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One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

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Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#81

Post by mustardo »

x87678r wrote: post #71

I was looking at larger laptops to run Linux but they aren't cheap so MBP doesn't look such bad value. I want 15in screen with higher than 1080 resolution, 16GB memory, good battery life and there really isn't much less than $1500 from the main brands that will run Linux well. Any suggestions? Otherwise the MBP16 looks not such bad value as I know it'll be reliable.

Something from https://system76.com/ maybe? Ive never had one, anecdote but the two people i know who got the 16" MBP have had to return them with hardware issues, at least apples support is pretty good. Im hanging on to my 2015MBP for dear life, has great connectivity and reliability, id like the new 16" as it is nice but am waiting for a hardware itteration, suppose by then there might be something arm based released?

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#82

Post by catdog »

jeffbee wrote: post #34
lmilcin wrote: post #3

I am also running Linux on Thinkpad (Debian unstable on T440s). As to the battery life, this typically requires some work but I found it is generally possible to get good battery life. I am able to get my T440s to run for total 24 hours with the highest option 9-cell, the built in 3-cell and another 3-cell that came original with the laptop. This I did to be able to work on a long yacht cruise with no extra power and…

I find that I can tune the battery life on a ThinkPad to be pretty amazing, but it is hard to get my change to stick after a reboot or even a suspend/wake cycle. One of the things that seems to make a big impact is PCIe ASPM. But where do you change your config files so it's always on? At least on Ubuntu there are numerous config files that formerly controlled power management settings, are still referenced in Stack…

> Used to be able to just drop commands into rc.local but now it's not as simple.

Why not? Also you can try https://linrunner.de/tlp/

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#83

Post by fsflover »

diminish wrote: post #57

What are the cons of mac? for me: - Sluggish UI - Inadequate package manager - Unintuitive ways to install stuff - Slow and large updates - Can't do Linux development - Can't try server tools - Slow boot-to-work time - Hard to add memory and ram - Limited interfaces - Hacker unfriendly - Can't have a minimal desktop - High memory usage of base system

> - Hard to add memory and ram

In fact, impossible for a long time already.

Upd: I mean laptops; not true for other products.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#84

Post by distances »

z9e wrote: post #64

I'm actually considering either going with the T480p or an Asus for my next work laptop (from a 2018 MBP) with Linux on it. I have a T470p though that has a broken motherboard right after the warranty expired. When picking it up to move it around, it shorts out and restarts, apparently this is a known issue with the 470's. But I really fear Lenovo's reliability these days. Has anyone else had reliability problems wit…

Lenovo has an updated ThinkPad line, T14, that has also AMD 4000 series as an option. I would definitely check that out, as AMD is running circles around Intel CPUs especially on laptops where the power consumption is more limited.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#85

Post by time0ut »

Personally, it has been really hard to justify the Apple premium the past few years. My company upgraded us to touchbar MBPs a few years ago. I am thankful as it helped me avoid the mistake of buying my own.

Instead, I went Thinkpad+Linux(Lubuntu) for an iteration. Excellent machine as the article details. I was very happy with it for a couple years.

I wanted something with a beefier GPU though, so most recently went to Asus+W10Pro+WSL2. I was skeptical at first, having been off Windows for a decade, but it is pretty decent. There are some minor annoyances, but not enough to push me back to full Linux yet.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#86

Post by wilsonnb3 »

tluyben2 wrote: post #24
bogwog wrote: post #19

I love Thinkpads and I love Linux. My current "daily driver" laptop is an old X220T from 2011, which is a tablet hybrid (including touchscreen and Wacom pen/digitizer). I don't use it because of nostalgia or a love for retro computers, I use it because it's still an excellent experience all these years later. No modern laptop in the current price range can beat it. I don't know if that's because the build quality was…

X220 here; they are great. Battery life, performance (for what I do) etc are lovely almost 11 years after production.

They have bad screens compared to modern laptops, even the higher end IPS ones.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#87

Post by FoomFries »

diminish wrote: post #57

What are the cons of mac? for me: - Sluggish UI - Inadequate package manager - Unintuitive ways to install stuff - Slow and large updates - Can't do Linux development - Can't try server tools - Slow boot-to-work time - Hard to add memory and ram - Limited interfaces - Hacker unfriendly - Can't have a minimal desktop - High memory usage of base system

I'm curious how you arrived at some of these conclusions.

- Sluggish UI -> I've never experienced this in the last three years of using my 2017 MBP.

- Inadequate package manager -> Somewhat nebulous, most package managers on Linux are available on Unix.

- Slow and large updates -> I honestly don't pay much attention as I have updates install automatically while I'm sleeping, but what size differences have you noticed?

- Slow boot to work -> Never experienced this, boot is less than a minute regularly.

- Can't have a minimal desktop -> Beyond hiding all icons and the dock, what more are you looking for?

- High memory usage of base system -> Never seen this come close to the main applications I use on a daily basis. What quantified results are you receiving to notice this?

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#88

Post by greatgib »

Most of this blog post looks like to be a standard user personal experience report.

Most items make sense in this context I think, but there is one point that surprised me:

>

Wtf! In my opinion, that it worths mentioning that, shows at what point Apple marketing brain fucked the Apple device users...

You buy a 2k$ computer, with dozens of high speed CPUs, for what? Putting stupid smileys everywhere? And in addition, this is more an application specific issue than a system one. Where do you use them? Emails, professional word documents?

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#89

Post by m4rtink »

squarefoot wrote: post #63
lmilcin wrote: post #3

I am also running Linux on Thinkpad (Debian unstable on T440s). As to the battery life, this typically requires some work but I found it is generally possible to get good battery life. I am able to get my T440s to run for total 24 hours with the highest option 9-cell, the built in 3-cell and another 3-cell that came original with the laptop. This I did to be able to work on a long yacht cruise with no extra power and…

> The entire touchpad is a button and you need to press it and try to move your finger while pressing HARD to drag things, for example. Same here (X240) but it still has left and right buttons, although not shown. To drag things around, just keep pressed the lower left side of the pad (near the user's belly not the spacebar) then gently move the right finger around the pad. It works the same for selecting text.

The x4x series has a flawed click pad design that travels too far down, avoid it like plague. The series before and after are thanfully fine.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#90

Post by se32point1 »

k__ wrote: post #45

Half-OT: I'm using a MBP13"(2013) for years now and really like it, but it's not upgradable and it's getting cumbersome to do some more intesive things with it. Would you recommend buying a new MBP or getting a laptop?

> Would you recommend buying a new MBP or getting a laptop?

A MacBook is a laptop, yes? What classifies a MacBook as not being a laptop? In terms of form factor, they are the same. There's nothing special. In fact, MacBooks can run Windows or Linux just like regular "laptops."

As for a recommendation, I don't see why Macs are necessary. USB-C is a huge frustration to deal with (and this includes non-Macs, such as my XPS 13). I'd personally recommend a ThinkPad (which I've decided is going to be my next laptop), but I've never had the opportunity to use one that much. It's just that the keyboard seems much better and it has more options, and I really like the build quality.

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