Hi all!

I need a lightweight, probably second-hand laptop. I run Manjaro and do almost all of my serious computing on the desktop (or via remote) so it doesn't need to be very powerful. It needs to have good battery life and be easy to carry. And my eyes are not what they used to be so a bigger screen is better.

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Jimqode to All on Thu Dec 25 2025 04:00 pm

I need a lightweight, probably second-hand laptop. I run Manjaro and do almost all of my serious computing on the desktop (or via remote) so it doesn't need to be very powerful. It needs to have good battery life and be easy to carry. And my eyes are not what they used to be so a bigger screen is better.

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

I've always liked Lenovo laptops. They bought out IBM's home computer division years ago, so the followed that lineage, and I think they're still good machines. Also, my last work laptop was a Dell, and I thought it was a decent laptop.

For battery life, I've heard Apple MacBook laptops get pretty good reviews for battery life.. But I know there are others that have pretty good battery life too.

Nightfox

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On Fri, 26 Dec 2025 05:52:33 -0800
"Nightfox" (VERT/DIGDIST) <VERT/DIGDIST!Nightfox@endofthelinebbs.com>
wrote:

Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Jimqode to All on Thu Dec 25 2025 04:00 pm

I need a lightweight, probably second-hand laptop. I run Manjaro
and do almost all of my serious computing on the desktop (or via
remote) so it doesn't need to be very powerful. It needs to have
good battery life and be easy to carry. And my eyes are not what
they used to be so a bigger screen is better.

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

I've always liked Lenovo laptops. They bought out IBM's home
computer division years ago, so the followed that lineage, and I
think they're still good machines. Also, my last work laptop was a
Dell, and I thought it was a decent laptop.

For battery life, I've heard Apple MacBook laptops get pretty good
reviews for battery life.. But I know there are others that have
pretty good battery life too.

I've looked at Lenovo through work discounts and still think they're
expensive for what they are. Probably well made but you are paying for
the name. I've been happy with cheap Acer or Asus laptops. You're
probably going to get decent used latops that have batteries that are a
bit worn, but they're generally easy to replace.
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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: nelgin to All on Fri Dec 26 2025 05:03 pm

name. I've been happy with cheap Acer or Asus laptops.

I've heard Acer and Asus make good laptops too, though I've never used one myself.

Nightfox

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Nightfox wrote to Jimqode <=-

I've always liked Lenovo laptops. They bought out IBM's home computer division years ago, so the followed that lineage, and I think they're still good machines. Also, my last work laptop was a Dell, and I
thought it was a decent laptop.

Yeah I was eyeing Lenovos too. They also seem to have good linux compatibility. I'm not sure about their battery life though, never used one.

Ni> For battery life, I've heard Apple MacBook laptops get pretty good
Ni> reviews for battery life.. But I know there are others that have
Ni> pretty good battery life too.

I wish there were just as capable ARM laptops without the Apple lockdown. Apple ecosystem is a complete no go for me. Believe me, I tried.


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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Jimqode to Nightfox on Fri Dec 26 2025 12:25 pm

I wish there were just as capable ARM laptops without the Apple lockdown. Ap ecosystem is a complete no go for me. Believe me, I tried.

Pretty sure before Apple came out with their ARM chips, the Surface and probably other laptops started using the Snapdragon X processor. ARM for laptops/desktops. There are a bunch of things using those now.

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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Nightfox to nelgin on Fri Dec 26 2025 16:10:57

I've heard Acer and Asus make good laptops too, though I've never used one myself.

I think I got an Asus laptop. Heavy as hell, don't use it often but it's still pretty quick and suits my need. Had it a long time. I'm looking on Amazon and last latop I got was in 2017 which would have got my son for school so it was before that. It's a beast.

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phigan wrote to Jimqode <=-

Pretty sure before Apple came out with their ARM chips, the Surface and probably other laptops started using the Snapdragon X processor. ARM
for laptops/desktops. There are a bunch of things using those now.

Yeah, I've looked into them. They all have a boot firmware that is not redistributable in the linux kernel even in binary form, so you have to keep a windows partition around to get the firmware binary. Sounded like a PITA that might go away in the future, but it never did.


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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: phigan to Jimqode on Fri Dec 26 2025 07:38 pm

Pretty sure before Apple came out with their ARM chips, the Surface and probably other laptops started using the Snapdragon X processor. ARM for laptops/desktops. There are a bunch of things using those now.

The "Surface" name is confusing, with all the ways Microsoft has used it. Years ago, I first heard about a Microsoft Surface device, which was a tabletop computer with a touch interface, and it had use cases like playing computer-based card games with others, a cool interface for arranging photos, etc.. I thought it was around 2005, but it sounds like it was 2008, and now it sounds like it's called PIxelSense:

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-surface-pixelsense-table

Then, the name "Surface" referred to an Intel-based tablet Microsoft was making which ran Windows 8.1. Now it appears there are Surface laptops that use ARM processors.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Nightfox to phigan on Sat Dec 27 2025 10:51 am

Then, the name "Surface" referred to an Intel-based tablet Microsoft was mak which ran Windows 8.1. Now it appears there are Surface laptops that use AR

Actually, in between there, there was a Surface and Surface 2 that were ARM and ran Win 8.. You could upgrade the Surface 2 to 8.1.. The Surface Pro was the Intel-based one.

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name. I've been happy with cheap Acer or Asus laptops.

I've heard Acer and Asus make good laptops too, though I've never used one my

>f.

I've bought a lot of ASUS parts and my current newest Laptop, the one
I mentioned being supposedly Military Grade, is an ASUS..
I've never had any complaints about their products.

Acer are usually fairly good quality but are lower powered and
often Last Years major parts to keep the price low..

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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Nightfox to nelgin on Fri Dec 26 2025 04:10 pm

name. I've been happy with cheap Acer or Asus laptops.

I've heard Acer and Asus make good laptops too, though I've never used one myself.

I recently bought my wife an Acer Nitro 15 - core i9; 32gb ram; 512gb SSD.
It has plenty of power for what she does and did not break the wallet. And she likes it which is the most important part.

Would I get one for myself? Probably not but then I build my own for the most part...

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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Bf2k+ to Nightfox on Sun Dec 28 2025 12:46 pm

I've heard Acer and Asus make good laptops too, though I've never used one
myself.

I recently bought my wife an Acer Nitro 15 - core i9; 32gb ram; 512gb SSD. It has plenty of power for what she does and did not break the wallet.
And she likes it which is the most important part.

Would I get one for myself? Probably not but then I build my own for the most part...

You build your own laptops? Or do you mean desktop PCs?

Nightfox

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Jimqode to All on Thu Dec 25 2025 04:00 pm

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

Lenovo Chromebook
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Hello Bf2k+!

** On Sunday 28.12.25 - 12:46, Bf2k+ wrote to Nightfox:

I recently bought my wife an Acer Nitro 15 - core i9; 32gb
ram; 512gb SSD. It has plenty of power for what she does
and did not break the wallet. And she likes it which is the
most important part.

What OS?


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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: nelgin to All on Fri Dec 26 2025 05:03 pm

I've looked at Lenovo through work discounts and still think they're expensive for what they are. Probably well made but you are paying for
the name

I would not know. I usually source used Lenovo laptops and when they are in the second harnd market price is no longer a problem :-P


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Re: Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Nightfox to Bf2k+ on Sun Dec 28 2025 02:01 pm

You build your own laptops? Or do you mean desktop PCs?

Sorry I see that was confusing...

No i build my own desktops which is all I need for my personal use.

My company provides me with the laptops I need for my job... they are specialized Siemens 'programming devices'... for PLC / HMI programming. I use 2 of them now but probably have 5 of them around here. They are pretty nice units but $$$$$... so much that I would never buy one myself.

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Ogg to Bf2k+ on Mon Dec 29 2025 08:10 am

I recently bought my wife an Acer Nitro 15 - core i9; 32gb
ram; 512gb SSD. It has plenty of power for what she does
and did not break the wallet. And she likes it which is the
most important part.

What OS?

Win 11.

(I hate it)

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Digital Man to Jimqode on Sun Dec 28 2025 16:11:26

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

Lenovo Chromebook

I wouldn't recommend any computer that requires you to be online to use.

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Thu Jan 01 2026 01:26 am

Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Digital Man to Jimqode on Sun Dec 28 2025 16:11:26

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

Lenovo Chromebook

I wouldn't recommend any computer that requires you to be online
to use.

yeah but get with the times. we are online all the time now.
nobody is really using a computer that is off the internet.
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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Thu Jan 01 2026 01:26 am

Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Digital Man to Jimqode on Sun Dec 28 2025 16:11:26

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

Lenovo Chromebook

I wouldn't recommend any computer that requires you to be online to use.

I use my Chromebook just fine without being "online" (e.g. no Internet/WiFi). --
digital man (rob)

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MRO wrote to Mortar <=-

Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Thu Jan 01 2026 01:26 am

Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Digital Man to Jimqode on Sun Dec 28 2025 16:11:26

What do you use? Do you have recommendations?

Lenovo Chromebook

I wouldn't recommend any computer that requires you to be online
to use.

yeah but get with the times. we are online all the time now.
nobody is really using a computer that is off the internet.

Wrong again, doofus.

You make it easy to illustrate your ignorance.


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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: MRO to Mortar on Thu Jan 01 2026 03:26 am

I wouldn't recommend any computer that requires you to be online to use.

yeah but get with the times. we are online all the time now. nobody is really using a computer that is off the internet.

Personally, I'm totally concerned with what other people use; I have my own preferences for what I like to use, and I agree with him that I wouldn't want to use a computer that requires you to be online in order to use it. Even though we're basically online all the time, that shouldn't be a requirement. In the rare event that my internet service drops for some reason, I'd still like to be able to work on things on my computer.

Nightfox

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Digital Man to Mortar on Thu Jan 01 2026 04:28 am

I use my Chromebook just fine without being "online" (e.g. no Internet/WiFi).

I had the impression that the Chromebook used all cloud-based software, such as Google Docs, etc., but I haven't used a Chromebook myself. It sounds like they have a way to run the software locally too?

Nightfox

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Mortar to Digital Man on Thu Jan 01 2026 01:26 am

I wouldn't recommend any computer that requires you to be online to use.

Actually, if you get a good one and you set everything up right, you can do just about anything. The only thing I haven't been able to do with ChromeOS that I could do with other OSes is run virtual machines.

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Thu Jan 01 2026 08:52 am

Google Docs, etc., but I haven't used a Chromebook myself. It sounds like t have a way to run the software locally too?

It's just a really locked down Linux. At first, people had to find hacks and work-arounds to be able to build and run their own software in it (which worked fine), but then Google made it so there is a separate straight Linux environment available to the user without having to leave holes exposed in ChromeOS. You can also run Android apps right from the Play Store.

Prior to the separate Linux environment, I was doing various things like decoding DMR (digital radio) with an SDR (software defined radio) USB dongle and whatnot.

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Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Nightfox to Digital Man on Thu Jan 01 2026 08:52 am

Re: Laptop suggestion
By: Digital Man to Mortar on Thu Jan 01 2026 04:28 am

I use my Chromebook just fine without being "online" (e.g. no Internet/WiFi).

I had the impression that the Chromebook used all cloud-based software, such as Google Docs, etc., but I haven't used a Chromebook myself. It sounds like they have a way to run the software locally too?

Yes, of course. I have a complete Linux development environment on my Chromebook and run native Linux apps (e.g. SyncTERM, hexchat) and sometimes Chrome apps/games - that don't require Internet.

Sure, if you *want* to use Google docs, it works best with Internet (and does support off-line access/edits and has for a long time), but you don't *have* to.
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Nightfox wrote to Digital Man <=-

I had the impression that the Chromebook used all cloud-based software, such as Google Docs, etc., but I haven't used a Chromebook myself. It sounds like they have a way to run the software locally too?

The apps run offline, and you can cache your documents to allow you to
make changes, then sync when you're back online.



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phigan wrote to Nightfox <=-

It's just a really locked down Linux. At first, people had to find
hacks and work-arounds to be able to build and run their own software
in it (which worked fine), but then Google made it so there is a
separate straight Linux environment available to the user without
having to leave holes exposed in ChromeOS.

With a little hacking, you can run anything on them, too. I have my
mom's old Toshiba Chromebook (nice ultrabook, 13" 1080p screen,
Celeron/4GB/64GB, but with nice audio), opened it up and flipped a
switch, then was able to install SeaBIOS on it, which lets you install
other OSes on it.

It's EOL for ChromeOS, tried installing ChromeOS Flex on it, but the
sound won't work. Google would much rather you buy a new Chromebook...

Nice kit, though. Runs Xubuntu just fine with sound.




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