So a few weeks ago I started to wonder what the best ultraportable laptop for running Linux is nowadays.
I know these are somewhat arbitrary, personal constraints of mine (that the X61 also did not meet) but is it possible that there are (almost) no options for a laptop w/
- no fan
- 190+ dpi
?
I think I'd even be willing to accept battery life that's just "ok" if the screen is sharp for rendering text and passively cooled.
With 100s of vendors I thought there surely must be dozens of options.
But I have trouble finding any options from within the last 10 years.
And I mean not only no options specifically for running Linux "ok" but any options at all (e.g. compromising on Windows + WSL 2).
Except from Apple.
The 12" Macbook and current Macbook Air M1-M4.
Is that really it?
A close miss I found is the Thinkpad X13s that comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon (!).
It is fanless but it has a 160 dpi screen which unfortunately places it in the "almost good but still blurry" uncanny valley when it comes to text rendering.
It's fairly simple to get it running Linux via this project: https://docs.chrultrabook.com/
The screen is 165.63 PPI, nearly what you're looking for. It's plenty crisp and clear for me at 1,920 × 1,080.
And most importantly, it's thin, fanless, and the battery is decent.
If you are ok with a mobile CPU, a lot of chromebooks are fanless and you can slap Linux on them, but they’re slow.
I'm not an Apple fanboy, but I am a fan of silent/efficient computing (and personally own Apple, AMD and Intel computing hardware that qualifies in that category) and it is shocking and weird that Apple is the only real silent/efficient/HiDPI player in the laptop space.