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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The main question, where are the Snapdragon Laptops and is Linux support there?
ARM support highly depends on the device tree and drivers, as poorly it is often not standardised it seems.
An m2 Macbook would be the easy option, but soldered storage is horrible. Mac minis etc need a stupid adapter but then you can use NVMEs.
Ironically the best arm laptop for linux is a macbook. https://asahilinux.org/
Just to mention, a used or refurb M1 or M2. I don't believe anything newer is supported, so save some cash IMO.
My pinebook Pro has been rocking it with fedora as its primary OS. The most issues it seems to have is with the wifi drivers after release updates. I've had good experiences with Debian/Armbian on SBCs too.
My only advice on getting an ARM device to run Linux is to check the wireless used in your desired device has good existing support. It's a bit of a pain having to dig around for a no-fail dongle just to update drivers for the internal hardware.
Is the wifi chip soldered? If not, you might be able to replace it with m.2/PCIe...
It is. Iirc when the m.2/pcie board for the pbp was released a lot of people did use for alternate wifi chips. I opted for a 2260 SSD. I may revisit the laptop and see if it's hammered out now though
Gentoo supports ARM quite well (obviously), but I'm not sure what new hardware is out there that has an open enough firmware (or that can be flashed with coreboot) that will allow a Linux install.
I am a linux beginner: Why obviously?
Gentoo compiles everything. Like, even the command is like "compile world". It's not as straight edge as LinuxFromScratch and AFAIK they've started having precompiled packages sometime in the last few years but the core approach is that you configure compilation flags system-wide and recompile whatever needs recompilation every update
Yes, the source code gets compiled directly on the machine (or indirectly FOR the machine).
This, of course, assumes one can actually boot a kernel not developed specifically for the machine.
Some modern boot loaders / managers are locked (Asus does this a lot), so you're stuck with whatever they put on the machine.
I think the biggest question will be peripherals. Having a laptop where there are no drivers for its WiFi or similar can be tough. Otherwise I've been happy with my arch arm servers
Sometimes there might be no docker image for base image of your project. But you should be able to build it yourself
Lenovo x13s Gen1, as a light/mobile server with ubuntu/arch arm: nice
for media production (like music), not useful...
my pinebook pro has been bricked for at least 3 years now. still dead.
same w mine on the 3rd day i received it; i updated using cli and it no longer booted.
it won't boot from SD? Or was it a bad spi flash?
it does nothing. might as well not be plugged in. at this point I don't remember what killed it. maybe trying to transition to another os.
I get that, one of my pis is in that boat. I've been putting off making a boot disk for the distro and chrooting in to reinstall the system.
on the bright side, barring physical damage or an spi issue, you should be able to get it booting again. If it might've been an install issue, you could force SD boot, reinitialize the emmc, and reinstall. Those things were really good about not being able to fully brick easily.
I wish I could recommend Arch Linux Arm, but it's really poorly maintained. Literally zero packages available for update for months on end. And no hope of improvement in sight.
My experience is mostly with Raspberry Pis. (I'm typing this on a Raspberry Pi in fact.) I still have a couple of Pis on Arch. And the one I'm on right now is running Raspian. I have plans to migrate them all to Gentoo some day, but I want to build a build server first and I'm currently deep in another project. I'll get to it eventually.
Raspian is boring and maybe a little simplified and restricted. But it's fine.
I run a Pi400 every now and then... It's not setting any speed records, and starts to lag out after 10 tabs, but it runs all day on an external phone battery. There's the odd app that nobody bothered porting to ARM, but I have more trouble with Arm Windows than Arm Linux.
I had a pinebook 1080p, same exact experience. Fine, not fantastic, good battery life. It keeled over and died after a year though.