I’m too used to macOS and don’t have the time at the moment to switch environments, so I just sold my 2012 Macbook Pro (which has worked without issues) and got a maxed out 2015.
I hope it lasts me long enough until Apple gets their act together 
Luckily I don’t use VMs, games, or video editing so 16GB of RAM is more than enough for me.
At ElixirConf 2016 (Orlando), I met a guy that works for System76.com. They build Linux laptops and now they’re using Elixir at their e-commerce as well (IIRC)
A lot of developers are looking at elementaryOS as a replacement for macOS, and the Elementary guys are writing a series of blog posts to help with the transition: http://blog.elementary.io/
HiDPI support seems to be a major problem on Linux, and I am still disenchanted by 1080p screens. (On my desktop setup, I am on a “WQHD” configuration aka 2560x1440, but that is on a 27" monitor.) System76 says they will update their screens once Ubuntu gains better HiDPI support. And Elementary says their biggest blocker are third-party apps not written using GTK3.
I would wait and see, but it could be a while still.
Lenovo Thinkpad if you constantly need to plug in stuff like screens, net, usbs, etc. - docking station is a perfect combination here, at least for me. I still run on Ubuntu LTS 14.04 LTS, and I update kernel every now and then, works nicely.
System 76 will be probably next, i.e. Oryx Pro 15" - nice customization options.
Apparently Apple dropped the price on some accessories in response to the continued flow of criticism against the latest MacBook Pro refresh - which makes me wonder if they are going to be shamed into a (32GB/Kaby Lake) refresh by May 2017.
The situation feels eerily similar to what happened on my lastest (2014) Lenovo mobile workstation refresh (32GB W540; Arch-Gnome3/Win10 dual boot). After the release of the W530 Lenovo really dragged their feet before releasing the next refresh in the form of the (somewhat half-baked/rushed) W540. The same people who desperately wanted a refresh more than anything quickly turned about in criticism either staying with their existing system or declaring that they are going hunt down a W530 instead.
Six months later Lenovo released the improved W541. Of course by now Lenovo has discontinued the W-Series and pushes the P-Series as mobile workstations.
Suppose there’s always the Hackintosh 
I have a Dell XPS 13 (9350) running on Arch Linux with “herbstluftwm” as my window manager. I barely touch the trackpad at all - thanks to the tiling window manager I switch and re-arrange my windows blazingly fast. I can only recommend it. The XPS 13 is a very solid device. I have the 1080p screen, I don’t see any point in having a touchscreen.
There is a lobste.rs thread with basically the same question.
Rehashing and reworking my answer from there a bit:
In general http://www.notebookcheck.net/ is a great site for checking out laptops.
I can recommend the Dell XPS 15, I used it as my work laptop for the past 2 years with Linux Mint 17 and was very happy with it. I now purchased a Dell XPS 13 as my personal couch/travel laptop and am also somewhat happy with it. Build quality for both is superior though.
Minor down point is that the most powerful (especially more RAM) versions for the XPS 15 came with a glare 4k touch display that I have absolutely no use for. Similar for XPS 13 (so mine has “just” 8GB RAM). I also just ordered the new Dell XPS 15 for the new work - the “cheaper” variant has 16 GB memory and a full HD non glare display which is absolutely enough imo and it can be upgraded to 32GB manually if you want to.
The XPS 13 sadly is the first Linux laptop I ever had trouble with which is weird as it is the only officially Linux supported I ever bought. Wifi only worked after package upgrades (good that I had an adapter for wired connection around), plus need to deactivate some stuff in BIOS. Plus the USB-C to VGA/HDMI adapter they sell does not work with Linux… the one I bought only works for HDMI. So, be aware.
As I just got back from researching laptops here are a few others:
Personally I prefer laptops without a dedicated graphics card, I have a desktop for that, it saves weight and the switching between internal and dedicated GPU is still sub par in Linux (in Linux Mint switching is
built in but you have to log out/in).
Another note on Linux distributions: Highly personal/debatable topic for most. I’ve been using Linux Mint for… wow almost 7 years now I think. Always have been happy with it, Cinnamon is a nice desktop manager and rather “classic” and good looking. It is based on the Ubuntu Long Term Support releases (17.x on 14.04 and 18.x on 16.04) which I like because then I have the same package base as the servers I run my applications on. It also adds nice pragmatic integration for not totally open source drivers, codecs and others that Ubuntu traditionally mostly doesn’t
Also if that is a concern for you - the other day I discovered “Play on Linux” as a nice Wine frontend that helps with running Windows games (but Linux game support on steam and indies is growing and great these days).
I have the 1st gen XPS 13 Developer edition and, while I had enough serious issues with the i7 model to send it back, the only issue with the i5 model was they shipped it with a Broadcom wireless chip and Ubuntu 14.10 or 15.04 didn’t like it. I swapped it out for an Intel chip and have had no issues since.
The 3rd edition looks rad, I’d highly recommend it.
This is a really good comparison between the new MBP 13" and XPS13:
I’ve been looking at the XPS 15 (and upcoming kaby lake versions), but I backed off on a purchase because of the reported build quality issues (e.g., coil whine, screen flickering), and I am not much of a Windows user. After weighing in all the different options, I decided on the 2015 rMBP 15" simply because of build quality, customer support, macOS, and relatively good hardware specs.
Personally, GNU/Linux for desktop/workstation usage is acceptable if everything Just Works ™ — and most Debian based distros that I tried work well on standard desktop hardware. But, for mobile, I wouldn’t want to deal with any odd compatibility problems such as:
Imo the coil whine is exaggerated and blown out of proportion (both how often it occurs and how loud it is) in the forums etc.
I gotta say that I never really experienced one of the odd compatibility problems you mentioned save one, the battery life. It’s sadly true that this is often behind what a mac can do and even what windows can do on the same machine. That said, the new XPS 13 does very well in normal browsing/light programming and gets me ~8 hours, sometimes more sometimes less. You gotta install external tools like laptop_mode it seems though (at least on my old XPS 15 that helped enormously).
This is pretty much the same as me (except 2016 version) - I do a fair bit of design and use programs that on further investigation are just not available on Linux, one of my favourites is Sketch and it is Mac only and then there’s Apple’s own like Logic, Final Cut Pro, etc.
Also when looking at the price of the 13" XPS of specs comparable to the MBP the price didn’t seem that different after all.
Not that I need a new computer, but this has pretty much been my conclusion too. Besides the price, and perhaps being a little too forward-thinking, the new 2016 MBP is a perfectly good computer.
The hype of “OMG, Apple has lost it’s way!”, combined with some interesting stuff coming from Microsoft made me look around at all the options; but I still come back to OSX (macOS). I’ve got too productive and comfortable now, and any cost of switching wouldn’t be recouped.
Now, a change that I’d be willing to bear is getting a proper dev environment setup on an iPad Pro (using a remote server). That could be great! I periodically try it out and see if I could stand it, and every time so far it’s fallen short. The experience is getting better/more complete all the time though.
I agree, and it’s definitely worth mentioning Sketch and Final Cut Pro. Personally, the reasons for not opting to the 2016 model are:
*the spec below is available for $2,799.00, while the previous generation is available in brand new condition for considerably less.
Late 2016 rMBP 15" with touchbar
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core
16GB of 2133 MHz RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD
AMD Radeon Pro 460 GPU (4GB GDDR5)
The i7-6700HQ in the 2016 generation did not seem significantly better than i7-4870HQ from the previous generation.
Both are great computers. It just come downs to personal preference/choice.
Hope you like your 2016 model. 
Haha me too. Tho tbh, Apple are not getting off the hook easily - there’s more they could have done, like why not make the touch pad a touch screen as well? MUCH more useful! Surely they’ve got the tech by now to make it feasible… we’ll probably see it 5 years from now (probably because it wouldn’t make them enough money right now, they do like their thousands of % mark up!)
I will miss magsafe too 
I don’t mind the USB-C connection as I feel it drives things forward. A USB-monitor will be able to act like a hub (that’s what I pretty much do with my current set-up, when docked) so I think in time it will be better.
I am not sure I am getting one yet my MBA is almost 4 years old now and starting to show its age (I blame all these OS X updates - it’s becoming like iOS, every update seems to slow your computer down!)
The biggest problem with leaving the Mac platform is that every single laptop from each manufacturer must be closely scrutinized: is the trackpad anywhere near as usable? Screen as good? Heat dissipation? Reliability? Etc. Unfortunately, just because manufacturer X made a great laptop Y two years ago means nothing now; all the research must be re-done from scratch.
System 76 is tantalizing, but they cut severe corners: Re-branding Sager low-end-ish laptops (still?) with Linux-unfriendly HW that requires custom System76 Ubuntu drivers.
In comparison, Apple offers a curated shopping experience. Pick any laptop off their site, and you’ll get above-average value for whichever price point you choose. You won’t get ripped off. The same cannot be said of other manufacturers.
This is hard to do when all pc laptop manufacturers label their displays “HD” regardless of pixel density.
This is my conclusion too. Spend what is probably a little too much money (although not over the timeframes I keep my laptops - my last MacBook Air cost me £100 per year after I sold it…); or potentially get a bargain, whilst risking getting an utter dog.
At the end of the day, my laptop/computer is a tool I use to get my job done.
Why the MacBook Pro is limited to 16GB of RAM (2016-11-21)
It seems to me that the proliferation of “cheap” laptops has completely undermined the market for the typically more expensive “mobile workstations” - to the point that Apple doesn’t even see the need for offering a product in that category.
Edit: fixed link.
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