Ask HN: Which used MacBook Silicon to buy?

The M3/M4 chips are not yet supported by Asahi Linux (which serves as the basis for all Linux versions on Apple Silicon), so you are limited to M1 and M2 (and the respective Pro/Max) SoCs.

An overview of the supported devices can be found at https://asahilinux.org/fedora/#device-support

Both the Macbook Pro M1 as well as the Macbook Air M1 are still pretty great devices. I would recommend to go for a 16 GB version since RAM (and SSD) cannot be upgraded.

If you need external video (monitor/projector etc.), you need to go with the Pro model, since the Air doesn't have an HDMI port and video over USB-C is not yet supported.