And of course I’m installing Linux on it. Install went well, even the fingerprint sensor built in to the laptop works.

Mostly this will be a school and DND machine but always nice to have a functional laptop for whatever else I may need it for.

  • dubs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 hours ago

    Thinkpads are awesome. They aren’t as good as they used to be, but they still work great for linux.

    Why mint?

    I use mint as my “TV room” OS. It’s worked pretty well so far.

    • Bluefruit@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 hours ago

      Mostly for compatibility and ease of use. I don’t wanna fiddle with things if I don’t have to. Wanted it to be stable. Ive also been thinking about switching to mint on my main machine so this is also kind of a test run. I tried mint years ago but it didn’t work well for me back then.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Can you give an example of a Linux distro that isn’t stable, that you have to “fiddle” with?

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            41 minutes ago

            I’ve ranted at length many times on Lemmy about how Arch is very stable and doesn’t need fiddling. You can check my comment history, I’m not feeling like repeating myself right now. 💀 Arch not being “stable” is a myth.

            • T4V0@lemmy.world
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              15 minutes ago

              There seems to be a misunderstanding in the definition of “stable” for distros. Arch is solid, it’ll rarely break, when it breaks it’ll be mostly due to the users own interest in fiddling with the system in the first place. But Arch follows the rolling-release model, with incremental updates which may require manual intervention — again, happens on very rare occasions — it differs from the stable release model, where distros like Debian have small changes, more guided towards security rather than having the newest software.

              So by definition I wouldn’t say Arch is stable, even if it’s not the common usage, it’s best to describe that it requires system management and maintenance, but it’s not brittle, unlike Windows.

              • Victor@lemmy.world
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                3 minutes ago

                it’s best to describe that it requires system management and maintenance

                This is also a myth, on both counts. This is assuming you always install every single update to all packages as soon as it’s released, and have to do so just because there’s a new version. That’s not how Arch operates. You are in charge of initiating an upgrade. It’s a manual command that you run, right.

                If you upgrade often, you’re more likely to run into buggy releases. Just upgrade less often and reduce your likelihood of installing buggy latest releases. Just like Debian and other such distros do. You’re in charge on Arch.

                This is only one way of mitigating risk that you can do, but I do concede that Arch does not take every precaution that other distros do to ensure that broken packages are not released. They do however follow up with news posts if there’s an issue, with info about what to do. This is an awesome thing.

                But still, I haven’t had an issue in over a decade, upgrading packages probably once a week or so.

                There’s no “maintenance” other than what you create for yourself. This Arch = “maintenance” (whatever that entails in everyone’s mind) nonsense has got to be put to bed.

          • gilokee@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            my brother uses arch…by the way.

            he tells me to install it. I say “fuck no, thank you”

            • Victor@lemmy.world
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              40 minutes ago

              It won’t bite you. I’ve been using it professionally and privately for over a decade without issues. If it sounds interesting to you, try it out. It’s very mature. 👍