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.
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.
Can you give an example of a Linux distro that isn’t stable, that you have to “fiddle” with?
Bruh, so many down votes for asking a simple question. Dang, community. :|
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.
Neat, sounds like fun if you have the patience, time, and necessary knowledge to keep learning. 😊
Stop it.
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 hear that a lot but I got a new e14 amd on special it was so cheap. It’s not the most powerful but i put 32gbs of ram and a 2tb nvme in it runs arch on it and its a cool little machine.
The ram and the hard drive cost more than the laptop. Would I have bought this thing for retail? Prob not, I resent giving money to Lenovo directly.
Yup, it’s hard to justify supporting Lenovo, but work buys mine, so I’m not gonna complain too much about it.
Congrats on the Thinkpad. I look forward to your next post on /c/unixsocks.
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.
A T440p running Antergos got me through college. I regret selling it since that thing served me well 🫡
I love selling things that have served me well - it feels better knowing that they’re helping someone instead of sitting in a drawer, untouched.
Fair point! In this case, I sold it to my brother who got through a fair bit of university with it so it did help a lot of people.
I get sentimental about tech that I used for a while though so I kind of hoard it all now that I don’t need to sell the device to replace it
Excellent OS choice - great for noobs and veterans alike.
Mint is great, LMDE is even better; same newbie friendliness, away from Ubuntu specifics
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!
fuck yeah
I have an old thinkpad I use as a home server
HELL yeah! I have an E16 and it plays Factorio and other simple games (plus emulators) so it’s perfect! And of course it’s running Mint. :D
(simple graphically. Factorio is not simple. lol.)
My Thinkpad (X201) can’t even play Terraria well but I love it. :)
All the best! My SO runs a T480s, the elegant one, for years now, switched to Debian after U went super-slow on her.
I went all fancy-schmancy with a Yoga x390, debian too.
Both cheap secondhand, both issue-free (and both with touchscreen!). Whish the official batteries where still available tho.
480s has a touchscreen? I need to check mine…
This one does. I think certain IPS models got the feature. Tbh, not really much of a touchscreen guy for laptops but I wont say no
Not all of them, we were lucky I think. Yoga’s have it by their very 2-in-1 nature, nice little things, classy matte black like any Thinkpad should be.
Enjoy your Linux journey! You’ll be glad to have done it.
Ive actually been using Linux for a few years now, but I needed a laptop so figured this would be a good choice. But I am enjoying Linux very much!
Good stuff. And no difference. I’m always learning something new about Linux. And that’s what makes it amazing. Truly a freedom operating system
Welcome to the cult :)
“Excuse me, are y’all with the cult?”
“We’re not a cult. We’re an organization that promotes open source”
“Yeah, this is it”
I am home, brother. :)
I have 2 ThinkPads - a Yoga 370 and a Yoga X13, both running different Linux flavours and they’re honestly the best laptops I’ve ever had. Very capable, sturdy, great keyboards, working touchscreens, pens and fingerprint scanners, passwordless encryption with TPM+LUKS.
The 370 struggles a bit with heavy browser usage sometimes but otherwise they’re both rock solid
I miss my Yoga 730. Best laptop I’ve ever had. The 2-in-1 and pen support carried me through uni. All my lecture notes could be typed and diagramed as needed in the moment.
INSTALL GENTOO
Not for the weak of heart. If they’re not well introduced I may suggest an arch install by hand first. I wonder how like it’ll take to compile FF on that Thinkpad.
I CHANGED MY MIND THEY NEED TO DO LFS
emerge firefox-binezpzWould be even cooler if you were the guy who wrote the source. And if you are kudos, dope shit.
huh? what source? sorry i don’t understand D:
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…
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.
Which model? If you mind sharing.








