David says the key to Linux being great is using old boring hardware...

Linux old hardware support is much better than new from manufacturer support.

It seems that though vendors sell Linux as an install option on new laptops, in my experience, the support isn't great and the experience isn't refined.  It seems much better to install LTS Ubuntu, or some other reliable distro, on hardware that's had some time to simmer.

I haven't purchased Linux as an option from the vendor, since I prefer to install Linux on my own.  Recently I purchased a brand new T-series Thinkpad and, at release, Kubuntu's install was broken and Mate Ubuntu wasn't stable.  I switched to Debian and things worked well enough, but several months later I switched back to Kubuntu and it was a night and day difference, with all drivers being setup properly without needing intervention.

The deciding factor of Linux Desktop quality seems to be the open-source projects' familiarity with the hardware.  The oldest popular machines always enjoy the best support, while late models typically have bugs, bad defaults and/or drivers that don't work well.

I know Mike doesn't like to touch his workstations and just wants to order perfect experiences direct from the manufacturer, but with the way support actually happens on Linux, it seems like he'd be better served reinstalling his own OS from the downloaded ISOs after the hardware has gotten a bit older.  This is and has always been the mainstream way desktop Linux is deployed and it is the first-class citizen, while preinstallation from the vendor is new and not nearly as popular an option and, at least today, seems to be a second-class citizen when it comes to Linux hardware support.

Loving the show, keep it up,
David