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The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

dev-eloper.com

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Re: The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

#4
> Other tools, such as MySQL, node, git, etc. have no issue when running under emulation, at least in the context of development

I'm surprised the author is using these under emulation. Surely they'd run at completely native performance if you just rub the through WSL2? Linux distributions have had ARM based distributions for ages.

Re: The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

#5
I'd be much more interested in the Linux situation on this laptop. Most of the UI applications I use casually or CLI apps are available on ARM (I have them running fine on a Pinephone, so the experience on a laptop will only be better).

But not sure how the dev workflow would be: Podman, IntelliJ, Sublime Text, etc.. And some casual stuff like Calibre, Thunderbird, Joplin.

Oh and how much would the battery life improvement be. I already get 4~5+ hours on my 5 year old Thinkpad, so an improvement to 6 hours is not really worth it.

How is the BIOS and openness on these systems? I always heard the arm laptops are way more locked down than the x86 ones.

Re: The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

#6

Will these things boot to Linux?

Linux 6.0 and higher supposedly support the device. The system boots using EFI so as long as you can get a compatible kernel and the right firmware, it should work.

Based on this: https://blog.rymcg.tech/blog/linux/thinkpad-x13s/ GPU support seems to have issues, which is a shame. That was written a few months ago, though.

Re: The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

#7
I can't wait for proper high end ARM laptops with Microsoft's backing and support.

I'm like the author, I consider the M MacBooks very impressive but I dislike the OS itself.

And it was very unexpected that Chrome underperform so much, without it it's a complete deal breaker for me.

Re: The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

#8
post #4

> Other tools, such as MySQL, node, git, etc. have no issue when running under emulation, at least in the context of development I'm surprised the author is using these under emulation. Surely they'd run at completely native performance if you just rub the through WSL2? Linux distributions have had ARM based distributions for ages.

It may be because he couldn't get IntelliJ to work native in a way that let him access WSL, ("It also wasn't able to access WSL, meaning I was locked out of using Linux tooling all together.") So that tooling was awkward.

If he was stuck using windows, maybe best bet would have been to run an X server and run IntelliJ etc inside WSL itself.

Re: The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

#9
post #7

I can't wait for proper high end ARM laptops with Microsoft's backing and support. I'm like the author, I consider the M MacBooks very impressive but I dislike the OS itself. And it was very unexpected that Chrome underperform so much, without it it's a complete deal breaker for me.

Why? Chrome is such a terrible browser to begin with. How is it a deal breaker?

Re: The ARM powered ThinkPad x13s, as a developer

#10
post #6

Will these things boot to Linux?

Linux 6.0 and higher supposedly support the device. The system boots using EFI so as long as you can get a compatible kernel and the right firmware, it should work. Based on this: https://blog.rymcg.tech/blog/linux/thinkpad-x13s/ GPU support seems to have issues, which is a shame. That was written a few months ago, though.

Yeah, tough. I will wait to see if somebody more explicitly Linux-friendly makes a good workstation class ARM (or better, RISC-V even) laptop, because I've had nothing but problems with my Thinkpad Z13 Gen 1 Radeon/Ryzen and Lenovo is in my bad books.

I had a M2 MBP issued for work by my previous job and it really was excellent; performance and battery life. But I'd have a hard time giving up Linux, and I'd worry about installation of Linux on hardware like that always being second-class.

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