Aw man, I guess I have to be the sweaty neckbeard...

The right notebook for Linux is a Linux notebook. Vendors of such machines are still boutique, but unlike in the past they actually exist. Just a few are Zareason, Thinkpenguin, and System76. I personally have an off brand Clevo 740 SU (same model as the System76 Galago) because I had confidence in the notebooks ability and got it OSless since I'd have to install Arch anyway.

But recommending all these Samsung and Llenovo Windows machines is a disservice to everyone. It is a disservice to the Linux ecosystem because you cannot guarantee hardware support and using a non-Windows OS will void your warranty most of the time (at least if they catch you with it). It means that you get a bad impression of the experience due to any bugs or glitches you encounter, and rather than acknowledge you crossed into the land of dragons and took the risk many end up blaming the ecosystem that cannot provide hardware support realistically for any parts the vendors do not support in kernel themselves - especially those that are actively hostile to attempts to implement hardware support (video drivers - Android ones are really bad right now, but Nouveau had to wage a tangible uphill battle to get where it is today, but a lot of wifi cards, pci cards, etc can have no vendor support).

It also means you are paying your MS tax, and getting a Windows license you intend not to use. I'm not even going to argue the price aspect, because we know it really does not matter - if Linux were ever a threat (and really, it already is with Windows talking about version 9 possibly being free or ultra low cost with the looming threat of Android) they would just give away licenses, and that combined with bloatware contracts would provide the vendors more revene than just shipping Ubuntu (or whatever distro).

What I care about is the message. Every Linux Thinkpad fanboy is one bullet point in the Llenovo board meeting affirming the need not to ever ship a non-Windows notebook (except in countries like Germany that actually force them to). It sends the message "go ahead, bill me for a Windows license I'll never use, and make me fight the hardware to make it work, but I will still buy your stuff because having a pleasant straightforward and painless Linux experience is not one of my priorities.

It also obscures how large the market segment is, because to these vendors every machine sold is a mark that Windows is still king. If they do not see retailors selling real Linux machines (including the Dell one) they have absoutely no reason to ever fathom selling Linux native machines themselves.

And that hurts you, because that means there is less adoption, fewer options, and less pressure towards more widespread use of the platform. And for whatever your reason, you want to use Linux right now, and buying these Windows machines denies others from having the chance to even know it exists, and supports the continued monopoly Microsoft has on the personal computing industry (and Apple is not even on that radar).

So please, when you are looking for a new notebook with the intent to run a Linux distro on it, give some consideration to the vendors actually selling Linux machines, with support, as first class citizens. If you cannot find one that meets you needs so be it, but don't go out of your way to buy a Windows notebook and hope it can run a Linux distro flawlessly.