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Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#171

Post by cturner »

ynniv wrote: post #163
_lbaq wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learn to use the trackpoint instead and disable the touchpad.

The method of interaction is so different it would be nicer to advise people to not use a pointing device at all. I've always wanted to like them, but the track point is a poor man's trackball, and where do you see a trackball these days?

One of the attractions of the trackpoint is that you don't have to move your fingers from the keyboard. Hence, people who are keyboard-centric get pointer access without the usual tradeoff. A dev running a tiling window manager can still have full use of their web browser.

Expect it would be messy to work with for photoshop. For example, it recalibrates if you hold it down too long, and then creeps away when you release it.

Idea for precision work: small trackball and scrollers built into the side of the laptop (like a port).

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#172

Post by karussell »

vegardx wrote: post #151

It would be so much easier to love my Thinkpad T460s if it wasn't for the touchpad. Coming to Thinkpad and Linux after many years as a Mac-user this was almost a deal breaker for me. The palm detection in synaptic driver is laughable. People installing Linux on the new Macbook Pros are going to have a blast with that gigantic touchpad. And I don't even think it's just a driver problem, as the touchpad can register a…

Thanks for pointing me to the correct wording 'palm detection'. Investigating this I found it was completely disabled and now when using it it seems to improve the situation, but will test further.

I'm wondering why this touch pad issue is so important for you if you do development. When I'm not mobile I have a mouse, an external keyboard, headset or external sound system, external monitor etc

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#173

Post by JoshTriplett »

rifung wrote: post #168
JoshTriplett wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current X1 Carbon has an excellent trackpad, to the point that I actually consider the trackpad a usable alternative to the stick.

Palm detection is pretty terrible still though (on Linux at least). Tap to click is unusable for me for this reason.

libinput has much better palm detection than synaptics.

Personally, I haven't had tap to click enabled for a long time, since I have physical mouse buttons available.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#174

Post by nonsince »

Currently writing this from Arch Linux on the ThinkPad T450s (I think it's the version directly before the one in this article). Cannot recommend it enough, easily the best laptop keyboard I've ever used and the touchpad feels nice under my fingers. Not as nice to the touch as the mac's one, but it's the closest I've seen and on the bright side it's the perfect size to not get in the way (as opposed to Apple's massive parking lot at the bottom of the laptop) and it has regular buttons as well as supporting pushing on the trackpad itself, so overall I'd say it's a toss-up there. The main problem I have is that pgup/pgdown are right next to the arrow keys, which makes them extremely easy to hit by accident. Luckily, I don't use them often.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#175

Post by kayoone »

herbst wrote: post #143
kayoone wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The T420 is a 5 year old machine, i highly doubt it can have the same battery life as a modern Haswell/Broadwell/Skylake chip.

Well i am sure more modern chip sets are better overall. But its still better with my 3 cell than i had on a brand new 2015 MBP.

Sorry, but then you did something wrong. Since Haswell they are not only better overall but also much more energy efficient. The Macbooks went from 5-6hours to 10 in that generation.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#176

Post by willtim »

kogepathic wrote: post #34
2bluesc wrote: post #12

I've owned Thinkpads in the past and almost bought the T460 last month, then I discovered the Dell XPS / Precision line and fell in love. I picked up a manufacturer refurbished XPS 15 on eBay and wound up swapping in a Dell Precision E3-1505M motherboard I stumbled across. The line has Intel quad core CPUs, minimal bezel (my 15" is almost the same size as the 14" System 76 Galago Ultra Pro it's replacing), reasonably…

> Xeon E3-1505M machine Except they don't ship with ECC memory. > 32GB, DDR4-2133MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS, Non-ECC [0] So what's the point of having a Xeon? The Core i7 options offered for the laptop support all the same processor features [1], except ECC memory [2], which Dell isn't even shipping. [0] http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m5510-workstatio... [1] http://ark.intel.com/products/88970/Intel-Core-i7-6820…

I upvoted you. I agree that shipping non-ECC ram with a Xeon is at best unconventional.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#177

Post by virtualwhys »

kayoone wrote: post #136
meddlepal wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to have a Dell Precision M4800 and honestly you don't buy them for battery life. They're desktop workstation replacements that you haul off to meetings occasionally. I got about 2-3 hours of battery time on that thing when running usual work-related workloads on it... (IDE, VM's etc.). I don't remember the noise, but I'm not very sensitive to noisy laptops so I may have never noticed. I miss that laptop. The b…

The new Precisions are a lot less Desktop workstation replacements and more power efficient. I wonder if they still offer the same kind of performance though.

> I wonder if they still offer the same kind of performance though

Base clock speed is down a tick (2.7ghz vs. 2.8ghz) compared to previous generation Intel chips in the M4700/M4800 line vs. the new Precision 5510. Same 8M cpu cache; presumably newer intel chips are more efficient and make up for performance difference elsewhere (e.g. less heat = less cpu throttling during intensive tasks).

Sitting on the fence here, waiting to see if Intel's next line of mobile CPUs bring significant performance improvements. Current setup (M4700, i7 extreme, 2 X SSD, 32GB) is awesome modulo the battery life, which is about 2 hours for minimal workloads.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#178

Post by TheCowboy »

I bought a used W520, as it was one of the last Thinkpads with full/normal keyboard. I just can't get work down as quickly using modern island-style keyboards. I recommend it especially if you are still using an older Thinkpad.

It's fast, supports up to 32gb of memory, 3 hard drives (regular, micro SATA, ultrabay), and has a good video card.

I also find the touchpad with its mouse thumb buttons to be easier on my wrists than the trackpoint or other laptop trackpads.

As a W (workstation) version it is heavy and requires a heavier charger. The T520 could solve this problem and also be a cheaper option.

Hopefully Lenovo's "Retro Thinkpad" project is brought to reality.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#179

Post by dorfsmay »

2bluesc wrote: post #12

I've owned Thinkpads in the past and almost bought the T460 last month, then I discovered the Dell XPS / Precision line and fell in love. I picked up a manufacturer refurbished XPS 15 on eBay and wound up swapping in a Dell Precision E3-1505M motherboard I stumbled across. The line has Intel quad core CPUs, minimal bezel (my 15" is almost the same size as the 14" System 76 Galago Ultra Pro it's replacing), reasonably…

A lot of people who buy Thikpads, myself included, are doing so mainly for the track point, which the XPS doesn't have.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad T460 – A Good Linux Laptop for Development

#180

Post by tonyplee »

karussell wrote: post #52
sandGorgon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 on this. And for people planning to buy an XPS, just wait for a month. new models of XPS are being announced at CES. https://mspoweruser.com/dells-new-convertible-xps-13-leaks-a... The convertible, bezel-less XPS convertible = macbook pro + ipad pro

Actually convertible is a disadvantage for me. Why would I need this?

I got cheap HP envy 360 ($699) with convertible design.

Love that feature - use it a few times.

Great to convert it as huge 15 inch, 1080p, 16GB RAM tablet and browse the web/amazon with a few people together. 16GB makes is much better browser experience than ipad and most of the android. The con is that it does weight a lot more than regular tablet.

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