Fellow Canadians, what is your go-to source for laptops these days? Both of my (very much grown up now) kids need one for their school and I'm past the point of getting them Chromebooks, because they are short-lived jank that upload everything to the mothership.

I've been buying System76 for work, but their laptops are expensive and I have to pay high import fees -- plus they are US-based.

My current thinking is some basic Lenovo stuff, but maybe I'm missing something great.

Please, no need to mention Framework -- not interested.

@monsieuricon I’ve since moved across the pond, but a top pick right now is the newest dell xps, they lowered the price by a LOT and it has many things to love

@toast will take a look, thanks!

@monsieuricon There are independent sellers on ebay that refurbish nice older laptops and sell them with linux. I have one, and just bought Barracuda one so she can go back to school from this group, as an example: https://ebay.io/m/nLSdZQ

@monsieuricon Check what OS/spec/etc their school requires, and also if there's a student discount.

@monsieuricon personally I picked a Thinkpad x140e for my kids first laptop, with coreboot from https://15h.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X140e . avoiding the Intel management engine is one of my priorities. it was easy to get on US eBay for me, not sure about Canada.

@monsieuricon not sure whether you're looking for brands or shops or both but since backmarket does not do business in CA I would try reebelo.

@monsieuricon macbook neo..... is the school hardware of 2026. No Linux yet though…. but for school they are probably asked to either use all kinds of cloudy stuff or good old Office that is pushed upon all of them.

@monsieuricon I think I saw someone else recommend the Dell XPS line. I'll second that: they are now surprisingly good, decently well supported, and not completely unattainable price-wise.

@gnomon I think that's what I'll go with for the moment.

@monsieuricon

Some suggestions

Canadian: https://eurocom.com/models

Tuxedo computers in Germany have Linux computers (they can also install Windows); another German company... https://bestware.com/en/collections/xmg-evo?sort_by=price-ascending

@monsieuricon
When I saw prices start to climb and my HS kid started taking city college math classes I bought used Dell laptops and installed #guix on them. Working well, cost about $250. I got mine from Amazon, refurb. But theyre also commonly on EBay. I think 16GB. Their school uses the Chromebooks and google docs etc so as long as they have a decent browser they can do any school stuff.

@monsieuricon perhaps @hazematman could help?

@monsieuricon I'm across the pond so I don't know how the market looks like in Canada.

I would take a look at refurbished ThinkPads or Dell Latitudes tho. Not as sexy as XPS yet those business laptops are work horses. Plenty of compqnies do hardware rotations and you can get some incredible value for money.

@monsieuricon I've been buying Lenovo for all of my recent laptops. Current one is almost 4 years old. I haven't bought when yet since the tarrif situation, but the last ones I've bought came from a Canadian warehouse iirc. Currently have a t14s, but in university I used an IdeaPad flex. Was very happy with both.

@monsieuricon how about a refurbished lenovo thinkpad a few years old from someone who will give you a warranty? locally, i really like Infotech Beaubien.