My wife is looking for a portable device primarily for modeling in Blender and optionally for drawing in Krita. So we looking for something with a GNU/Linux support from manufacturer.
We considered https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-InfinityFlex-14-Gen1, it looks nice, but maybe you have other suggestions? Do you have experience with convertibles, how convenient is to draw on them?
We also considered https://earth.starlabs.systems/pages/starlite for drawing and a separate device for Blender, but having two devices might not be convenient…
Laptops from over 5 years ago are well supported by Linux (for the most part). However, the very modern laptops have bits and pieces that aren’t supported, from fan profiles, to the new intel webcams etc. They will run Linux, but you might fry them if your fans don’t work properly. So your best bet would be to get either an old one (I got a Macbook Air from 2015 with 8GB RAM, works great), or get a Tuxedo, or a System76 one, or a couple more Linux-specific ones. And it’s not because suddenly Linux does worse job supporting hardware, but it’s because these machines are. getting more complex and they need drivers for every little thing. Back in the day, things were more generic (e.g. the fans) and worked with a single driver.
Agree! That’s why we are looking for something for a manufacturer support. We don’t consider used market only because thinking about something powerful.
I have a SteamDeck and very satisfied with how GNU/Linux runs on it. Windows even run worse on it 😅
Dell laptops usually have good Linux support, and they offer powerful machines, requirements and budget permitting.
No manufacturer support. But zephyrus g14 (2022) is my favorite laptop ever. Very few issues with Linux.
Since lots of ppl already cover laptop different options, i will skip this part.
Blender is a huge topic. What exactly does your wife exactly do? Something like sculpting, rigging don’t need much gpu power. How complicated the scene is it? For a complicated scene with un-optimisted mesh, it can be expensive. The most expensive part should be high quality rendering. But you can use render farm to “outsourcing” jobs to remote hosts.
Also, it’s 2024. Ww can already launch and run blender remotely thru vm and streaming technology smoothly.
Mostly sculpting, less rendering. So yeah, we aren’t GPU bound. Right now considering just a mini PC. Should be cheaper then a latpop since we don’t planning to work on the go, just need something portable. And a tablet for drawing.
My 4 generation i7 4g desktop is still fine to do that. Lol.
I won’t use that pc for complicated scanned un-optimisted scene though.
if she can do the blending at home and everything else on the move, your options expand dramatically. namely, you can equip a laptop with an eGPU so you can attach a desktop GPU to it.
an ultralight used convertible 2-in-1 in the sub$200 region is plenty powerful for everyday use, drawing, whathaveyous. a $50 eGPU slot, a $15 PSU and a used 8 GB GPU in the $100 region will blow out of the water anything new for up to $1K and possibly beyond. double the budget for the graphics and there’s nothing comparable but the top of Apple’s line-up (no drawing on those, though).
Thanks for the suggestion, eGPU sounds nice!
We don’t planning to actually work on the go, just planning to travel a lot. eGPU could be considered portable. Maybe we even don’t need a laptop, just a mini PC 🤔
