Any recommendations for development laptops? I want something that will keep up for a few years at l...

# random

[Youssef Shoaib [MOD]]

Any recommendations for development laptops? I want something that will keep up for a few years at least, hopefully more. Don't care about OS because I'll put Linux on it anyways. Just something not too heavy, 14+ inches, with some semblance of a GPU (for very light gamijg and AI experimentation). Keyboard doesn't matter because I use an external one.
I was looking at the M2 Air and Pro. M3 seems interesting, but I'm guessing M2 is better value for money?
Would love to hear your thoughts.

[Shawn]

Don't care about OS because I'll put Linux on it anyways

I don't think Asahi supports M3 just yet, something to look into if you decide you want to go down that route

[Shawn]

the M2 series does pack a lot of punch for the price, though, I would definitely recommend it unless you really need the performance or other features in M3

[Youssef Shoaib [MOD]]

Oooo that's something I didn't really consider. I thought Linux support would be simple, but of course not with the different architecture and all. Is it at least smooth enough on M2? Can I use Ubuntu for instance or is it limited to specific distros

[Shawn]

I haven't messed around with it very much, but as best as I can tell, you can use any linux distro you want as long as it works with the Asahi kernel patches and you can compile an aarch64 image for it

[Shawn]

https://ubuntuasahi.org/

[Shawn]

https://fedora-asahi-remix.org/

[Shawn]

Asahi itself provides a compatible kernel and a thin wrapper around Arch if you'd rather just use that

[Shawn]

If you don't wanna mess around with any of that, I might recommend having a look at the Framework lineup https://frame.work/

[Shawn]

(the preview mentions the 16 but they have a 13" option as well)

[Youssef Shoaib [MOD]]

I'm ready to tinker as much as need be really as long as I can get something that will live. Framework seems very attractive for the reparability of it, but I'm not sure if the M2 Pro might be better value. I'll look into this further!