And of course I’m installing Linux on it. Install went well, even the fingerprint sensor built in to the laptop works.
Mostly this will be a school and DND machine but always nice to have a functional laptop for whatever else I may need it for.
Congrats!
Personally rocking Dell Latitude 7490, it is much similar to ThinkPads in scope and layout, down to the iconic knob. An absolute beast for the $200 I paid for it (used). Endless battery, USB-C charging, zero lag and throttling, complete Linux support, famous robustness, and a premium feel in everything, from the materials (the best soft touch plastic I’ve ever experienced) to the build quality.
It’s the kind of laptop you just want to have in your hands. Hope your ThinkPad will give you the same experience :)
Awesome, welcome to the club!
I just upgraded from a T420 (bought new) to an X13 Gen 3. I like the much better screen and the much lower weight, but I miss the old style keyboard…
there’s currently a retired T420 in my home and a stalwart E15 assisting me with my everyday computing needs.
make sure you say ‘thank you for your service’ every morning.
Do you call a dead Thinkpad a Thoughtpad?
Congrats on the Thinkpad. I look forward to your next post on /c/unixsocks.
I love how even modern Linux distros run so damn well on what’s considered today ‘outdated’ hardware.
I love Linux Mint btw! I think you did a great choice! Even though it’s known as the beginner friendly distro, I think it’s just a damn great distro for pretty much anyone, experienced or newbies. Fantastic choice!
And by outdated, like 2015. Old E7440s or even older work great with added memory. New battery and you have a nice laptop out of the e waste pile. The only weak spot are drives, SSDs are expensive so to stay cheap you might have to use old spinny in there.
just recently i’ve installed cachyos (after a few months of mint) on my t420 and it works really well
for instance the partial battery charging works (on mint you need to install extra stuff and configure via file, on cachy it’s just part of the power settings)
but also generally i feel it’s a bit quicker and prettierI have cachy aswell not on my thinkpad im still running endevour there do you use plasma as destop eviorment
yeah, i wasn’t a fan of plasma, but i’ve used it on my desktop and my deck and i got quite fond of it
T480, a gentelman and a scholar
Be careful of USB C ports. They are unreliable but absolutely required to charge.
Thinkpads are awesome. They aren’t as good as they used to be, but they still work great for linux.
Why mint?
I use mint as my “TV room” OS. It’s worked pretty well so far.
Mostly for compatibility and ease of use. I don’t wanna fiddle with things if I don’t have to. Wanted it to be stable. Ive also been thinking about switching to mint on my main machine so this is also kind of a test run. I tried mint years ago but it didn’t work well for me back then.
I know, not the place for distro evangelism, but maybe give bazzite a whirl or some other immutable fedora variant, sorry, Mint is just Ubuntu Lite, if you really like it, go Debian Sid or something.
At least with an immutable you can distrro-hop with distrobox. Just saying.
I’m not a fan of immutable distros tbh. I know they are the most “ease of use” you can get but at the same time, if I really want to change something, I can.
And IMO, I like Ubuntu. Wide compatibility and is stable. Thats what I like. I could take or leave Canonical though.
Fair cop, use what you like, it’s not a religion.
I wouldn’t go with ‘ease of use’ personally, it’s more can’t break the main OS. I tend to do dev work in distroboxes, different workflow, but you never end up rebooting to a broken system and you can install wild dependencies without guilt. Works for me. YMMV.
I love the discourse here, it’s so nice to see. Not only because I, too, am a Mint user for practical purposes (MATE flavour, even, in spite of running on pretty modern hardware).
By the way, I am obligated to commend you on your username, cap’n. It’s not much, but it’s enough, right?
Can you give an example of a Linux distro that isn’t stable, that you have to “fiddle” with?
TempleOS?
Gentoo is great. I can configure it exactly the way I want. I switched to it after redhat went enterprise and never looked back. Stage 1 install.
However, sometimes packages get out of sync an I have build problems that need to be diagnosed.
Sometimes some packages get deprecated & I have to redo my configuration.
Deprecating python 2.7 was especially fun.
Back in the day, manual config of x11 was needed and that was fun. Back in the redhat days, the x11 configuration was in multiple places which was confusing.
Sound still is erratic after the laptop goes to sleep.
I did a manual transition from X to Wayland and that took a bit of learning.
Stop it.
Stop it.
Get some help.
— Michael Jordan
What?
You know exactly what. Feigning dismay at the down votes emphasizes the fact. But in case you’re truly unable to read the room - don’t be that Linux guy that drives people away from the community by being a pompous dildo. It’s unbecoming, highlights your fedora, and is the reason you don’t have any friends, Kevin.
What on earth are you talking about? 😆 You have no idea who I am or how many friends I have lmao. I have more than I have time to keep up with, sadly. It’s hard with two small kids and a family.
Anyway, I really was just asking a question. What the fuck did I say that people take offense to? Please read the room aloud for me, if you could? Without being a rude prick?
Edit: I went through your comment history a bit, because name calling is usually a huge red flag for me, indicating that someone has a social problem and isn’t worth my time. Seems like you really like name calling, and you like to call people out loudly when they don’t understand something that you do. You pride yourself on your intellect, I imagine. And it makes you feel good when you put people down that don’t have an intellect that measures up to your own, especially if yours gets challenged, even a little bit, by someone else. Instant defensive mode.
I think I might cancel my request for you to tell me what was wrong with what I said. I’ll ask someone else that comes along. Thanks for dropping by, though.
(Also seems like you’re more of a Linux nerd than I am, so joke’s on you. 😅 Peace. ✌️)
Case in point.
I feel like an old ThinkPad is like a right of passage on Linux. Just about everyone I know who uses Linux has had one at some point or another.
Still got an X201 somewhere. That thing learned me Linux, got me through school and found me a good job at a time when all I had was a backpack and that computer.
Some day I shall switch it on and update it.
Rocking an X260 myself. Picked it up for something like $100 on eBay a few years ago and it just keeps on ticking.
Hell yea! Welcome to the Thinkpad Owners Club.
I have a L440, I was not able to find a T440 on a decent status. Solid laptop, enjoy!
Right on! I’ve been using a refurbished t14s for years. Which one did you catch?
Edit: nvm, I see it’s a T480. Solid choice!
Yep. Personally my first choice is the t490. Theres so many in great condition.
I like to imagine the IT debt in some office building buying and hording t490s just to be sure they don’t lose their budget next year.
Cool! What model did you get? Despite the high prices right now, I’m also considering a new one right now, because my old one, which I love, does start to show its age a bit.
Thinkpads are great. But how did you get the fingerprint scanner to work? Mine does not work.
I followed this guide, worked right out of the box:
https://github.com/SeniorMatt/How-to-enable-fingerprint-in-Linux-Mint-for-T480
Oh I will try that as soon as possible. Thank you for the link.
Nice choice, Thinkpads are amazing!
