Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I am planning to install Linux on my new W530.

I am currently a debian squeeze user.. so i ask :

What is the HW compatibility of my lappy with Debian Squeeze...? ( webcam, microphone, wifi card, ethernet card, GPU ( integrated vs Discrete ) )

Can somoeone advise me of a Distro which van be installed with the minimum hassle in this laptop... ? I am considering an LTS distro... ( like Debian, or slackware )

What would be the best distro for this laptop...? Can Debian squeeze be installed in it...?

My advice for this question is always the same - you'll never know until you try it.
Debian is one of the best Linux distros around (though I never had it on my T61) and it supports variety of hardware, and I don't think you will have problems with yours. I see you are .deb fan, so you can try Kubuntu (12.04 is the current release and it's supported till 2017). I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu with the new crappy Unity interface, but it's your choice afterall
goodluck

This is good advice, but in the vein of the first part of the comment, I'd give Ubuntu 12.04 a try and see what you think of Unity interface. There are lots of folks that dislike it, and lots of folks that like it. I was concerned about upgrading to it and, fortunately, I missed 11.04 in the process. 11.10 was OK and 12.04 is better. So it's a good time to give it a look again if you haven't since 11.04.

At risk of thread necromancy, you don't need to use Unity if you run Ubuntu. There are MANY Linux desktop environments, so sample a variety.

I dumped Ubuntu for CentOS, but if Ubuntu floats your boat you can install KDE, LXDE, etc, etc easily then choose between them as you like.

If you want "stable" but with more driver support than Debian, CentOS/Fedora/Scientific Linux are all good choices.

I would recommend Fedora 17 with the KDE desktop. Installation is about as straight forward as it gets, and it works very well with most hardware. It is a popular distro, so it is well documented. It also comes with GNOME, LXDE and Xfce, but your laptop should easily run KDE.

Since you use Squeeze, Wheezy is very stable. I have it on several machines. You probably know the deal with Linux, use what you like. There are lots of choices available for you.