Some Context
It happened, so I was in the market shopping for a new laptop. My requirements were quite simple. Durable, small, and powerful. A high-quality screen is a must. I'm running Linux on my home and work computers, so some level of compatibility was desired. The last one crossed out several recent Asus laptops immediately. Asus is notoriously known for using a lot of proprietary technology in their devices. At some point, I decided that buying a laptop with pre-installed Linux should be an ideal option. My Linux distribution of choice is Manjaro. They are cooperating with several hardware makers to sell Manjaro branded laptops with Manjaro Linux pre-installed. I checked those models and was not satisfied. They ship from Europe, and prices are higher than they should be. I considered other options. In the States, there is a well-known company that also sells laptops with Linux. It is System76. They have similar models, a bit lower prices, and faster delivery. Also, I liked their models better. Unfortunately, they pre-install only Ubuntu or their own Linux distribution pop!_os (Ubuntu-based at the time of writing). I contacted their support and asked whether it would be possible to install Manjaro on their hardware. The answer was very straightforward: "At this time, we don't have plans to provide official support for Linux distributions other than Pop!_OS or Ubuntu." After some more thinking about my options, I decided to take a risk and bought Lemur Pro laptop from System76. Here are my reasons: pop!_os received pretty good reviews, the laptop's hardware did require some custom drivers, but they were open-sourced and available for AUR.