Linux

I used to prefer ThinkPads but I've moved on. I have had lots of reliability problems with them over the past few years. I had keys fall off a newer ThinkPad keyboard (which wasn't user replaceable) and another new ThinkPad just die under warranty and the repair person damaged it further when trying to fix it.

I am on System76 now and have no issues and they do good things like right to repair and Coreboot.

If I had to choose a single laptop for everything, it would be the Toughbook 40. I have one for work and it has a 1200 nit display. It runs Ubuntu LTS perfectly. It costs several thousand dollars new but has swapable components, multiple batteries, and part availability is measured in decades. You can get an older CF-31 or CF-54 for a few hundred dollars and still find new components for it.

I have 2 lenovos (ideapad and yoga) and a pinebook. I'm happy with all of them, though I'm happiest with the pinebook and yoga's impressive battery lives

I just bought the Slimbook Executive and although there's I'm not a fan of the charger, it's a beast.

Thinkpads, macs and dells are what I use.

They’re cheap and have lots of spare parts lying around.

I cannot say that I have done extensive testing, but the Acer Swift 315-51G and Gigabyte Aero WV8 that I have both worked fine with Linux with zero prior research on my part. No issues with any drivers, even the SD card readers, although I have not checked the fingerprint sensor on the Acer. Maybe I have just been lucky.

Both have hybrid Nvidia graphics, though, and 10-series and prior hybrid graphics especially, as I understand, have issues with high idle power usage unless you manually disable the dGPU when not gaming, which I had to do using envycontrol and nearly doubled my battery life on both. I might avoid hybrid dGPUs and especially older ones unless you need that.

Used laptop-wise, I agree with others that a used business laptop like a Dell would probably be your best bet.

I am gonna get a shit ton of hate for this... MacBook air. Yes, I am on a Linux sublemmy, saying that I like macs but the hardware is just too good to justify spending money on a x86 laptop.

Though, those new snapdragon X Elite laptops do look pretty spicy... Too bad they weren't yet announced when I bought my Mac.