I’m looking to mainly use it for school and was wondering if there’s any recommended distros out there for thinkpads.
Its a Lenovo Thinkpad T480.
- null ( @null@slrpnk.net ) 23•4 months ago
ITT: Every distro
- JustARegularNerd ( @JustARegularNerd@aussie.zone ) English4•4 months ago
The question is so generic and open ended it’s not a surprise. The only filter on this is “runs well on ThinkPad” and “lightweight”, which are both up to interpretation
- Eugenia ( @eugenia@lemmy.ml ) English20•4 months ago
With 8 GB of RAM and 5500 CPU passmark points, that’s a good laptop for Linux Mint. Download their “edge” version of Mint, so you get the latest kernel (so it has more chances of supporting 100% that laptop).
- WhiteHotaru ( @WhiteHotaru@feddit.de ) 4•4 months ago
This @cheezits@lemmy.ca! I run Linux Mint on a T410 with 4 GB of Ram and a 250 GB SSD and the user experience is quite ok for normal day to day usage like playing light games, browsing and HD video streaming.
- ReallyZen ( @reallyzen@lemmy.ml ) 1•4 months ago
T410? Woah! I still mourn the death of my 420 with it’s Dome Light and rugged looks
I hope yours stay on, and on, and on!
- MalReynolds ( @MalReynolds@slrpnk.net ) English2•4 months ago
Dude, it’s upgradeable, just put 32Gb in.
- umbrella ( @umbrella@lemmy.ml ) 1•4 months ago
so it has more chances of supporting 100% that laptop
its a thinkpad so i can be very sure it is very well supported whatever you decide to use, as long as it isnt ancient.
- fine_sandy_bottom ( @fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de ) 1•4 months ago
There’s nothing that makes it good for mint specifically.
- ReallyZen ( @reallyzen@lemmy.ml ) 1•4 months ago
My wife has a T480s on standard 2022 LTS Ubuntu, it is a machine old enough to not need the latest edgy mint ; a friend of mine has had to install it on his 2023 X1 tho.
Standard Mint will do fine. Default DE is boring as hell, be sure to look at others like Gnome. I love Gnome.
Also, using “live” USB keys OP can try several distros and check what they find more attractive in the default state of a distro.
PopOS, Elementary, Fedora, Tumbleweed… So many of them.
I say Tumbleweed is best because of the perfect, seamless integration of BTRFS / Snapshotting / Rollback system. It is truly the best way to dip your feet into Linux and get it back working in a single click when you (inevitably) fuck up.
- bloodfart ( @bloodfart@lemmy.ml ) 19•4 months ago
I use Debian stable on mine. I got 16gb of ram but tbh it’s never gone above six in real use, even with a windows vm running.
E: old thinkpad gang input: take the time to reapply thermal grease to the cpu at some point. It makes a huge difference.
- fmstrat ( @fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ) 5•4 months ago
I second Debian. It’s what Ubuntu should be, but can’t be, because Debian is already it.
- fine_sandy_bottom ( @fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de ) 2•4 months ago
Ubuntu is debian with corporate bs.
- fmstrat ( @fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ) 2•4 months ago
But snaps!
Note: I do still use their systray, but that’s it.
- GrappleHat ( @GrappleHat@lemmy.ml ) English2•4 months ago
What’s a “gang input”?
- Arthur Besse ( @cypherpunks@lemmy.ml ) English2•4 months ago
E: old thinkpad gang input: take the time to reapply thermal grease to the cpu at some point. It makes a huge difference.
What’s a “gang input”?
😂 it’s an input to this discussion from a member of the group of people (“gang”) who have experience with old thinkpads. and yes, if your old thinkpad (or other laptop) is overheating and crashing, reapplying the thermal paste is a good next step after cleaning the fans.
- bloodfart ( @bloodfart@lemmy.ml ) 1•4 months ago
Gang
- mFat ( @mfat@lemdro.id ) English11•4 months ago
You can’t go wrong with Debian or Fedora.
- Gueggel ( @Gueggel@feddit.de ) 8•4 months ago
I use Linux Mint and currently Fedora on my Thinkpad.
- morbidcactus ( @morbidcactus@lemmy.ca ) 5•4 months ago
Will echo the recommendations of debian or mint. I have mint on my 13 year old rog laptop, it’s my lab computer and runs klipper for one of my printers, pretty much always up, very rarely reboots. Debian is what I run on my 4 year old zenbook s, pretty much perfect for my uses, it’s what I cart around for light/mobile work and I swear it actually has better battery life than it did running windows.
- stewie3128 ( @stewie3128@lemmy.ml ) 5•4 months ago
Debian Stable or Testing. Runs on anything, and Stable - especially - will not let you down. Ubintu, Elementary and dozens of others are downstream of Debian. Bookworm is a great experience, so why not go to the source?
“Testing” is described as containing packages that are still in the queue to be accepted into Stable.
“Unstable” branch is all the newest stuff, whether it works or not.
If you’re in school for anything computer-related, once you’ve settled on a distro, you could also start playing with Gentoo.
- Shawdow194 ( @Shawdow194@kbin.social ) 4•4 months ago
I agree with other users recommending Mint
- Red_sun_in_the_sky ( @Red_sun_in_the_sky@lemmy.ml ) 4•4 months ago
I used antix for my laptop. Its the most lightweight. I also used Debian on it. Mine is also lenovo. If you want real lightweight use antix I guess.
- 0x0 ( @0x0@programming.dev ) 3•4 months ago
Ever given MX a spin on it?
- Red_sun_in_the_sky ( @Red_sun_in_the_sky@lemmy.ml ) 4•4 months ago
No. I went for antix. Before it ran on manjaro for years. Moved to different distro like last year cause of some hardware issue. Might still go back to it.
I wanted something very light on the laptop. Mx is fine I guess. But I went ahead with antix at the time.
- drone509 ( @drone509@discuss.tchncs.de ) English4•4 months ago
I think Debian unstable works great on laptops, and it’s hard to beat for stability.
- 0x0 ( @0x0@programming.dev ) 7•4 months ago
Unstable stability, eh?
- MXX53 ( @MXX53@programming.dev ) 4•4 months ago
At this point in my life I would use Fedora Budgie/Xfce/lxde for a lightweight distro. Atomic or not. Lately I’ve been into atomic, but there are some scenarios and software I use that do not play well with the immutable OS.
- sabreW4K3 ( @sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al ) 3•4 months ago
Fedora runs like a champ on em
- aasatru ( @aasatru@kbin.earth ) 3•4 months ago
Yeah, it runs like a charm on my T14s. No that I’ve tried much else.
- n2burns ( @n2burns@lemmy.ca ) 3•4 months ago
I think it’d be helpful to understand why you want a lightweight distro. I’m running Linux Mint (Cinnamon) on a x201 (~13 years old) and am happy with it’s performance. I doubt you’re going to have any issues with any distro with your laptop (as others have pointed out, mainstream Thinkpads are well supported by Linux).
I know I have friends who run beasts of machines but refuse to “waste” resources on niceties like animations and whatnot. If you’re into that, I assume you want to optimize and tinker, that’s different that lightweight.
- notthebees ( @notthebees@reddthat.com ) 3•4 months ago
All of them would be fine, also what wireless card and does yours have a gpu. Iirc the 580 had an option for an mx150 so I wouldn’t be surprised if the 480 had one.
Intel wireless cards are well supported, others not so much
- 8Bitz0 ( @8Bitz0@discuss.tchncs.de ) 1•4 months ago
Yes, the MX150 is an option for the ThinkPad T480. You can still use the integrated graphics though.
- makingStuffForFun ( @makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml ) 3•4 months ago
I have a gen 6 x1 carbon which I read is similar. Popos runs a dream on it.