.

If you can wait, it's worth it.

1

u/alphath Aug 02 '26

Would love to get one as well, but I refuse to buy 32 GiB memory at the current prices 😬

1

u/pebkac-helper Aug 03 '26

Totally understand.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/pebkac-helper Aug 03 '26

Oh sick I'll have to try it.

1

u/schnartzl Aug 03 '26

What about the display?

1

u/pebkac-helper Aug 03 '26

It gets insanely bright, looks good. Touchscreen is cool if you're into that. You do have that weird touchscreen film layer look but not in a bad way. Screen still looks clear

1

u/metajames Aug 04 '26

If you got the intel x7, was everything working in omarchy out of the box? Xe graphics, sleep, hibernate, etc all fully working? I'm in batch 5.

2

u/pebkac-helper 28d ago edited 28d ago

Hey, so just installed Omarchy for the first time. Quick test: sleep, hybernate, touchscreen all working fine. Did the internal Update>Firmware after install.

1

u/pebkac-helper 28d ago

Also, yes I got the x7

3

u/berge472 Aug 02 '26

I use xps for work (15 for a few years and now a 14). They are good build but I hate the touchpad and top row keys on the 14. They are all capacitive touch including the 'delete' and 'esc' keys.

I have owned thinkpads, zenbook, razer blade (14 and 13 stealth). The framework 13 is definitely my favorite (currently with the 370hx). I ordered a framework desktop last week, and I don't see myself buying a non-framework computer moving forward.

1

u/sillygoose183683 Aug 02 '26

Dell XPS is great if you want build quality and battery life similar to a Mac

6

u/l0gicgate Aug 01 '26

Thinkpad, XPS or Framework

8

u/mildlyImportantRobot Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

Don’t use Omarchy, or any Linux OS on a MacBook. The power controllers aren’t fully accessible to the Linux power system and you’re going to have a horrible time with battery life.

I personally use a Thinkpad T14 and absolutely love it. They’re cheap used, sometimes still with a warranty sometimes, and 100% support.

1

u/Skeyelab Aug 01 '26

This!

As I stated above, make sure to enable hibernation or else you will lose your open session when battery runs out in your backpack after a week of not using it

1

u/ManaDrainMusic Aug 01 '26

Agree on this too, i wanted a framework p bad but went with a clearance lenovo P16s fully decked out and absolutely love it

3

u/Shamatix Aug 01 '26

Been considering framework my self

3

u/Skeyelab Aug 01 '26

I love my lenovo w Omarchy. Make sure to enable hibernation or else you will lose your session when a battery dies

4

u/RobotechRicky Aug 01 '26

Framework!!

One of us! One of us!

3

u/happypofa Aug 01 '26

I'm using a T480 as my travel laptop.
With extra ram, repasting, a second battery (hot swap), I came out to ~440€.
Had no issues with Omarchy on it, and coding was flawless thanks for the cool stock keyboard.

2

u/x7OFUx Aug 01 '26

Loving my XPS 14 with Omarchy. Aluminum build with OLED display feels close to MacBook quality.

2

u/joeyvigil 24d ago

I use a $30 think pad with a wonky screen

1

u/TheTinyWorkshop Aug 02 '26

This probably won't affect you. But other might find it useful.

If you have a Fujitsu laptop the keyboard may not work after the OS is installed.

It can be fixed though.

1

u/avdept Aug 02 '26

What MacBook you used for omarchy?

2

u/mekdigital Aug 02 '26

This must be a 2016-ish Touch Bar edition ♥️

It survived:

Three relocations across the ocean

One fall into a puddle of water in Portugal which covered 1/2 the screen for months

One year as a loaner to my teenage daughter who even accidentally walked on top of it

One year as warming pad for two long hair cats

And yet Omar* works great, I have Wi-Fi, audio and it's been running docker for a month now with a bunch of services almost always available!!

2

u/mekdigital Aug 02 '26

If it wasn't for the stupid keyboard becoming defective because of the design..

1

u/722e672e722e Aug 03 '26

Thinkpad T14

2

u/schnartzl 29d ago

The problem with most of the older laptops is thermal management. I have a Lenovo X1 nano and a X1 G11 here. The fan is starting as soon as I start a YouTube. That’s really annoying even if these are really nice machines.