Thinkpads Forum

I'm about to install an ssd into my recently acquired (used) x61s and i'm pondering on which OS to install.

I'm not a huge fan of windows (it came with vista business) but havent really had a chance to play with win7 yet.

I mostly run macs but not sure if going down the hackintosh route will be worth the effort.

That pretty much leaves me with linux and I have been intrigued by ubuntu's new unity interface that seems to got so much negative press over the past months.

Which OS do you run on your x61/x61s? Do you go for 32bit or 64bit versions?

Cheers

I upgraded my husband's X61s from Vista to W7 Ultimate last year -- he uses it at home and has to run VPN software for the Army on it -- mostly does email, but also is able to send and receive signed documents here at home. He also travels quite a bit, and the X61s travels with him instead of his army-assigned computer. Windows 7 works great for him -- he doesn't want to be bothered with anything -- just wants to turn the machine on and have it work -- he's very happy with W7.

I also have W7 on the X60s I sent to Afghanistan with my middle kid (he didn't want to 'risk' his T60 when he deployed, but he was perfectly happy to take mom's X60s with him -- I upgraded that X60s from XP Pro to W7 Professional -- the son mostly net surfs, youtube/amazon/itunes/facebook, etc. He's happy with the W7 setup.

Youngest son (with Down Syndrome) uses an X61 when we travel -- that machine is also upgraded from XP Pro to W7 Pro, and son mostly does youtube and email -- lots and lots and lots of youtube music --

So each of our X machines are used a little differently, but all run on Windows 7, and each one is running a 128gb SSD with either 3 or 4gb of ram, although each machine can only use 3gb because they are all 32 bit machines. I never have to do anything to the machines as far as upkeep -- they are easy keepers

I run Linux Mint 11 in my X61s using a 64GB SSD. Mint is really easy to use and I like their front end (modded Gnome 2). I have Ubuntu 11.10 in some of my Thinkpads, it runs well but I'm not very excited about Unity. I'm currently trying Ubuntu 11.10 Gnome 3 in my latest Thinkpad. I'm still learning to work with it but I find it so far slightly better than Unity but still prefer Mint.

I'm really looking forward for Linux Mint 12, the final version should be released soon (this month IIRC)

When I had my X60s I dual-booted Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit and Debian. Both ran flawlessly with 3gb of RAM, Windows just taking a little longer to boot. ThinkPads have so many specialty pieces though that I've always found drivers to be a bit of a pain in Linux though...

Atreides wrote:ThinkPads have so many specialty pieces though that I've always found drivers to be a bit of a pain in Linux though...

The X61s is flawlessly supported by Debian stable. You'll need to enable the non-free repository if you have an Intel WLAN card (that requires simply checking a single checkbox) and install a single package to get the firmware (one checkbox, one button.)

I dual boot Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and W7 Home Premium on my X60t. 32 bit, of course, but W7 runs much smoother than Vista at times, on a non-cutting edge processor. The X61t has a better CPU, but I can't think of a single Vista feature that's not present in 7. No hardware problems in Ubuntu except the tablet buttons, which I've been too lazy to try and setup.

If you plan on packing it full of RAM, 64-bit OS is a necessity of course. The only downside I've found with a 64-bit OS (Assuming you've never used one) is that the two program file directories sometimes cause errors with programs. For those who haven't encountered it, 64-bit Windows creates the usual Program Files folder for 64-bit apps, plus a Program Files (x86) directory for apps not designed for a 64-bit systems. Sometimes 32 bit apps will try and access or save files within their own directory, which will fail because the program doesn't exist in the usual Program Files directory. This is rare though, and can be worked around fairly easily.

thanks for all the replies!

I went for ubuntu 11.10 x64 in the end and so far i'm impressed with how it performs. Boots in a few seconds, battery life seems consistent with vista and I don't mind the unity interface at all (although in the back of mind, i'm still pondering hackintosh...)

cheers