Not sure what linux they’re using but you can always just install a different one if the one it comes with doesn’t have good English. Worst-case, the bios is in Chinese but for the sake of just installing a new OS I would think the a camera translate app would be enough to get you through it.

Huawei laptops have a good track record with Linux support since they directly contribute to the kernel.

I think you should definitely grab a huawei laptop while you're there since they are significantly better than their western counterparts (Chinese OEMS love to put really good high res screens while western ones are just now shipping 16:10

Absolutely do it, but don't log into anything before you have to go through US customs/immigration.

Old-ass update to this ancient post. I didn't grab the laptop then but I did now. After I selected a color, they said it would take half an hour. I didn't have anywhere else to be, so I just sat there for an hour. They asked if I wanted it in English and I said yes. The resident tech wizard showed up and started doing his thing. At some point, I see a familiar icon. It's fucking Edge. I ask about it and there's some sort of confusion where the Linux/Windows and Chinese/English axes have become intertwined to the point where a guy who just bought a Linux laptop and wanted to interact with it in English clearly wants a fresh Windows install in English. After a long and contentious back-and-forth, I was presented with a new box, containing a laptop with some flavor of Linux in Chinese. The boot menu has two options, English and Chinese. After selecting the former, I got to a menu looking like username/password selection boxes. Clicking the translate button revealed this to be the case. Since then, all English. I think I have my Linux laptop now but feel bad that a Windows license was burned in the process and the techs may have been dinged for it in some form.