The Linux operating system will run on just about any computer. I mean that literally. Remember the Intel Pentium 4 processor? It came out in 2000, and it’s still supported by Debian Linux. That’s probably not a machine you want to work on today, though, so while Linux run almost anywhere, Linux runs on some laptops than others.

But once upon a time, getting Linux working meant jumping through all sorts of hoops and dealing with frustrating experiences trying to get everything to work on hardware designed for Windows or macOS. Thankfully, those days are mostly behind us. I’ve installed Linux on every laptop I’ve tested since 2020. Almost all of them worked great, but some were easier to get running than others.

Beyond supporting older hardware, Linux offers other user benefits, like greater control over operating systems that run on the Linux kernel, better security and malware protection, no unwanted software (bloatware), and faster performance. It’s not just for developers; it’s for casual users too.

For most people, a laptop preinstalled with Linux is your best bet. Plenty of hardware makers now ship laptops running Linux right out of the box. This guide recommends the best of these.

If you’re in the market for a laptop, be sure to check out our other buying guides, like the Best Laptops, Best Cheap Laptops, Best MacBooks, and How to Choose the Right Laptop.

Updated September 2026: I’ve revamped this guide to include the new System76 Pangolin Pro, along with updates on the Tuxedo and Framework options.

Courtesy of System76

System76 recently updated its Lemur Pro with a new chip and a few other tweaks. I’ll be testing it very soon, but I don’t expect to change my recommendation here. The Lemur Pro has long been my favorite Linux laptop, and the latest model will likely continue that. It strikes the best balance between size, weight, power, and price, even with the price hike on the latest model.

At just over 12 inches wide and weighing 2.5 pounds, the 14-inch model is plenty portable. The 16-inch version is 14.1 inches by just under 10 inches. The 14-inch base model gets an Intel Core Ultra 5 325, with the option to upgrade to a Core Ultra X7 358H. The latter chip is the default for the 1-inch model. My one gripe with the new model is that the RAM is fixed at 32 GB. You can still cram up to 8 TB of storage into each of the two SSD slots.

The Lemur Pro offers very solid performance that’s plenty for all the things most people do every day. It can even handle light video editing and other intensive tasks, though it has no dedicated graphics card; for that, you’ll want the Pangolin Pro (see below). That said, I’ve been impressed with the Arc B390 iGPU in the Ultra X7 model. I’ll add more performance details after I’ve had a chance to test more.

The port selection is good, with two USB 3.2 Type-C ports—one of which is a Thunderbolt 4 port—a USB-A port, a 3.5-mm headphone/microphone combo jack, a MicroSD card reader, and an HDMI 2.0 port. Battery life is also fantastic, lasting all day in most use cases. The keyboard, while not my favorite, is pleasant enough to type on.

As with all System76 laptops, it ships with the company’s Pop!_OS Linux distribution preinstalled (you can also opt for Ubuntu, but I highly suggest trying Pop!_OS). Pop!_OS’s Cosmic desktop is based on Gnome, but unlike Gnome, Pop!_OS is very customizable and can be tweaked to your liking. Aside from Arch Linux, Pop!_OS is my favorite distro.

Courtesy of Tuxedo

Tuxedo’s InfinityBook Pro 14 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is a svelte, lightweight laptop that’s dedicated to the open-source world. Tuxedo is based in Germany (which is why the price is in euros), and like System76, it has a long history of providing excellent Linux support.

The InfinityBook Pro is Tuxedo’s everyday laptop, powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 H 255 chip. I haven’t tested Tuxedo’s AMD model, but I have tested the same chip in other Linux laptops and found performance very good. Note that the H 255 has no active NPU, so it’s not ideal for local AI, but it’s plenty for average to demanding workloads. I had no trouble playing back 8K video out of a GoPro, for example. The InfinityBook can be configured with up to 96 GB of RAM and 8 TB of storage per drive slot (there are two SSD card slots), though of course, with the price of memory and storage where it is, it will cost you.

The performance specs are solid, but the real highlight of the InfinityBook is the gorgeous 2,880 x 1,800-pixel-resolution matte screen. At 400 nits, it’s plenty bright enough to work anywhere, and the anti-glare matte finish means you can see it under bright sunlight. In my testing of the Intel model, the InfinityBook Pro had plenty of power for most tasks, and I expect the AMD chip to deliver the same. The battery life is solid and lasts all day, and the custom tools for fine-tuning the power settings are the best I’ve used. Tuxedo’s custom OS (based on Kubuntu) is a great Linux experience, and the website offers extensive documentation and help for new users.

Framework’s Laptop 13 is my personal favorite. It’s not my top pick because it won’t be right for everyone (it’s lacking in ports and doesn’t have the premium feel of the Lemur Pro), but it does everything I need, has great battery life, and I happen to love the ability to swap the ports around in different configurations. I’m typing this on a Framework laptop running Arch Linux.

There are a few flavors of the Laptop 13. I tested the second release of the 13-inch model (8/10, WIRED Recommends) and loved it, but since then we’ve reviewed the newer 13-inch AMD Framework, the 16-inch Framework, and the smaller Framework 12. All of them make great Linux laptops because Framework officially supports Ubuntu and Fedora Linux, and also has a helpful forum of users who’ve made just about every Linux distro you can think of work on their Framework Laptops.

The current line of DIY Framework Laptop 13 can be configured with either an AMD or Intel processor (though Intel seems to be frequently out of stock). The AMD Ryzen model ships with AI 300 Series chips, starting with the Ryzen 5, with several upgrade options to the Ryzen AI 7 and even the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. An Intel configuration starts with the Core Ultra 5 125H, with upgrades to the Core Ultra 7 155 or even 165H available. Whichever processor you pick, you can upgrade to up to 96 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and choose a drive up to 8 TB.

I’ve tested Framework laptops with Ubuntu, which Framework supports, and Arch Linux, which is community-supported, and both worked great. My only gripe with Framework is the same as with many Linux laptops: battery life could be better. I get about seven to eight hours with casual use, and much less when editing video or doing other intensive tasks.

My other complaint is that the Framework’s build quality isn’t as nice as System76 or Tuxedo’s offerings, but that may change with the new Framework 13 Pro, which will be shipping soon; we’ll update this guide as soon as we get our hands on one.

System76’s Pangolin Pro is a 16-inch, AMD-powered laptop with enough ports to leave the dongle at home. The Ryzen 7 chip has plenty of power for most tasks; it didn’t even break a sweat playing back 8K video, though it did spin up the fans when it came time to export that video down to 4K. As you would expect, benchmarks on graphics-intensive tasks are behind any machine with a dedicated card—though you can plug in an eGPU via the OcuLink port—but the Ryzen AI 7’s overall performance is quite good.

You can configure your Pangolin Pro with up to 96 GB of RAM and 16 TB of storage should you have recently won the lottery, but the base model comes with a more affordable 16 GB of RAM and 500 GB of storage.

The battery life is good for the size—it lasted all day in most of my testing. The keyboard is quite nice to type on. The oversized trackpad sometimes got in my way, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker; you just have to watch where you rest your palms, or you might right-click by accident.

This laptop has plenty of ports, including two USB-C (one 4.0, one 3.2 Gen 2), three USB-A, a microSD card reader, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and the aforementioned OcuLink port for docking or external graphics if you have an eGPU lying about. It’s hard to complain about that list, especially with the ability to plug in a graphics card when you need it, though I do wish the two USB-C ports were on opposite sides of the laptop.

System76’s Pop!_OS Linux has long provided what I consider one of the best Linux experiences out there. The Cosmic Desktop and the custom apps System76 ships with it provide that "just works" stability you need to use Linux daily without even noticing you’re using Linux.

The Kubuntu Focus Zr 1 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a powerhouse, but at 15 inches by 12 inches, over an inch thick, and weighing in at 8 pounds, it’s not a laptop you casually cart around. But if your work requires serious computing power, be it machine learning (running TensorFlow), local LLMs, big data crunching workflows, or high-end video editing, the Zr Gen 1 delivers power in spades.

Inside, the Zr Gen 1 features an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX with 24 cores, an RTX 5090 graphics card, 24 GB GDDR7 RAM (expandable up to 192 GB), and two SSDs (one 1 TB and one 2 TB; you can have up to four drives, one of them being a PCIe Gen 5x4 NVMe). Along with the discrete GPU, it has an integrated one as well, so you can turn off the discrete card to maximize battery life. I spent about 90 percent of the time with the discrete card off and just turned it on when editing photos and video.

The screen is a gloriously large 18-inch LCD display (2560 x 1600 pixels, 168-dpi density) with a max brightness of over 500 nits and a matte finish that makes it easy to use even in bright light. It’s one of the better LCD panels I’ve used lately, and gamers will appreciate the 240 Hz refresh rate. You can also plug in up to four external displays. Thanks to the size, the Zr has plenty of room for a full-size keyboard with a numeric pad. The keyboard is user-configurable and features a 65,536-color LED backlight system that you can tweak to your liking.

Kubuntu Focus delivers a very stable Linux experience. Every update is tested and validated on the hardware before it ships. Kubuntu Focus hardware is tested for at least three years, and if a problem is found, the company works with the developers of the core components to fix it before it ever reaches a customer. The last known stable version of software remains unchanged until the next version passes all tests and has no issues. Kubuntu Focus does this even at the application level, testing everything from dev tools like JetBrains, to consumer software like Dropbox, Steam, Zoom, Slack, and more to ensure everything works before it ships out to you. The result is a level of Linux stability you’re not likely to achieve on your own.

Courtesy of Lenovo

One of the beauties of Linux is that it requires fewer resources and maintains support for older hardware for far longer than Windows or macOS. That means you don’t need to spend a fortune on a new laptop; you can breathe life into an old one or grab a used laptop off eBay. I have, in fact, never purchased a new laptop for Linux. I have been buying used hardware for years, working my way through Lenovo’s X-series laptops (starting with an X220, up through a T14 at which point I jumped ship for the Framework), but old Dell XPS and some Asus laptops are also great for Linux. If you opt to buy used, check out our guide to buying used on eBay to make sure you get a good deal.

The specs you need depend on what you’ll be doing. If you’re editing video or gaming, you should probably stick with one of our picks above. If you just need to do typical office work, edit some photos, and watch 4K video, you can get by with a 12th-generation Intel i5 or newer processor, 8 GB of RAM (the more, the merrier), and an SSD large enough to store your data. If you want an AMD system, stick with a Ryzen 5 9000 series or Ryzen 200 series.

If you’d like some more help speccing out a solid Linux system, see our step-by-step guide to choosing the right laptop.

Buying a Linux laptop involves a little more research than Windows or macOS. In addition to the specs, you need to make sure the hardware in question works with Linux. These days almost everything works pretty well with Linux, but there are some exceptions.

Expect to wrestle with Nvidia graphics cards. The company has never been supportive of Linux and probably never will be. I’ve always steered clear, but if you want a dedicated GPU from Nvidia, do your research. The Arch Linux Wiki is a good place to start.

On the processor front, Intel generally has better Linux support than AMD, though that is changing, judging from our AMD-powered recommendations above. I have used Linux on AMD for quite a while without any issues (though I do have a slightly older system, which helps).

The other thing to consider is which Linux distro you’ll use. A distro is essentially the operating system that’s built on top of the Linux kernel, and there are many distros to choose from. If you don’t already have a favorite or don’t even know what a distro is, I suggest Pop_OS! by System76, a company that also makes many of the laptops in this guide. Pop_OS! provides (by far) the best user experience I’ve seen on a Linux laptop. It strikes a great balance between being easy to use for Linux newcomers and well-stocked with power-user features. It has great documentation and should have you up and running without any trouble. I’ve used it on every laptop in this guide.

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