I’m considering picking up a cheapish laptop for development, with the intent of installing Linux on it. Typically it’ll be Java development or other stuff in docket containers. Is there a best chipset to pick for Linux or are they pretty much identical these days?
CPU brand choice doesn’t really matter a lot.
In general, I’d say go with AMD if you can afford it, but otherwise Intel is fine. Intel has caught up slightly the past couple of years, but AMD APUs are still at the top in terms of what you get for the money. If you can’t get an AMD laptop because of low stock/price or see an Intel laptop with more features you like, just go for that instead. I have an Intel laptop and the CPU worked fine on Linux (running Windows right now since driver support for other parts of the laptop like speakers and the display were a little shoddy because of how new it was).
I don’t know if this still remains true (if not, please correct me), but AMD will be marginally better for productivity and programming because of the multi core performance. They are also slightly more efficient than Intel in terms of power usage, although I’m sure any laptop besides a gaming laptop will give you solid battery life in 2023.
I’ve never used AMD, but folks I know have had good experiences with both; support is about equal. You probably don’t need to go for a top-tier device, and if you’re running VMs and containers you should be just as concerned about RAM and disk space as CPU
Doesn’t really matter between brands across OSes at this point. AMD offers better performance per dollar though
Depends on your goals but right now AMD is eating high end thin and lights for dinner. Their new APUs are more powerful, more efficient, and have better graphics than anything from Intel.
But Intel is also still good and very available with more choices and lower cost due to the higher demand for AMD.
Both are great Linux choices, but ARM/Apple are currently not great for desktop.
But AMD APUs are shit on Linux since theyre not really officially supported. I mean they have drivers, but the drivers are shit
Actually APUs are generally shit on Linux.
I have to disagree with you on that. While it is true, that intel laptop chipsets offer often greater linux support than the amd chipsets, both platforms support linux and are much more dependent on the manufacturer of the motherboard than on the chipset
With the second statement I totally disagree. I even would go as far as to suggest the opposite. Linux on laptos only makes sense for APUs, since switching between dedicated and integrated graphics is still a manual process and using only the dedicated graphics chip tanks the battery life
Intel or AMD for the CPU, but AMD for the GPU if you need any graphical capabilities. AMD GPU’s are pretty solid as well. There’s definitely more choices available with Intel CPU’s but if you can find a good AMD chip then go for it.
I’ve always been an AMD fan and used those in my desktops, but for laptops it’s been harder to find something that pushes all the buttons for me.
Plus, if you’re planning on using Wayland with any wlroots compositor, Nvidia is essentially a non-starter.
AMD has served me well since I’ve started actively using Linux.
Important thing to note, when using AMD, you’ll probably need an additional
amd_pstateparameter for better power management.Sources:
