Migrating to Linux, is the SlimBook EXECUTIVE 16 a good option? Do I even have one?

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Hi all.

The time has come to get new hardware, specifically replace my trusty Thinkpad P50 (with Quadro M2220M 4GB) behemoth.
Windows 11 dominates everywhere, and I want no part of it, as it seriously hampers me in the UX.

So I thought time to move my primary machine to Linux.

My Use Case details:

  1. Heavy utilization of Slack (Huddle feature) with Screenshare
  2. Heavy utilization of Teams with Screenshare
  3. Heavy utilization of Webex with Screenshare
  4. Heavy utilization of Office Application with live editing for work (workplace is MS heavy)
  5. Regular Powershell script making and execution (for work and play, especially data analysis and API calls)
  6. Several times a week utilization of VSCode to write JS, Powershell, & Python
  7. Heavy utilization of Firefox for ServiceNow dev + admin work
  8. Occasional use of Power BI
  9. Occasional use of Tableau
  10. Heavy Use of Edge for Outlook OWA and related PWA
  11. Regular use of VMware Horizon VDI client
  12. Sublime + Notepad++ for different types of notes
  13. Typora for Markdown writing (WYSIWYG)
  14. Heavy usage of Brave for normal browsing (including 100s of tabs, with 70+ often just being youtube vids that im gonna watch while working)
  15. (High usage but low priority) Bluetooth headset for music, vids and meetings Surface Headset
  16. Logitech MX keys as bluetooth keyboard
  17. Thunderbolt 3 dock for connection to two 27" monitors
  18. New upcoming need to be more mobile (going to office with this laptop twice a week, and also moving around with laptop around the house multiple times a week)
  19. Google Drive as online backup for storage (there is local too in secondary ssd)
  20. Philips Hue to control lights and stuff in home office (not my choice)(med priority)
  21. Heavy utilization of WhatsApp on desktop (Low priority)
  22. I am a gamer but I have like 90mins per week to do so
  23. I like making crappy mods for my own personal entertainment.
  24. I like adding mods to 3 of my most important games (Dawn of War 2: retribution (Elite Mod), Skyrim)
  25. Like to try out new games
  26. Games most often played despite “old” (DOW 2 Retribution Elite Mod, Skyrim, Rocket League)
  27. I occasionally utilize services like Shadow for High End gaming
  28. Connect to internet primarily via WIFI, even for fast twitch multiplayer games (as the quality is good and bufferbloat is low)
  29. Utilize laptop for both work and play.
  30. Despite my love for tweaking, this machine needs to be stable and reliable, yet relatively up to date security wise.
  31. Need to minimize tweak/troubleshoot time for gaming and/or work
  32. Currently am a Windows power user.
  33. Screen should be 16:10
  34. Screen needs to be 15 to 15.6 but 14 is somewhat acceptable
  35. Have a large USB hub with 10 ports that connects several other devices to laptop, and also charges them

For all these reasons,

For my distro, I thought it should be Fedora,
as it has a large group backing, and seems up to date, and one of the easier ones to use (plus ive seen it enough times in servers)

Plus it seems to have flatpacks, which seem to be a stable way of doing things

One of the other things Ive come across is the concept that, for new users looking for reliability, we should try to buy a linux device where the vendor has made/configured the hardware in such a fashion that it’s optimized and tested on linux. Plus they have their own tools and such

Thats why I thought I should go for Slimbook Executive 16 (cuz i can spec it for 1TB 32GB and get it imported to my country, and still be within my $2100 USD hard limit)

Is that a good idea?

Is my use case even feasible?

I expect there to be a transition pain, it would be the same for when i might be forced to witch to Windows 11. Might as well feel the pain on something better. But the goal is still to minimize the pain, by choosing the best option in distro plus laptop.

Which of my points are problematic?
Which of my points might require a workflow change?
Which of my points might require a different setup?

I am also aware that tech like bottles, proton and crossover exist, and their existence is part of what gave me HOPE to have my use case met. If any of is applicable, or actually even these things wont help, please let me know.

This was quite a ramble. I was just trying to give all the details upfront so as to minimize misunderstanding

I thank you all for your patience and help

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Welcome to the forum. Let’s have a quick look at your use cases and then decide from there if Linux is a good fit:

These should all run fine on Linux with either ports and / or alternatives as good as, or better than their counterparts. Some research might be required for some things though.

These work just fine, but Fedora runs Wayland by default so you might want to reconfigure to X11 since Wayland screen sharing is spotty right now. Pipewire is on it and have a pretty good solution in place, but still experimental.

Only if you are satisfied with the Office 365 Web version for most tasks. LibreOffice might meet some or all of your needs though. Edge does not exist although Chromium does.

You need to either relearn with bash/python scripting or use a virtual machine for powershell.

Linux is hit-and-miss. Every Linux gamer needs to decide for themselves if the games they are playing are worth it to stick with Windows. Personally I played a lot of League of Legends from 2010-2018, a game with spotty Linux support at best. I finally caved and purged it from my system after a complete breakdown.

Linux is getting better by the day, and tomorrow will be better than yesterday, that said, there are no guarantees your particular game or mod combo will work. It might, it is certainly possible, but there are no guarantees.

These are hardware requirements.

This is a statement, not a use case.

You will need to tinker and relearn a great deal on Linux before getting to that point. It is still less of a pain to just bite the bullet and go Windows 11, or keep a “Wintendo” gaming box and do everything productive on the Linux rig. I would probably choose Linux for either gaming or pro use and start using it that way, keeping the Windows install for things I just don’t have the time to look up how to get working right now, and then slowly force myself over to Linux.

Your productivity will take a hit, for sure, that is just how it is with relearning any new tool(set). If Linux doesn’t do what you need it to do there is little reason to switch over.

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Given your list above, just stick with Windows

Windows 10 Pro (or any other business variant) “sanitized” with the decrapifier script isn’t actually not bad at all.

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… Is EOL October 11th, 2025. That is only 37 months away.

In 2026 the only supported Windows is Windows 11, so sticking with Windows 10 today is not quite stellar advice, you could but I say it is better to start planning to move forward.

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That’s a rather odd statement…
Current LTS 5.15 kernel is (projected) EOL Oct, 2023 so you probably shouldn’t migrate to Linux either?

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Welcome to the forums!

Don’t think about this too much, it will work out of the box. and if not we are here.

Also no need, don’t worry. You can make and create PS scripts on Linux if u so fancy, I rather do websites anyways.

LibreOffice might meet some or all of your needs though. Edge does not exist although Chromium does.

There is a way better and faster one called OnlyOffice. Also Edge exists if you like to synchronise your bookmarks and such with the search results and data on other MS products, like I use Bing only on Edge because of the workplace results from Sharepoint and Onedrive.

Ye, no. If you want to further your knowledge and career, going forward with Linux is a great idea. And if you would postpone Linux then atleast go with a modified Windows, like Revi.cc or Windowslite

So in anycase, all your requirements should be met. Now because it doesn’t matter what laptop you use for your ventures you should choose one you are comfortable with. I recommend only Amd hardware because of the lacking intel and nVidia graphics drivers. The specifications follow the same idea as intel and nVidia, higher is better.
I personally choose something from Lenovo as the enterprise devices are made to last, id est my laptop is 8 years old and running Linux fine and my only PC rn anyways.

This is completely fine, recommend you to encrypt your devices like in Windows then if you mind security. If not drives then atleast a secure Swap (the space is used for memory that is saved for later like in closing the laptop lid to conserve power)

made/configured the hardware in such a fashion that it’s optimized and tested on linux. Plus they have their own tools and such

So well, not much out there except Linux Hardware prober. With which you can see which drivers are working fine and which you are missing, but you actually will get all the drivers that you need. You are literally the maintainer of your own PC. You just regularly hit the command prompt and update your drivers for I just write supd and then the password. Then it updates all that has an update, I do it almost every day. You can also create a timer that does it automatically.

When you chosen a Laptop of your choosing, you’ll need a Linux that is for you. Now everyone will tell you different but as myself have gone from Windows to Linux (in June) I had prior miniscule knowledge of what to do. So I went forward and created my own Arch, yes. Sounds quite hard but with their wiki pages I was easily doing it in a few hours. But if you do this you have to have goals set in mind:
What kernel do you want to use? Is it Arch, Arch Zen, BSD, Debian, Fedora?
What shell do you want to use? Bash, Fish, Zsh
mqdefault
Which Desktop environment? (For this you should checkout reddit.com/r/unixporn to see what is the best for you) GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, XFCE, QTlite, and many others.
What Super user function? Sudo, OpenDoas, Su

In your case, if you don’t want to build your own like I did, you can choose something simple, just see r/unixporn and find something that looks cool, in the comments they usually say how they did it, in the title usually says the kernel and Desktop Environment. And then you found something nice you just go ahead google it on qwant bcuz f Google and you search for “kernel desktop environment” ofcourse the two you want to use. And someone probably even made it for you already or you have to diy.

Will be here to help if you got questions! Just reminding you to either reply to the comment or @ tag someone.

If you want to go slimbook, there are few older videos from The Linux Project that might have a coupon code that could still work. Or see if the Tuxedo laptops are better? System76 also makes laptops with out of the box linux with PopOs, if you fancy that. Dell also just released the Developer 1 laptop with PopOs. I would probably wait for a Framework Amd laptop because of the modularity and repairability.

Don’t mind them talking about kernels, when you update in your terminal: Alacritty, Konsole, Hyper, Cool-retro-term, iTerm or something else, it will update the kernel too, well atleast for me, so I have to never bother with any talk about that endless discussion.

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First off, that is different, the kernel is not an entire OS even though it is a critical part of an OS.

Second, Ubuntu 22.04 will receive hardware and maintenance updates until 2027, and extended support until 2032. This means it will support any hardware released 2026 out of the box and five years after that.

Third, Windows 10 will not have security updates beyond 2025 (Ubuntu extended support receive those, however). Right now, it is already in extended support. Windows 10 Home and Pro - Microsoft Lifecycle | Microsoft Docs

Will Windows 10 stop working? No.

Will it receive hardware patches and updates? No, in fact both Intel and AMD will drop Windows 10 support for many future products. It might still work, just not optimally.

Will it receive security updates? Probably not, depends on the adoption curve of WIndows 11.

Bottom line, you have three years left to choose whether to keep using Windows and thus Windows 11, or jump off the train and go with Linux, Mac, or something else entirely (a few candidates are a PS5, an Android tablet or a BSD install). So sayeth the allmighty Windows vendor, Microsoft.

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You’re reading way too much into it, LTS kernels very rarely get new hardware support backported so you’re forced to use a newer kernel and appropriate userland (which is not going to happen on LTS releases) and that also applies to lets say Ubuntu so your argument falls flat in that regard. Once it’s EOL you can simply upgrade to whatever you see fit but that’s bit outside the scope of this thread.

Either way, Linux seems ill fitted for OP

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You obviously did not check the Ubuntu support page where they straight off explains how they can promise five years of hardware and maintenance updates.

The short gist of it, they update to latest LTS kernel every year until 2027 at which point they will only do security. :slight_smile:

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According to Ubuntu LTS Hardware Enablement Stack information - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki that doesn’t exactly seems to be the case? :slight_smile:
GA kernels are “stuck” while HWE aren’t.

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Should any internal [fixed] hardware not work, off the cuff, doesn’t mean its SoL for good
Likes of Thunderbolt and other internal niceties, are still improving with each kernel / distro update

The external keyboard should be nonissue, for raw keyboard functionality… Matter of pairing process
When dealing with Office and other M$ft type files, the FOSSs can support them, with occasional gotcha(s)

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Switchable graphics is troublesome so you probably want to stick with Intel graphics having that in mind. In general I’d expect that laptop to perform quite bad in general since H-series CPUs generate a lot of heat so both high fan noise and/or throttling will occur since there isn’t much room for cooling. The LTPS panel might not be for everyone and I’m not sure why they opted for the now old AX200 wifi over the AX210. In general most laptops will “work” as long as you’re using Intel platforms and no switchable graphics. “Linux”-laptops are in many cases rebadged OEMs from companies like Clevo with possibly some kind of support for Coreboot/Seabios.

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Take a look at latest Ubuntu 20.04.5 with the kernel, 5.16. This is the latest recommended LTS version of 20.04.

5.16 was not out in 2020.

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But that’s not the major relese…
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) is according to Releases - Ubuntu Wiki maintainer for much longer than “Focal Fossa” releases. In general that release model seems rather confusing but oh well…

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Dud, I think you should tone it a little, I have no clue what you are talking about and I have some experience with computers and you are here in a somewhat new guy environment preaching of things I don’t even know about.

in other words, your post about not going for an intel CPU made little sense to anyone. I’d suggest the comment structure as in: 1. suggestion 2. reasoning.
And minimize the acronyms and abbreviations as they don’t mean anything to anyone who has not been around PCs and laptops for years.

And your above LTS (Long Time Service), SoL (whatever this is), EoL (End of Life), has little to anything to do with OPs request on new laptop and Linux for their future. You too @wertigon we can stop that discussion now as it doesn’t matter, for now atleast.

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Wouldn’t it be more constructive to ask about the things you don’t know about? I never said anything about not going for an Intel CPU, please read that section again.

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I second that

because 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

either embrace the round ux or stick to w10 while you can and give it a second thought at the end of 2025

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I would say to this, that if OP lacks dedication or willingness to learn and adapt then they should at least go with a modified Windows like I said earlier or make Win11 look like 10. Linus Tech Tips made a video on this if i remember correctly. There surely are guides on how to proceed on the webs somewhere.
BUT the initiative has to come from OP to want to seek the knowledge.

My story

I wanted to go from Win10 because it just was a terrible experience and made my laptop so slow I could take a shower whilst opening Firefox. And I’ve had been following the Linux scene for a bit with the distributions (basically kernel+desktop environment packaged) so I kinda was annoyed to hear different things from everyone like this is good if you do this and this and that an endless discussion that did not go anywhere.

So I sat down went through the list I gave earlier and checked what the “experts” said about the parts and followed them. My conclusion was to make my own OS with the following:
Arch Zen
ZSHell
GNOME
OpenDoas

although having been told that Fedora was now the top choice of latest and greatest, I went with Arch as Zen is highly praised. Next time around I will figure if I go with Fedora or stay with Arch, but it kinda defeats the name of SKAR OS if AR is for Arch…

Arch meme

Linux Chad GIF - Linux Chad Arch - Discover & Share GIFs

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damn, ma boi been flexin’

tell OP how seamlessly you went from win10 to an arch install

@OP

if you don’t want to live inside a VM or get used to web office, you kinda can’t migrate right now, so any laptop will suffice, if you ever migrate, I’d search for a laptop that comes with loonix already, like those system76 or even framework laptops

PS[edit]: yeah the sliimbook executive seems fine, if you can adjust your workload

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I saved my documents on a USB stick then reminded myself not to overwrite it with the Arch iso that I downloaded, then I plugged in another restarted on to the USB drive and followed the Arch wiki. Easy as that.

Might have been The Linux Project who made a video on how to run Office and other Windows software through a Virtual Machine seemlessly like you would open a Progressive Web Application.

In my case I had Office Pro but I completely ditched it for OnlyOffice, like I only use Word and PDFs sometimes. More often Excel for keeping track of my Hardware and capital.

On the System76 I hate that it is quite meh budget for quite a lot of money. Go for a Lenovo Yoga because those can be a tablet too or something. Like the price is the same but you get a better experience with basic laptops than those who are meant for an audience who pays a little extra for a niche.