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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)

#351

Post by wyclif »

boogies wrote: post #331
jessaustin wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lenovo talk a good game, but I have thus far been unable to find a linux laptop available for purchase on the lenovo site.

I don’t think they ship anything with it preinstalled right now (unlike each of the other companies I and the parent mentioned). But they’ve had a reputation of generally good Linux support for a while now, and it’s seems they’ve just now decided to make it official, and there’s plenty of hope for preinstalled GNU/Linux in the future.

I'm hearing they will ship the P53 and a few other models with Fedora Workstation 32 by the end of the year: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2020/08/10/lenov...

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

#352

Post by cma »

striking wrote: post #319
cma wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience: External displays of variable DPI unusable without a paid app like switchresx. Suspend always drains the battery if using any kind of usb or microscope drive. Endless hacks to finally get it to fully hibernate when closing the lid. Updates break it over time and a new way has to be figured out. x86 support suddenly thrown away in new updates, decimating game libraries. Out of date OpenGL and heavy push…

> External displays of variable DPI unusable without a paid app like switchresx. Hold Option and click the Scaled radio button again. You'll see a list of options. Yes, I realize that's silly.

Even those weren't enough for what I needed. I think it was getting around 1440p sizes at high dpi by downscaling (2880p -> 4K).

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

#354

Post by shlant »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #105
zdragnar wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am glad that you like your macbook, but your experience has been very different from mine. It has the worst WIFI radio in a laptop that i have used; one area of my house is basically off-limits to it despite every other Wi-Fi enabled device i own working there (phones and several laptop brands). The fancy metal case isnt properly grounded- I get occasionally a slight tingling /shock from it when I have it plugged i…

I’ve experienced the grounding thing, but almost always only in houses with dodgy wiring. It never happens in office buildings or newer apartments. I’m not sure that is actually the MacBook’s doing.

yea I mostly only get that in places like Thailand where older houses do not have a grounded plug

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

#356

Post by bigpeopleareold »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #86
tluyben2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I put an IPS display into my x220. Still lower resolution, but I get away with it with a lot of tweaking. I have laptops with better screens but I usually use my x220 instead. I'd just say: YMMV :)

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

#357

Post by rogual »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #298
zdragnar wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually only notice it about 5% of the time I use it, and it is almost always plugged in at the same outlet, with the same charger (in this case, the two prong adapter). I seem to recall having tested all of the outlets in the house with an outlet tester, but it was two years ago so I'm not 100% sure.

Here in Europe the clip on plugs (duckheads) are not grounded. The extension cord you get with the MacBook too, is. So use that. Not sure about US. But I think it's the same as the duckheads are only 2-prong iirc so they can't possibly be grounded.

They don't even include the extension cord anymore.

I don't know why Apple thinks it's okay for my computer to run a current through my body. I would love to know what happened at Apple that caused this situation. It's just patently insane.

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

#358

Post by tluyben2 »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #86
tluyben2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep, but I value other qualities more (unbreakable, pretty water resistant, long battery life, many ports, easy to swap hds/memory, cheap).

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

#359

Post by cl3misch »

zdragnar wrote: post #102
alexktz wrote: post #61

I recently purchased a 16” MBP despite significant personal concerns over the future of MacOS, being a strong open source advocate and Linux paying my mortgage. I did this ultimately for a few reasons. MacOS lets me run Adobe (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc), Fusion360, has a good terminal (iTerm and zsh unix like shell) and Logic. Mac hardware is still some of the best in the business, no other vendors seem to be able to…

I am glad that you like your macbook, but your experience has been very different from mine. It has the worst WIFI radio in a laptop that i have used; one area of my house is basically off-limits to it despite every other Wi-Fi enabled device i own working there (phones and several laptop brands). The fancy metal case isnt properly grounded- I get occasionally a slight tingling /shock from it when I have it plugged i…

> The fancy metal case isnt properly grounded- I get occasionally a slight tingling /shock from it when I have it plugged in.

There have been other comments about this, but to make it clear: It's the charger that's not grounded. You will see this effect with every other laptop / charger on the market which has no ground connection in the wall socket. It comes from y capacitors [1] in the switch-mode-power-supply.

[1] http://www.vicorpower.com/resource-library/articles/back-to-...

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

#360

Post by loxs »

jamesponddotco wrote: post #339
loxs wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently I run the cheapest ThinkPad T495 (AMD hardware) on Arch Linux (but maxed the RAM on my own). Everything works great, except it doesn't remember the screen brightness level after a reboot, which is not a big deal at all for me - I don't reboot very often.

I have a Psomething (the one with Xeon) from work and a T480 for personal stuff, but as I have been getting rid of Intel in my life, the T480 will be the first to go. How is the T495 with kernel 5.8? How does the GPU handle day to day life, and video acceleration? And more importantly, does the T495 have soldered RAM? The awesome thing about the T480 is how I could upgrade a bunch of things, from Wi-Fi card, to RAM,…

As I said, everything works, except for remembering the screen brightness level.

It has 8GB soldered and you can put additional 16GB on the second slot. For me this is good enough.

Hardware video acceleration works out-of-the box with kernel 5.8.

I am not sure if the nvme slot is soldered, but as far as I remember, it's not. It has an additional slot for a standard 2.5 inch drive which you can use to increase capacity.

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