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Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

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Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#11

Post by ktpsns »

hactually wrote: post #2

Is there any in-depth dive into how well it runs Linux? I'm considering jumping off of MacOS with Mojave so something I can run fedora on comfortably with good battery life/stability would be great

I run a 1st gen Thinkpad Yoga X1 (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, had a 2kEUR price tag in 2016). Linux runs nicely, even with the digitizer. The single frustrating thing is that on Linux, the Intel Sky Lake graphics chip can only control a single external drive (HDMI / Mini-DP or VGA via a Thinkpad docking adapter). In contrast, on Windows the notebook can control three external displays in parallel :-(

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#12

Post by ktpsns »

I bought a Thinkpad Yoga X1 in 2016 and would buy a successor like the proposed one anytime again. It is really very lightweight and as I mainly do science/devops/programming on that machine, I enjoy the silence despite having access to a powerfull machine. The fans only start at load. Even the display improved compared to older Lenovo machines.

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#13

Post by totallyashill »

ankka wrote: post #7

This seems to be better than the current Macbook Pros on almost every level - specs, ports, weight. Only the screen is worse. Too bad nVidia graphics aren't supported on macOS - otherwise would have been the Macbook of many dreams. E: looks like I had missed the latest Macbook update; the specs are not that different.

NVIDIA does publish a graphics driver stack for macOS, it's not as great as the Radeon stack, but still performs admirably.

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#14

Post by princekolt »

The only thing I dislike about this machine is the screen options. FHD is too low, and 4k is too high density for a 15" notebook. MacBooks have had a ~2k display for ages and it works great in my opinion. (Also, I don't want a touch screen display.)

Oh that and the repeated fiascos of Lenovo embedding spyware in their devices: https://thehackernews.com/2015/09/lenovo-laptop-virus.html

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#15

Post by 829128321 »

princekolt wrote: post #14

The only thing I dislike about this machine is the screen options. FHD is too low, and 4k is too high density for a 15" notebook. MacBooks have had a ~2k display for ages and it works great in my opinion. (Also, I don't want a touch screen display.) Oh that and the repeated fiascos of Lenovo embedding spyware in their devices: https://thehackernews.com/2015/09/lenovo-laptop-virus.html

Recently tried to order directly through the website, since retailers only offer FHD but no 2K screens.

Education store didn't proceed after checkout, with a 1$ reservation on my visa account. Lenovo's solution via e-mail: just buy at normal price without education discount :-)

[not US, not X1. just mocking about the customer experience]

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#16

Post by drakenot »

jcrben wrote: post #9
drakenot wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak to the X1 Extreme but I use the X1 Carbon 6th Generation and it runs Linux great. Initially, there was an issue with S3 sleep but Lenovo addressed that with a firmware update. Lenovo also recently joined the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS). It is now extremely easy to update firmware in Linux by executing the fwupd command. The one remaining issue is some thermal throttling threshold issue. I've in…

How's the touchpad and trackpoint experience? Are you using libinput?

I'm using libinput. It seems fine to me. No trackpad has come close to my MBP trackpad. However, this one is fine for my purposes. I will say that I'm not a heavy trackpad user though. I use a tiling window manager and use vimium to scroll in Chromium.

The only modifications I made to the stock configuration was to enable the following flags in my Xorg config:

  Option "DisableWhileTyping" "0"
  Option "Tapping" 1
  Option "TappingDrag" 0
Enabling tapping makes it match my preferred tapping behavior I had on my MBP. I disabled TappingDrag to prevent spurious drag events. The first flag was to let me use the trackpad while typing so I could do some light gaming using the trackpad.

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#17

Post by noch »

Latteland wrote: post #6

Why don't more hardware vendors see Linux as important? I know the first answer is they sell more windows laptops but we devs are willing to pay for high-end specs that normal people don't need, and aren't those more profitable? Maybe the relative numbers are just so much smaller for Linux it just doesn't matter.

Because Linux on the destkop is a usability nightmare and basically unusable for the average user. The Linux destkop platform is a mess. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18113338

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#18

Post by rincebrain »

ohazi wrote: post #8
fulafel wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nVidia automatically means hassle w current gen laptop hardware.

WTF, no it doesn't. Nvidia releases Linux drivers and updates regularly now, they get pulled into all the major distro repositories, and they generally work well. If you're doing any sort of gpu accelerated machine learning, you're basically expected to use Ubuntu with Nvidia hardware and drivers.

I think the assertion was that having an iGPU and a dGPU in a Linux laptop means problems, not that NVIDIA parts alone do.

Re: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

#19

Post by fulafel »

ohazi wrote: post #8
fulafel wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nVidia automatically means hassle w current gen laptop hardware.

WTF, no it doesn't. Nvidia releases Linux drivers and updates regularly now, they get pulled into all the major distro repositories, and they generally work well. If you're doing any sort of gpu accelerated machine learning, you're basically expected to use Ubuntu with Nvidia hardware and drivers.

Maybe the folks over at https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1032482/linux/optim... could use your advice :)
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