It’s probably been 15 years since I’ve used Linux and Mint seems to be the recommended distro for people who aren’t all that familiar with Linux like me, but I didn’t know if there was anything I should know with this ThinkPad model that anyone is familiar with. My searching around shows people saying everything from it was painless to install to they had tons of issues and I have no idea how common either one is.

So any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

  • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
    9·
    9 months ago

    I’d say it probably works out of the box.

    I usually have a look at thinkwiki and the arch wiki. Since they don’t have dedicated guides for this model, it usually means it’s not supported at all and no one even tried, or it’s a smooth ride and there just are no issues. Since it’s not a niche product, I’d say it’s the latter. And it’s an older model without extravagant hardware… it should work fine.

    • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      Since they don’t have dedicated guides for this model, it usually means it’s not supported at all and no one even tried, or it’s a smooth ride and there just are no issues.

      I feel like if someone went through hell trying to install Linux on some obscure hardware there would be something online. I think the safe bet a majority of the time that it just hasn’t been documented yet.

      • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
        2·
        9 months ago

        Hmm, I mean there is also publication bias. You’re more likely to edit a Wiki page if you found a solution… But you’re also likely to rant and ask for questions if it’s really bad… There is a bit in the middle where it doesn’t work that well. What I find super annoying if I find my question already posted 2 years ago and there isn’t a solution posted underneath. That means someone either got it working and didn’t update their post… or they moved on and it’s impossible. But you’re right, this really mostly happens to obscure and niche problems. Not if it’s a ThinkPad or Dell laptop midel that has already sold millions of times. But somewhat likely if it’s a newer high-end gaming mainboard or niche server that isn’t common amongst the Linux-folks.

      • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
        4·
        9 months ago

        I read the other good advice with the firmware (UEFI) update. If there’s still Windows on it, maybe run Lenovo Vantage and let it update the firmware.

          • qprimedEnglish
            6·
            9 months ago

            lenovo is also one of the companies that provides packaged firmware updates to the linux fwupd project, so you should be able to maintain firmware updatesfrom linux in the future.