I have a first gen, and it does. There was some coding stickiness, and (i haven’t been able to solve) a key that the fingerprint reader doesn’t get access too. The effect is that it logs you in and then you get a pop-up that asks for your system password (though you can start using right away). I’m only a junior level coder though, ans just haven’t solved it- others might have.

Imo, the framework might mostly meet your spec. I came from a 2012 mac and the build quality and feel are the best I’ve seen in a non-apple laptop.

One comment on audio, I find mine can be tinny, verging in crappy. This may have been upgraded in more recent models.

Finally, I know you don’t want AMD, but they have an AMD AI motherboard that I thought looked very interesting, at least for complex processing. Perhaps it will be of value to explore further? Just a thought.

Happy shopping! :)

I am wary about invoking Apple here, but say what you will about the company, there’s a lot of value in a braindead setup process. Many, many users just want something that just works - it was literally something I asked for when Linux was recommended to me (knowing some hate Ubuntu, I’ll out myself: using Ubuntu Budgie - setup was super simple. I guess there must be demand for that niche in the broader Linux community, so that’s a very smart move by Bazzite.