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.
Hell yea! Welcome to the Thinkpad Owners Club.
I have a L440, I was not able to find a T440 on a decent status. Solid laptop, enjoy!
Nice choice, Thinkpads are amazing!
HELL yeah! I have an E16 and it plays Factorio and other simple games (plus emulators) so it’s perfect! And of course it’s running Mint. :D
(simple graphically. Factorio is not simple. lol.)
Welcome to the cult :)
“Excuse me, are y’all with the cult?”
“We’re not a cult. We’re an organization that promotes open source”
“Yeah, this is it”
I am home, brother. :)
T480, a gentelman and a scholar
In general, business class laptops out of date are great value. Love my bathtub T440p (replace clunkpad and TN screen, 3 drives baby) and T580 (get the dock if you can).
Right on! I’ve been using a refurbished t14s for years. Which one did you catch?
Edit: nvm, I see it’s a T480. Solid choice!
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.
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.
Can you give an example of a Linux distro that isn’t stable, that you have to “fiddle” with?
Arch
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.
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.
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.
my brother uses arch…by the way.
he tells me to install it. I say “fuck no, thank you”
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. 👍
TempleOS?
Which model? If you mind sharing.
T480
On thinkpads it is in the corner of the screen.
I feel like an old ThinkPad is like a right of passage on Linux. Just about everyone I know who uses Linux has had one at some point or another.
Still got an X201 somewhere. That thing learned me Linux, got me through school and found me a good job at a time when all I had was a backpack and that computer.
Some day I shall switch it on and update it.
Rocking an X260 myself. Picked it up for something like $100 on eBay a few years ago and it just keeps on ticking.
A T440p running Antergos got me through college. I regret selling it since that thing served me well 🫡
I love selling things that have served me well - it feels better knowing that they’re helping someone instead of sitting in a drawer, untouched.
Hell yeah. I somewhat recently bought a refurbished T490 and it’s one of my favorite computers I’ve ever owned.
Same!
I had bought it, installed Debian on it, and had been using it for more than a week before I discovered that it has a touchscreen :-D
Very nice laptop.
fuck yeah
I have an old thinkpad I use as a home server
Enjoy your Linux journey! You’ll be glad to have done it.
Ive actually been using Linux for a few years now, but I needed a laptop so figured this would be a good choice. But I am enjoying Linux very much!
