Your favorite Linux distro on a Thinkpad? Why?

[XE1UFO]

Hello again, friends.

I have been using Linux a long time, ever since Mandriva 6 in the last century. After that, Mandriva 7 and 8, then Redhat 8.0, and finally the jump to Ubuntu, up until the infamous Unity desktop, when I switched over to Linux Mint.

I now have Linux Mint 17.2 on this T430, and find that everything pretty much works.

I am curious what other flavors of Linux are being used on ThinkPads, and what advantages you might find in one over another.

Thanks in advance!

Steve

[600X]

My personal favourite is Ubuntu because it is the only distro where I can usually get everything to work and make it run reliably. Also, I really love Unity.

I used Mint as well on some occasions, and while there are some things to like about it, I always end up switching back to Ubuntu.

I was planning to look further into Manjaro, but I haven't had the time to do so yet.

[Dekks]

Anything with a C2D or better will handle a distro with a heavy compositor like Ubuntu, fedora 23 or Linux Mint Cinnamon.

Anything older up till a x20/T20 should take a modern distro with a lightweight DE such as Openbox although browsing will be slower and playing flash pretty much a no-go.

Any older and your looking at specialist distros such as puppy or DSL.

[axur-delmeria]

I've stayed with Debian since Etch. Jumping distros results in complications like having to relearn things like the package manager. I'll probably stay with Debian unless something really bad happens.

I first put Lenny (Debian 5.0) on my X61, but that didn't last long because Squeeze (Debian 6.0) was released one month later *facepalm*.
I migrated to Wheezy after it was released.
Since I let go of the X61 last month, its hard disk now resides in my backup X61 Tablet.

I got an X220 late last year, and put Jessie (Debian 8.0) on it, and using it right now.

Since I don't buy bleeding-edge hardware, Debian's problem of not being as up-to-date as a rolling-release distro doesn't affect me much.

[brchan]

Arch Linux for all my systems. Built basically from scratch so you get tons of custimizability and some of the best performance. Haven't had any instability issues with the frequently updated repositories, either.

However, accelerated gpu drivers for very old computers, such as neomagic or savage, are not available, which makes scrolling quite laggy. This basically makes T30 era and up thinkpads best for Arch. Otherwise, you need older distros (wheezy gave better support) to get the better drivers.

[Dekks]

However, accelerated gpu drivers for very old computers, such as neomagic or savage

X86-Video-savage is included although the accelerated support is likely very flaky you can enable it as per arch wiki.

[Temetka]

Linux Mint has been my goto distro for the last few years. I get access to the large repositories of Ubuntu compatible software and I don't have to deal with Unity/Gnome 3. I am running Mint 17.1 on my T410 right now and loving every minute of it. I will perform a distro upgrade to 17.2 when they offer KDE support. I have also run these versions in the past:

SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora, Sabayon, PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo and Arch.

I just happen to prefer Linux Mint. I see no reason to switch distro's any time soon. I was going to check out #! but it's ended and the sucessor - Bunsen Labs is still in Alpha at the time of this post.

[Kilkenny]

I prefer OpenBSD to Linux. I run it on all my laptops and my router. It's incredibly simple, straightforward, lightweight, and secure. Everything is documented thoroughly. It works great on ThinkPads because many of the developers use them, so hardware support is generally very good.

[Dekks]

I prefer OpenBSD to Linux. I run it on all my laptops and my router. It's incredibly simple, straightforward, lightweight, and secure. Everything is documented thoroughly. It works great on ThinkPads because many of the developers use them, so hardware support is generally very good.

How upto date these days are the Intel video drivers?

[Kilkenny]

I prefer OpenBSD to Linux. I run it on all my laptops and my router. It's incredibly simple, straightforward, lightweight, and secure. Everything is documented thoroughly. It works great on ThinkPads because many of the developers use them, so hardware support is generally very good.

How upto date these days are the Intel video drivers?

The intel(4) driver should support up to the Iris Pro 5200/6200/P6300 series in -current, according to its man page: http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi/ ... uery=intel

I have never used it on anything newer than an HD3000 though, so I can't say how well it works on the newer chips.

On 5.7, it's a bit more limiting: http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi/ ... uery=intel

[brchan]

Open source drivers for nvidia and ati gpus tend to work reliably out of the box. The 3D performance, however, is quite a bit lower, especially with nvidia units. Not quite sure how the intel ones are, but I think the difference is less.

[unix_joe]

The intel(4) driver should support up to the Iris Pro 5200/6200/P6300 series in -current, according to its man page: http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi/ ... uery=intel

I have never used it on anything newer than an HD3000 though, so I can't say how well it works on the newer chips.

On 5.7, it's a bit more limiting: http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi/ ... uery=intel

inteldrm does not work with Broadwell machines on -current. So the Intel driver will give you proper resolution, but it will be unaccelerated, and you won't get KMS.

That being said, in general OpenBSD is the best UNIX-like operating system for Thinkpads.

[lukee]

I like Ubuntu however my T43's ATI X300 seems to have troubles in the 12.04 and 14.04 releases in terms it is reproducing strange blinking and low performance if the dash panel is opened. I would say that X300 is still decently powerful graphics nowadays, at least in Windows 3D games you can still see it can provide nice scenes and rendering, but Unity environment seems to be very difficult to run on this graphics.

[Dekks]

I like Ubuntu however my T43's ATI X300 seems to have troubles in the 12.04 and 14.04 releases in terms it is reproducing strange blinking and low performance if the dash panel is opened. I would say that X300 is still decently powerful graphics nowadays, at least in Windows 3D games you can still see it can provide nice scenes and rendering, but Unity environment seems to be very difficult to run on this graphics.

yes it's well known that the linux open source drivers are poor compared to dedicated windows drivers wrt gaming performance.

[Temetka]

Well the Bunsen Labs guys got a live ISO out of what they are calling an Alpha release. That being said it is built on Debian Jessie and is rock stable on my T410. I have found a new distro.

They use OpenBox as the default WM and while I have been a KDE guy for many years, I am really liking how I have OpenBox and Tint2 setup. Very sweet. Excellent performance out of this system.

I installed TLP and am getting between 4-4.5 hours out of a new old stock 9-cell battery I purchased here on the forums.

[Kilkenny]

Well the Bunsen Labs guys got a live ISO out of what they are calling an Alpha release. That being said it is built on Debian Jessie and is rock stable on my T410. I have found a new distro.

They use OpenBox as the default WM and while I have been a KDE guy for many years, I am really liking how I have OpenBox and Tint2 setup. Very sweet. Excellent performance out of this system.

I installed TLP and am getting between 4-4.5 hours out of a new old stock 9-cell battery I purchased here on the forums.

Are you running TLP in "bat" mode?

[Temetka]

Yes.

[Kilkenny]

Yes.

Okay, you should be good then. The battery life just seemed low to me from what I remember when I ran Linux and used TLP, but I never had a T410.

[Temetka]

It's better than what it was. I gained about 75 minutes or so.

That being said I got the same run time in Windows as well. I think it's just the machine.

[rambo47]

I'm a fan of Linux Mint in ThinkPads. I have 17.2 on my new Yoga 3 Pro and everything works spectacularly well. I'm dual-booting it with Windows 10. I was considering OpenBSD but since I'm such a Linux noob I figured a distro with mainstream appeal like Linux Mint would serve me best right now. I allocated 60GB for my Linux partition by shrinking the Windows partition. My Y3P has a 256GB SSD so there's plenty of space to go around, but I'm now considering removing Windows completely and running this as a pure Linux laptop. THAT'S how well Linux Mint runs on this machine.

[Temetka]

Linux should rock on that machine.

Unless you NEED Windows for work and/or school, I would ditch it. There's just so many security and privacy issues with Windows/MacOSX/Android/iOS that they should be avoided like the plague.

That being said I do have a Note4 that I enjoy using very much. I've rooted it, installed a custom hosts file some adblockers and so on. So while it doesn't spew info as much as a standard phone does, it is not "secure" by any stretch of the word.

[humdinger70]

My i7-based X220 is running Ubuntu 14.04.3, with Unity, right now. I don't find Unity that bad. What I loved was the install gave me a good sized set of fonts right out of the box - very readable on the 12.5 inch screen.

All the keys on the keyboard work correctly, it suspends correctly when I close the lid, so it's a nice portable. It came with the 29++ (9-cell) battery so I can get 6+ hours for light surfing - nice when you're sitting at the car dealership waiting on maintenance. (Once it finds a wireless point and connects, it remembers it for the next time I go there).

FYI, I replaced the default 4GB RAM and 320GB hard drive with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. The system recognizes the SSD and has the TRIM function on and scheduled to run weekly. (for the SSD, you need to use the 7.5mm height models, fits very nicely in the SATA slot)

I did install Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon for a little bit, but the fonts were so small, it made the experience painful.

I recently tried to install Antergos 2015.07 (key being 'tried to install') but the installer hung up after I entered my partitioning data. I just saw on Phoronix that there's a new 2015.08 release with installer fixes, but I really don't want to go through that again.

If you basically want ease of use, Ubuntu is the way to go.

[rambo47]

My i7-based X220 is running Ubuntu 14.04.3, with Unity, right now. I don't find Unity that bad. What I loved was the install gave me a good sized set of fonts right out of the box - very readable on the 12.5 inch screen.

All the keys on the keyboard work correctly, it suspends correctly when I close the lid, so it's a nice portable. It came with the 29++ (9-cell) battery so I can get 6+ hours for light surfing - nice when you're sitting at the car dealership waiting on maintenance. (Once it finds a wireless point and connects, it remembers it for the next time I go there).

FYI, I replaced the default 4GB RAM and 320GB hard drive with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. The system recognizes the SSD and has the TRIM function on and scheduled to run weekly. (for the SSD, you need to use the 7.5mm height models, fits very nicely in the SATA slot)

I did install Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon for a little bit, but the fonts were so small, it made the experience painful.
I recently tried to install Antergos 2015.07 (key being 'tried to install') but the installer hung up after I entered my partitioning data. I just saw on Phoronix that there's a new 2015.08 release with installer fixes, but I really don't want to go through that again.

If you basically want ease of use, Ubuntu is the way to go.

I had issues with tiny fonts on Linux Mint on my Yoga 3 but then I adjusted the screen resolution to the native resolution of the screen and it got better. I have also bumped up the font sizes one size in the System Settings.

[Hans Gruber]

I am logged in here on thnkpads forum using Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon on my T43p. It's quite impressive. Totally plug and play ready to go. I was looking at my clock saying this thing can't tell time. Once I logged into my wifi it automatically corrected the time.

It's very weird not needing to install drivers manually or to have to do updates. I am impressed with Linux. I have an Android phone so this is not my first Linux experience.

I have a plug and play setup with my HDD's. My XP drive already has the cover and caddy mounted like this 60GB drive so I can simply swap out the drives plug and play style.

[humdinger70]

Yes, I know the screen fonts can be adjusted, something I've done in the past, but I liked that Ubuntu took the approach of giving me a decent sized font for the small screen right out of the box. I did download the unity-tweak-tool to adjust the launcher icon size (down-sized just a small amount).

Now if the BOINC people could fix their Linux client so the screen doesn't pop-up to full size when I do something else (like run the software updater), it would be perfect. Yes, it's a known bug that's been around for a while.

[GOT]

Gentoo Hardened with XFCE for a Window manager here on my T60. I've gone fairly lightweight and built Gnumeric and Abiword (these build fairly quickly on my C2D) rather than build LibreOffice (which when I did build it previously I used to have to leave the machine on overnight compiling it)

[sdi-p]

I prefer LMDE Mate, it installs quickly, everything works with no futzing around.
Jessie based, Stable.

My T61 is actually my testbed, almost all Linuxs (or is that Linuxi?) work fine.

Point Linux also is a good one, Bunsen Labs has gone RC1 and it is fine but spartan.

I prefer Debian, but Arch is OK. ... if you want Arch try out Achoo! installer. It easily detects wifi, and it is well supported (one active lady, she listens to user desires)

[twisting_edge]

Has anyone ever got a decent X11 set running on a *BSD system? NetBSD started an LXDE clone three years ago that is "mostly working" as of two years ago, but it seems to have stalled there. Last time I used NetBSD was in 1999, and I didn't bother with X. (LXDE very conveniently happens to my desktop of choice.)

This is Thinkpad related: I came across someone with a 701c yesterday. (You can still get them on eBay, too.)

The problem is they top out at 64Mb. NetBSD still hums along just fine in 4Mb. I suspect any X port they do will be seriously lightweight.

It's the butterfly KBD, man. How can you say "no" to that?

[Kilkenny]

Has anyone ever got a decent X11 set running on a *BSD system? NetBSD started an LXDE clone three years ago that is "mostly working" as of two years ago, but it seems to have stalled there. Last time I used NetBSD was in 1999, and I didn't bother with X. (LXDE very conveniently happens to my desktop of choice.)

This is Thinkpad related: I came across someone with a 701c yesterday. (You can still get them on eBay, too.)

The problem is they top out at 64Mb. NetBSD still hums along just fine in 4Mb. I suspect any X port they do will be seriously lightweight.

It's the butterfly KBD, man. How can you say "no" to that?

It works out of the box on OpenBSD, as Xenocara is included in base. Everything works fine with no configuration. Hardware acceleration depends on the GPU. but should work automatically if the GPU supports it. Intel and ATI/AMD will probably give you full 3D acceleration, unless they are brand new. I run OpenBSD on all of my computers, including 3-4 ThinkPads, and won't run anything else.

FreeBSD will require you to download X11 and install it yourself. 2 finger scrolling won't work without configuration (I gave up last time I ran FreeBSD). I believe all the volume and brightness keys will work. This may be true for DragonFly as well, as it's based on FreeBSD, though it has been a while since I used it.

[kony]

all Linuxs (or is that Linuxi?)

There is only one Linux, so the word does not have a plural form, I think.