I’m not sure I understand. I’ve already been running ffmpeg from the command line and it’s been using multiple cores but default. What’s the difference, what’s the new behavior?

That sounds cool… Wish the article said what it does.

5, 3, 6 are all decent.

Lenovo/Thinkpad will certify certain models for use with Linux, other brands sell Linux laptops. Those are obviously good indicators that those models should be safe to choose. More generally, the more popular a model is, and the longer it’s been on the market the more likely they are to be compatible, just because they are in people’s hands and people tinker with them and add stuff to the Linux Kernel. So stay away from the latest model that is uncertified, and don’t choose the flashy, overpriced model that will see poor sales.

You might be able to find a discounted ThinkPad X12 detachable with an i5. It does not officially support Linux, but most features work, except for the volume rocker. It’s become my daily driver – really won me over. The keyboard is great btw.

Stable as in rarely crashes, or stable as in rarely changes over the years?

The LTS versions of Ubuntu are stable in the second sense, they get ten years of support but you’re stuck with old versions or (stable) programs in exchange. I also have not seen any of them experience a fatal crash, too. So stability isn’t the issue, its more about what you want to do and compatible with most recent versions of software.

Similar experience here. NVidia is pretending to become more open but their software engineers really cannot handle their hardware. I finally bought a non-NVidia device which happened to become my daily driver. As soon as I go back to ML, my plan is to buy a powerful desktop computer and install stable a stable version of cuda etc there, and then execute everything via ssh from my laptop. Might even use my Linode to forward the port so I can work remotely from anywhere.