Since lots of ppl already cover laptop different options, i will skip this part.

Blender is a huge topic. What exactly does your wife exactly do? Something like sculpting, rigging don’t need much gpu power. How complicated the scene is it? For a complicated scene with un-optimisted mesh, it can be expensive. The most expensive part should be high quality rendering. But you can use render farm to “outsourcing” jobs to remote hosts.

Also, it’s 2024. Ww can already launch and run blender remotely thru vm and streaming technology smoothly.

if she can do the blending at home and everything else on the move, your options expand dramatically. namely, you can equip a laptop with an eGPU so you can attach a desktop GPU to it.

an ultralight used convertible 2-in-1 in the sub$200 region is plenty powerful for everyday use, drawing, whathaveyous. a $50 eGPU slot, a $15 PSU and a used 8 GB GPU in the $100 region will blow out of the water anything new for up to $1K and possibly beyond. double the budget for the graphics and there’s nothing comparable but the top of Apple’s line-up (no drawing on those, though).

Consider giving devices offered by NovaCustom a look.

When it comes to Linux-first laptop vendors, it’s definitely my favorite out of the bunch.

On purchasing one of their devices, they offer:

• 3 years of warranty
• 5 years of firmware update support
• 7 years of (guaranteed) spare parts availability

I’m simply unaware of any other (Linux-first) firm that can compete regarding the above.

And I haven’t even mentioned how vast their customization options are, or how well-praised their support is.

I’m actually stunned why it’s not mentioned more often in these conversations.

Btw, I’d actually recommend you to consider the whereabouts of the respective support centers before you buy a device. You never hope to be in that situation, but it makes a real difference when it matters. So, in case you’re unaware, AFAIK:

• NovaCustom; Netherlands. But as long as you’re in EU mainland, it should be good enough.
• Star Labs; UK. EU outside of Great Britain is OK.
• System76; USA.
• Tuxedo; Germany. Again, EU mainland is fine.

For blender nvidia gpu is a the best for cycles as it has optiX support.

If she does ONLY modeling and uses eevee renders without viewport previews then integrated graphics could work.

If she wants viewport preview then dedicated GPU is a must. IDK how fares AMD gpu in blender as I didn’t have one for years.

Some gaming laptops with dedicated GPUs need external kernel modules just to work if they even have one.

My best bet would be to go for old gaming laptop.

My second best bet would be to go for system76 as they have some gaming laptops

The Framework 16 looks pretty great. Repairable & upgradable, discrete graphics (AMD), and guaranteed Linux support.

https://kfocus.org/spec/

Thinkpad P series. 2nd hand are also good. Top tier Linux support.

To be honest. I had a similar question for my girlfriend for drawing with krita. A drawing tablet + a traditional laptop is better for almost everyone except students who will be taking notes in class and people who have to be drawing in a chair or meeting room with no desk setup.

Otherwise a drawing tablet is more accurate, faster, and with better features than a 2-in-1. Much better sensitivity, generally better pressure and tilt functions, and a much better feel (more like paper)

You don’t even have to spring for a Wacom. They have been resting on their laurels for over a decade and have become completely uncompetitive in the past 5 years (kind of the Intel of drawing tablets).

An XPPen Deco Pro Gen II (as an example) has good ergonomics, rotary knobs for zooming, rotating, and scaling, and works over Bluetooth. Their Linux drivers (4.0.x) are pretty great at a fraction of the price of a Wacom or the price difference between a traditional laptop and a 2-in-1.

It ends up being way more ergonomic also to look at a screen and not having to hunch over a tablet. It just takes a week or so to get used to not looking at your hands.

I think it depends on your budget and where you live. North America has System76, UK has Starlabs, Germany has Tuxedo, Netherlands has laptopswithlinux and Spain has Slimbook. I think Starlabs are the only ones who do a tablet. Has your wife tried using an external graphics tablet? I don’t use Krita myself but if you want to save money and buy a second hand convertible it might be worth asking/searching on a Krita forum about what others are using from the bigger manufacturers.

No manufacturer support. But zephyrus g14 (2022) is my favorite laptop ever. Very few issues with Linux.

Does linux support from manufacturer really matter?

The tuxe laptop convertible may seem nice and if she wants to draw on the screen then you are going to be limited on other options. But I would be worried about that intel gpu.

If you want to do 3d modeling you will need something that is gaming grade. I would rather game on a crappy card than model using one. But i also confess i am not up to date with the last few years of developments in that space.

In my very humble experience with digital art a proper dedicated drawing tablet beats any kind of touchscreen drawing.

So if you comfortable installing a chosen linux distro from a usb. (It really is not difficult, ai and YouTube can guide you trough it) and she is not already adept at touchscreen drawing i would suggest:

Lenovo Legion Both my partner and their mom have one with a different graphics card. Most of this line have nvidia rtx cards and all of those will do the job. Naturally more expensive models will have newer/faster cards.

Wacom intuos i am biased to call wacom tablets great because i have never used any others. I can say the intuos line is much nicer then the older bamboo pen and touch/fun line. Models come in different sizes

Laptops from over 5 years ago are well supported by Linux (for the most part). However, the very modern laptops have bits and pieces that aren’t supported, from fan profiles, to the new intel webcams etc. They will run Linux, but you might fry them if your fans don’t work properly. So your best bet would be to get either an old one (I got a Macbook Air from 2015 with 8GB RAM, works great), or get a Tuxedo, or a System76 one, or a couple more Linux-specific ones. And it’s not because suddenly Linux does worse job supporting hardware, but it’s because these machines are. getting more complex and they need drivers for every little thing. Back in the day, things were more generic (e.g. the fans) and worked with a single driver.

Dell laptops usually have good Linux support, and they offer powerful machines, requirements and budget permitting.

@Shatur any laptop with a fairly recent amd GPU should be just fine honestly. Even if nvidia cards are slightly better, they can fuck up your whole desktop environment in a random update (among other errors on that line), so imo it’s not worth the trouble.