I’m looking to mainly use it for school and was wondering if there’s any recommended distros out there for thinkpads.

Its a Lenovo Thinkpad T480.

32 points

ITT: Every distro

permalink
report
reply
5 points

The question is so generic and open ended it’s not a surprise. The only filter on this is “runs well on ThinkPad” and “lightweight”, which are both up to interpretation

permalink
report
parent
reply
30 points

With 8 GB of RAM and 5500 CPU passmark points, that’s a good laptop for Linux Mint. Download their “edge” version of Mint, so you get the latest kernel (so it has more chances of supporting 100% that laptop).

permalink
report
reply
8 points
*

DE is more important than distro in regards to RAM. Ubuntu runs on a pi, it should be good on any computer

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

This @cheezits@lemmy.ca! I run Linux Mint on a T410 with 4 GB of Ram and a 250 GB SSD and the user experience is quite ok for normal day to day usage like playing light games, browsing and HD video streaming.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

T410? Woah! I still mourn the death of my 420 with it’s Dome Light and rugged looks

I hope yours stay on, and on, and on!

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Dude, it’s upgradeable, just put 32Gb in.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

so it has more chances of supporting 100% that laptop

its a thinkpad so i can be very sure it is very well supported whatever you decide to use, as long as it isnt ancient.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

My wife has a T480s on standard 2022 LTS Ubuntu, it is a machine old enough to not need the latest edgy mint ; a friend of mine has had to install it on his 2023 X1 tho.

Standard Mint will do fine. Default DE is boring as hell, be sure to look at others like Gnome. I love Gnome.

Also, using “live” USB keys OP can try several distros and check what they find more attractive in the default state of a distro.

PopOS, Elementary, Fedora, Tumbleweed… So many of them.

I say Tumbleweed is best because of the perfect, seamless integration of BTRFS / Snapshotting / Rollback system. It is truly the best way to dip your feet into Linux and get it back working in a single click when you (inevitably) fuck up.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

There’s nothing that makes it good for mint specifically.

permalink
report
parent
reply
25 points
*

I use Debian stable on mine. I got 16gb of ram but tbh it’s never gone above six in real use, even with a windows vm running.

E: old thinkpad gang input: take the time to reapply thermal grease to the cpu at some point. It makes a huge difference.

permalink
report
reply
5 points

I second Debian. It’s what Ubuntu should be, but can’t be, because Debian is already it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Ubuntu is debian with corporate bs.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points
*

But snaps!

Note: I do still use their systray, but that’s it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

What’s a “gang input”?

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

E: old thinkpad gang input: take the time to reapply thermal grease to the cpu at some point. It makes a huge difference.

What’s a “gang input”?

😂 it’s an input to this discussion from a member of the group of people (“gang”) who have experience with old thinkpads. and yes, if your old thinkpad (or other laptop) is overheating and crashing, reapplying the thermal paste is a good next step after cleaning the fans.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Gang

permalink
report
parent
reply
17 points

Older Thinkpads are very well supported by pretty much everything, so it might be helpful to know more about your experience and what you’ve liked or not liked, and what you intend to run on it.

Linux Mint or Fedora aren’t bad options, Fedora will require a larger version upgrade at least yearly.

permalink
report
reply
13 points

I think what matters most in your case is the desktop environment, not the distro. I would suggest something lightweight and fast such as Xfce with the distribution of your choice. Gnome and KDE tend to use (a lot) more resources than Xfce. I personally use Debian stable with Xfce on all my machines (which includes a Thinkpad x220), but the Xfce default settings are not ideal on Debian so you will need to fiddle with them (it can all be done easily with the GUI, but it isn’t the most user friendly experience at first). If you want something that looks good outside the box that resembles Windows I would suggest Linux Mint Xfce Edition, very straightforward and easy to use with good looking defaults !

permalink
report
reply
5 points

I would agree with this to an extent, but we are still talking i5 with 8-16GB of RAM. Gnome or KDE shouldn’t be an issue here (unless/those devilish Snaps are involved).

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

They came with dual cores or quad cores but yeah basically anything would be fine.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Linux

!linux@lemmy.ml

Create post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

  • Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
  • No misinformation
  • No NSFW content
  • No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Community stats

  • 9.8K

    Monthly active users

  • 5.8K

    Posts

  • 162K

    Comments