I ordered this Thinkpad a couple of months ago: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07G66MSRH?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It screams with kubuntu. I researched what was the best laptops to support linux before I bought this one (they actually sent me an X1 yoga 3 but it has the same hardware). This one is the best bang for the buck. Back 12-15 years ago when I first started fooling around with linux it really wasn’t very realistic to install linux on a laptop unless you were a dev or something. Not so today. I’ve got a newer Legion Y540 windows machine that i use for gaming and I run a couple of virtual machines on there but the X1 linux machine blows it away. It boots faster, loads everything faster, installs everything faster (using apt). it is just a faster, more stable system. I really couldn’t recommend an X1 enough.

I ordered this Thinkpad a couple of months ago: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07G66MSRH?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title It’s more than you say you’re looking to spend but it screams with kubuntu. I researched what was the best laptops to support linux before I bought this one (they actually sent me an X1 yoga 3 but it has the same hardware). This one is the best bang for the buck. Back 12-15 years ago when I first started fooling around with linux it really wasn’t very realistic to install linux on a laptop unless you were a dev or something. Not so today. I’ve got a newer Legion Y540 windows machine that i use for gaming and I run a couple of virtual machines on there but the X1 linux machine blows it away. It boots faster, loads everything faster, installs everything faster (using apt). it is just a faster, more stable system. I really couldn’t recommend an X1 enough.