this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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ofc I imediatly upgraded it from winxp to gnu/linux

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[–] Takeshidude 27 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I'm new to Linux; what's with the ThinkPad hype?

[–] [email protected] 70 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They generally have really great linux support for all of their hardware (touchpads, fingerprint readers, etc.), and provide bios updates via fwdup. They are also just nice laptops.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Lenovo

[–] AndrewZabar 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah back when it was IBM before they sold off to Lenovo. Back when their biggest selling point was their priority was keeping you up & running and getting work done. Nowadays nearly all the products are made with the priority “So, how do we design this so the user will have to pay for it multiple times?”

[–] suction 1 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (2 children)

They're reliable, good quality, have amazing keyboards, and work well with Linux (some even support Libreboot).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Years after using one for work, I still cannot get used to having Ctrl not being the leftmost key.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I personally prefer the Thinkpad keyboard

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I could get used to it just for control, but pressing ctrl-shift without fn is very awkward, especially since it’s a shortcut I have to use a lot. And then there’s the fact that I unlearn it everyday with my keyboard at home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's a setting in the BIOS to switch these over. You may be able to jump in and do it yourself if the work laptop isn't too locked down

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Oh I didn’t know that. But yeah I don’t have BIOS access, even if it was a registry key I couldn’t do it. It’s fine though, for now I always plug in another mouse/keyboard/monitor and forget that laptop exists.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

I've owned/used HPs, Dells, and several Thnkpads and the thinkpads by far are always the best machines. They are built to last, support is top notch.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

It's a hype for very old, repairable laptops. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, if you want a repairable laptop go for a Framework

[–] bi_tux 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

you can't get a framework for 20€ on ebay tho + old thinkpads (older laptops in general) are just way robuster and have better build quality in general

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Old laptops are pure suffering. I'd much rather pay the price for a more recent one

[–] BeatTakeshi 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

If you can afford and you want, the only argument I can put forward is less ewaste if you give a second life to the many very decent professional thinkpads that are retired every year. My employer is now going for a 5 year renewal cycle, used to be 3 for a long time. Unfortunately I couldn't even buy back mine when it expired because it is a lease subcontract. It had an i5 7th gen and 32gb ram, was buttery smooth even running windows and I dreamt of running Linux on these.

[–] bi_tux 4 points 3 months ago

I wouldn't say that, maybe in the case of the x31 or similarly really old laptops, however newer old laptops like the t60p or t500 aren't that bad and can still handle every office and internet related workload just fine

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Depends on what you call 'old' and what your use case is. My T495 was less than 300€ and it does everything I need from a laptop easily. Bigger drive would be nice, but once the summer is over I rarely need to pull 4K video from sd-cards in temporary storage, so I doubt I'll bother to upgrade it any time soon.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

ThinkPads are business machines and those are extremely repairable compared to consumer machines. Even my shitty Dell precision has instructions on how to disassemble it etched onto the mainboard. And since business laptops get dumped after a few years of relatively light use (many are de facto stationary), you can get pretty good machines for very cheap.

ThinkPads are just very popular, because they are consistently pretty good and don't stand in your way softwarewise, which isn't always true for Dell or HP machines.

[–] AndrewZabar 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Dell Latitudes were top. I had numerous.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I had 4 Dells in the last 4 years. Two different models, each one required one RMA, and both are absolute garbage. Granted, they're workstations and not ultrabooks, but those things need thrust reversers so the fans don't blow them off the desk, they run extremely hot and have countless stupid bugs. For example USB devices sometimes not working after suspension. Or randomly turning on and getting hot for no reason.

And these fuckers have more coil whine than anything I've ever experienced.

My old ThinkPad (which had almost the same components as the first Dell) didn't have any of these problems.

I don't like Dell.

[–] AndrewZabar 1 points 3 months ago

Oh yeah I would not buy a Dell anymore. I haven’t since many years ago when they fucked over a client of mine and basically lost me about $100,000. They were absolutely 100% in the wrong. They sent a technician who was a moron and maybe could not read English because one drive needed replacement it was labeled all others were labeled ok working and don’t replace. So of course he replaced one of those and destroyed a RAID array.

I haven’t bought 1¢ worth of Dell merchandise since that day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I don't have over 1k to drop on a laptop, I spent $150 on a T440p, it does web browsing and other basic tasks very well.