Linux

It’s probably best to limit yourself to a used laptop.

Reading and writing code is nothing more than reading and writing text, and for that you don’t need a fancy gpu or screen.

What I would recommend you look for in a laptop is

• an SSD instead of an HDD
• more cpu cores (at least 4 cores)
• more memory (RAM) (at least 8GB, preferably 16GB+)

More memory and cores will help you with compiling and running your code.

And make sure you take regular backups! You never know when your disk will fail.

Also make sure to check linux compatibility before you buy. Laptops used to be a pain (10+ years ago), and it’s gotten a lot better, but it’s not always perfect. Just search for “[brand] [model] linux” or try to find the model on the archlinux wiki.

For Linux I would just find the best ThinkPad within your budget (a used one, in this case)

Edit for an example (and re-edit to clean up link): https://www.ebay.com/itm/134956529143

Probably used is the right answer. Be mindful of battery life and wear.

Usually Lenovo Thinkpads are a safe choice.

And old ThinkPad.

Used latitude.

Yeah get a used laptop. Anything used in good condition is way better than new at the same or often twice the price.

Chromebooks are bad, but they run Coreboot. With MrChromebox and Chrultrabook you can get a normal Coreboot BIOS on there and run any Linux distro.

But they are often not repairable and have extremely limited storage and RAM. Also finding info on many of them is horrible.

Used t490 / t480. Can you elaborate on the "heavy limited by space"?

I recommend the Thinkpad yoga 11e, which is their education edition. They're out of stock at the moment, but they'll come back soon. They always do. It's an 11 inch laptop with a flip around touch screen and integrated stylus. Works perfectly with Linux. It's not super fast, but it's under 300 dollars new. And it's made for kids so it's durable. I have one and I love it. You can get one used if you like, but at that point you're probably better off with an older model.

Now that apple has their own silicon, all the older intel based MacBooks are pretty cheap. I just replaced my wife's 2013 MacBook Airs battery, upgraded the drive, and installed Linux. It's been a solid little laptop. Not the fastest but there's probably a few pro models within your price range. Just make sure to get at least a 16gb model since the ram is soldered. Might have issues with the webcam, but the wifi drivers are pretty good.

I am super partial to old ThinkPads. Currently I am running an x1 yoga gen 4 that I got from a company that was recycling it for free. I also have a P52, and a t460s. All have been great. I have used several others including an x230, an x201, a w520, w530 and w540(least favorite due to the trackpad). Generally I like to stop at about the Intel 8th gen series as parts are usually still fairly serviceable and affordable.

Refurbished Dell 7390? ~$250 has an 13" display with relatively small bezels. I think if you want it even smaller, you'd need some mini laptop or a tablet or steam deck. But that has other downsides. And having a device with an full-size keyboard is nice if you want to type / code.

if you can compromise on the width, a used thinkpad t480 is under budget, upgrade-able, works fine with any linux and is plenty good enough to do what you need.

You can find good used Dell Latitude's on ebay for pretty cheap. I'd avoid thinkpads as they have wifi-card blacklists on them.

Asus Vivobook Go 11, width is 279 mm.

I'm using Lenovo ThinkBook, which is cheaper than Thinkpad, and the keyboard layout is different. It supports upto 40GB of RAM.

I am also supremely space-constrained, but I also had no need to take my development device away from my desk. So I got a workstation and a KVM to switch between workstations, thereby needing only one keyboard, mouse, and set of monitors for multiple computers.

I went further than that, because I also needed to keep the desktop largely clear and the floor space used down to an absolute minimum. So I got a 60s “tanker desk”, and put a smaller office table on top of it. the computers all sit on top of the office table, up near the ceiling (and away from a lot of the dust!) and the monitors and KVM dangle down from beneath it. This leaves only the two pedestal legs of that office table and my keyboard and mouse as the only things “on” the top surface of my desk.

And ignoring the chair, I can have four workstations and six monitors within a 30×60 inch footprint (the tanker desk).

Some reason I have Chromebook Lenovo Thinka Pad 11e saved in my notes

Iirc it's something that isn't too difficult to unlock and get Linux on it, otherwise I wouldn't have considered it.

Used Dell XPS, Thorvalds' own choice of laptop, and often ranked well on iFixIt reparability ratings

I've been using a Dell XPS-15 9560 for over six years now, the keyboard needed to be cleaned after four years and and the charging port needed to be replaced (€10 inc service) recently. The battery no longer lasts 11 or so hours but it lasts 2 or so which I'll take, for about €100 I could replace just the battery.
All of which, for how fast devices tend to break on me, is an incredibly good mileage I'd say!

And oh yeah, whatever Linux I've been distro hopping to has worked swimmingly!

You can usually find old(ish) refurbished thinkpada on amazon for around that price. I recently bought a refurbished t480 for $315 CAD