Dell Precision 7xxx line is easily the most advanced laptop with official linux support there is. Every person who bought it after I recommended this laptop was impressed. I've got Ubuntu 20.04 on mine and the only thing that doesn't work (yet) is the power button fingerprint reader which is a non-issue.
As a counterpoint there are a number of things I don't like:
* I can only have Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs
* They've removed all but one external indicator light (there used to be four), and its behavior is completely useless (there's no way for me to tell externally what the power state of my machine is)
* They've killed the trackpoint
* This is the second of this series I've owned where neither of the fingerprint reader options are Linux compatible (no warning at purchase)
* The keyboard layout has regressed substantially - no more media keys, home and end keys are now fn-modified in the F row, page-up and page-down are also fn-modified where they used to be dedicated physical keys
* The e-port dock is gone in favor of a USB-attached version that occupies both USB-C ports on the chassis (and only provides two on the dock)
When I first received it my initial impulse was "if I wanted this level of regression per generation I'd still be buying Apple", but I've learned to live with it, embodying the grouchy sysadmin stereotype even further (in a hyperbolic way), much to the delight of my coworkers.
Well, some of those points are down to personal preference. I for instance always hated the trackpoint thing and I am fine with the new clean and simple keyboard approach.
Don't even get me started on Apple. If removing the physical Esc key is not the biggest ever fuck you to pro users, then I don't know what is.
ThinkPad E series owner here. I find the default specifications worthwhile (including the keyboard). Dell was a contender but they priced the "business line" more expensive than ThinkPad. I got a sweet deal on Amazon and bought it in a heartbeat!
I did consider Thinkpad at the time too, but they did not have an option to select linux OS when buying, so I went with Dell, because they don't just pretend to support linux, they officially do.
