What is the best laptop for development?
Especially if you work a lot with virtualization, containers, the cloud, and a lot of systems programming. And you like to simulate a lot of distributed environments on locally?

There's no best laptop, just go with whatever appeals to you most in your budget. Consider specs, size, screen, brand etc. Have a look if there's a custom laptop distributor in your area, PCSpecialist laptops are often very good and can be customised to preference. But they are mainly UK and some of mainland Europe.

Maybe a ThinkPad running linux

Anything with decent specs. Since you don't seem to be doing anything truly strenuous (machine learning, gaming, etc) just choose whatever suits your budget.
Also, I would say go for a Dell. Excellent customer service. I had an absolutely horrible experience with Lenovo customer service.

One thing, though - get an SSD equipped one, if you can. Or put in an SSD on your own. It makes a huge difference. And in simulations and stuff, RAM is usually a very important factor.