I have an eight-year-old laptop that needs replacing and I’m paralyzed. What are the most reliable ones now? Do I need a desktop for CAD? Pros and cons of operating systems (and where do I find them?) Browsers ditto? Where do I find answers that aren’t just product marketing?
Framework is the laptop designed intentionally to be fixed. They just came out with a big size version with a dedicated GPU since you mentioned CAD.
You don’t need a desktop for CAD anymore.
If it’s your livelihood then stick with Windows. If you need a little reliability then Ubuntu will have the most support. Otherwise, pick your flavor of Linux that you like most.
Browsers are chromium v Firefox. They will both get the job done. Chrome (google version of chromium) plays nicest with your google account.
As for answers, unfortunately you have to hit up multiple sources for any question. Usually ask a pc magazine, YouTube, and Reddit/Lenny and compare the answers while remembering their base motivations for providing answer.
Not for the raw processing power, but anyone doing serious CAD work is going to want at least a 21" monitor, relying on just the laptop screen is going to be difficult especially (and I speak as someone aged over 50 myself) as your eyes become less able to focus on fine details as you get older.
So OP needs to decide if they’re going to want to use the machine for other things as well, in which case a laptop + external monitor might be fine, or if it’s a dedicated work/hobby CAD machine in which case why not get the desktop + monitor.