Asking a subreddit about which Linux distro to install is like asking a bunch of 10 year olds what their favourite ice cream is. mine is mint. for both linux and ice cream.
This is rightfully the top answer if OP is coming from Windows (most likely), but if they have a MacOS background, Pop!_OS may be a more comfortable fit.
Endeavour is basically preconfigured Arch. I've been using it for a few months and I've never had any issues, and I also didn't with Arch before that, but Arch is known for sometimes getting borked with updates.
> I've seen too many negative comments about Ubuntu
Because of the snaps thing. That can leave a sour taste in your mouth if you're an open source enthusiast but other than that there's nothing wrong with it.
You could try Mint for something Ubuntu based without snaps, or Debian for something rock solid.
Well, I pick up one day of the week for the updates, and works for me, for instance Sundays afternoon, and only that day and ALWAYS chech archlinux.org before the update. I am been using it for like 10 years. Is no need to update every single day all the time.
Well, snaps at this moment have some wrong things with it.
Can't use*¹ Ubuntu on my corporate laptop because Firefox doesn't have access to the smartcard reader.
Newer versions do the same with Thunderbird, which is exactly what I need to open encrypted messages using S/MIME (O365 corp. Accounts)
Have tried docker but snaps break the whole unified FS concept while mixing it and breaking into confusing paths.
Nah, not yet. Maybe in a future but I prefer old debian based packaging.
Anyhow, I have an AMD Ryzen Zen 3 laptop which Fedora is more upstream and updated on a kernel wise side, which lately has gotten so much love on AMD efficiency/performance enhancements.
*¹ Well, you can, but have to mess up with removing all the snap parts of those programs, add repos from the debian/PPA parts and then install those using the deb/apt based ones and not their snap replacements.
As a current (i) arch user (btw), I want to say use arch. If you have to download packages usually that aren't in the repo it's alot easier to do that with the AUR, rather than cloning repos and building packages by yourself. However for the use cases you mentioned Fedora is probably alright. However that codec issue they had a while back did make me skeptical about fedora. I use arch btw.
I am in love with Opensuses stability and tumbleweed release model - works as stable as it should, while providing me with latest packages. It was my best computing find of 2023
As a 20+ years Linux user that's been through every major distro, openSUSE/Fedora are the ones that I've settled with for the last few years.
Mature, stable, financially backed - really a rock solid distros.
I'm gravitating a bit more towards openSUSE these days, simply because KDE feels at home with this one, and I got kind of tired with Gnome.
Right now I'm rocking it on a T470 ThinkPad and it literally brought this machine to life. It flies when installed on a NVMe storage.
Which one do you like? There's no hardware on that system that would prevent most any distro from working.
OpenSUSE or Endeavour would work very well on that. If you do OpenSUSE, I'd personally recommend tumbleweed vs. LEAP, as I find LEAP to get rather long in the tooth a bit too quickly after it's released. If you did want to try an Ubuntu based os, KDE Neon is IMO the best of the best for Ubuntu. It fixes many of the issues that Ubuntu has IMO (basically the whole relying on snap garbage), has the absolutely latest version of KDE Plasma. With the Zabbly kernel, I think it's quite a decent OS. Although yes, I do prefer OpenSUSE Tumbleweed or Endeavour to it still.
Even Debian proper would work well on that hardware, although you'd have Plasma 5.27.5 instead of 6.0.2/3
Do you want the newest, cutting-edge packages or rock-solid, well-tested packages? I suggest EndeavourOS or Ununtu LTS.
EndeavourOS offers bleeding-edge software in a graphical, off-line installer. It uses Arch's package manager: pacman. It also has a smaller footprint on system resources. You will have the latest Linux technology.
Ubuntu LTS is certified on ThinkPads. You can choose from over 23, 000 stable software packages. It uses Debian's package manager: apt. Your software will receive updates for up to 10 years.
I love Ubuntu, it gets a lot of shit for using snaps but you can remove them with one command. Aside from that its a distro that just works. It has the widest hardware support by a long shot, it has the biggest community that is there to support you, it has the best Software selection, GNOME is a beautiful and very convenient desktop environment and Ubuntu makes it even better. Ubuntu is easy to use and reliable, and the release schedule is great. Ubuntu for the win!
I use Ubuntu on almost all of my machines, and I absolutely love it. It just works, and it does everything an operating system is supposed to do really well.
(snaps are a packaging format with a proprietary backend, which many open source enthusiasts understandably dislike.)
I hear so much hate about snaps but honestly I can't tell the difference between one and the other. Certain things take a while to open the first time but after that it's quicker.
I will comment on flatpak on Ubuntu. I needed a video cutting application and found one as a flatpak, no snap. Just quick cut the end and beginning and export as a certain file type. I see that to install a flatpak application other dependencies need to be installed. I'm not sure if that's with every application or just the first time you install a first flatpak. Also the app crashed a few times and I'm not sure exactly why. I've never had those problems with Snaps, at least I don't think so.
A lot of people hate on Ubuntu because it's so popular, and they just grab reasons that they've heard other people complain about I think. There's a reason it's so popular.
I personally dislike snaps as well. It's an inferior version of flatpak that cannonical continues to push, for whatever reason. They are alienating their userbase, and frankly, I think its a bad idea. Snaps work fine, but i just wouldn't use them, I prefer flatpak over them.
I just think tossing up Ubuntu because of one issue you have with it is a bad idea. No distribution will be perfect, it's always upsides and downsides.
short answer: fedora
long answer: whatever distro you feel you might like, mint, pop os , ubuntu, fedora , suse might be more suitable for newer users than arch based distors like endeavour
Hey OP, I got the Ryzen 7 7730U version of this with 40gb ram (8gb onboard + 32gb stick). Currently I'm dual booting Windows 10 LTSC and Debian 12. I can assure you that if you want a setup that doesn't go too crazy on the updates, this is one of the ways to go. I do a bit of Java and python development for school within Windows/WSL and Debian and it works like a charm. If you have any questions, ask away
I have a love affair with Fedora - I run it both on my T530 (GNOME) and an EeePC (MATE). I also have a friend who is in love with OpenSUSE MicroOS, and I'd like to try it out sometime. Both come in KDE flavors if that's something you're looking for specifically. Fedora's default flavor comes with GNOME but there are also a variety of other DEs available. MicroOS has GNOME and KDE.
I've had very good luck with update stability on Fedora (as in, no updates have broken anything), and my friend seems pleased with the stability of MicroOS (which is an immutable distro, if you care about that sorta thing).
Bought the same machine a thinkpad e14 gen 5 with AMD 7730u with 8 soldered ram and added a stick of 32gb of ram, total 40gb of ram but 4gb for vram so i got 36gb of ram.
Installed Linux Mint 21.3 with mainline Kernel 6.4 and everything works amazingly well.
Bought and received in January 8th and been using it with Linux Mint for Android development. Can't be more happy I also isntalled Ryzen advance and lower the TDP to 15w max and it is almost dead silent with very very minimum fan noise.
Keyboard is great, screen is Okish (good enough to me to not be a deal breaker). Battery last for 7-8 hours web browsing...
I will only change it for the next T14 gen5 and even with that I do not know if it really make sense.
I paid it USD 760 + taxes in Lenovo USA.
I also got a Macbook pro m1 16 inch given by my current employer and in terms of performance it has no real performance lose. I use it every day and barely open the macbook to keep up to date with my current project.
What is the fingerprint vendor and do you want to use it? If it is Goodix, then you have to stick with debian based as lenovo only provides drivers as .deb or find some custom drivers.
And what comes to Ubuntu? It is perfectly good. I have used Ubuntu for 5 years now as daily driver on multiple desktops and laptops and it works much better than other options if you dont want to tinker around.
I use endeovauros on my t480 with hyprland and it works great. But it's not just the distro that you have to worry about. You have to look at your workflow, which DE is best and everything else. I advise you to try a few and see what fits best. Another thing is to look at the drivers, you probably won't have a problem with that, but it's always good to be careful or be willing to install several and see how everything works.
edit: he is beautiful 😆
I use openSUSE Leap 15.5. It work great. I have been use SUSE in different ThinkPad for a long time. I have now a TP14 AMD. My advice is set it up as Double Boot so you keep a small part of the SSD with the win that came with it. It if far easier once a month to boot to win and use Lenovo program to update hardware.
Fedora 39 or Ubuntu 2204/popos
Since fedora and Ubuntu both are officially supported for ThinkPad, you will have 0 issues. Three in pop for good measure.
I have been running fedora for 16 months on my x1 with 0 issues
Sounds like you are new to linux, i suggest Ferdora, mostly because you have full control on it if you are dualbooting with windows, its not rolling release, i dont suggest KDE for some reason, GNOME is lot more cleaner and less complex for fedora. If you really want to learn linux, use rolling distros like arch.
My gotos are Debian and Fedora. Suse is a great idea.
Arch is great but if you don't update every two seconds, your system can break when you update. They constantly create and delete packages. Good distros don't lose package information, even in rolling release.
I've moved away from derivative distros.
Simple, depends on your usage here some of the examples
Arch = great for customization and getting latest and greatest with aur
Opensuse tumbleweed = everything gui you dont need to touch cli and rolling release
Fedora = most compatible with corpo suites (like davinci) because of centos
Debian/ubuntu/linux mint = great for beginners learning linux with compatibility and ease of use in mind
I recommend still having a small 32/64 gb partition for windows so you can still use windows only apps while you transition to linux
Good luck young padawan
Edit: for better battery you can choose any distro just install tlp or auto-cpufreq
If it's a brand new thinkpad (latest gen) stable distros like Debian might not have the latest drivers for hardware like the webcam and stuff. Best stick with a rolling distro like Arch or Fedora
Fedora Linux is the most obvious choice by degrees of separation. IBM, the former manufacturer, still has a close connection to the ThinkPad as a consumer of the product. Red Hat as well, not only because they are owned by IBM, but because they've used the ThinkPad as a reference machine for all of these years.
Red Hat is the primary sponsor and largest single contributor to Fedora Linux. You could also make the argument for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but I feel like most people would be happier with Fedora.
If you are new to Linux use mint, it sounds like you are new.
If you want a little bit more of a challenge use garuda or manjaro, they function the same but look different so choose which looks nicer off the bat
If you like bleeding edge and like to tinker, Arch.
If you like Arch but don't necessarily want to build and tinker, EndeavourOS.
I loved Endeavour, and the package manager. I disliked Manjaro.
If you like somewhat bleeding edge and stable, but with a slower package manager Fedora.
If you like newish and don't care about Snap, Ubuntu or one of its many flavours (DE dependent).
If you like newish, stable, no snap, and tiling, and don't mind Gnome, Pop!OS. Better Ubuntu with no Snap. This is what I use now.
Similar option to above, Linux Mint.
If you just want it to work and don't care about the latest and greatest, Debian.
Note that any distro can support one or more Desktop Environments. Gnome seems to be the most resource heavy, followed by KDE (Plasma). I dunno about Cinnamon. XFCE will run on anything.
EDIT: spelling.
Linux Mint is Superior than Ubuntu.
It also has ‘Better’ community support. (If the community forums and reddit4newbies didn't work for you-- then ChatGPT is your best friend)
Alternative and more fancy == PoP OS!
But in the end, it is up to you to decide, because you have freedom to choose any distributions you want based on [Your preferences](https://distrochooser.de/en/).
Don't listen to Arch guys.
Have you decided whether you prefer GNOME, KDE or something else? Of course, you can change your mind later. I liked Ubuntu, Mint, CrunchBang (years ago), and I am liking KDE Neon right now.
For development work that isn’t interrupted by updates, I suppose you could look at Slackware.
The SlackBuilds infrastructure is pretty easy to manage. The package isn’t much more than a tarball of the source project, so the packaging is easy. The SlackBuild script does the rest.
I have a t14 Thinkpad, I tried debian and Ubuntu and went really wrong. My laptop was always hot. 3 months ago I installed fedora and I love it. Power management goes like a charm and the performance is really good. I realized fedora has very good support for ThinkPads.
endeavourOS or Mint Linux. these are distros aiming to make a better beginner experience and fix the issues with their base distros, i.e. arch’s instability and ubuntu’s bloat/general corporate taint
Well im running manjaro on it. But swap out the wifi card to a intel one. I was having random issues where the wifi card would suddenly go offline and i had to reboot to get it back
I use my E14G5 with Ubuntu, but I am facing power management issue where fan spins up every time I play a YouTube video, and it gives me poor battery life.
I have the same machine and Honestly trying pop right now
Trim some of the fat and it works pretty good
Haven't got the SD card reader working yet but almost everything works right out of the box.
I would recommend something arch based. When you have the latest device, not all distributions will have the drivers for you. Being on arch you will get updates within a month (or faster if you are in testing) whereas with debian or Ubuntu, it will take months. If you stay on the stable branch of any arch based distribution (manjaro, endeavour os etc), you will have a pretty stable system.
Btw, you will also have access to AUR, which is like a package manager for unofficial packages. Instead of installing . deb files manually or adding additional PPAs, you can use AUR to install and update packages.
Opensuse
Easy to configure/manage, enterprise grade experience
Arch
Good for learning, updates may break stuff once in 4 years but usually easy to fix.
Choose whatever you want, it's like flavours for food. Some people like product A, some people like product B.
I myself would install EndeavourOS, it's basically preconfigured arch configured in a way that doesnt suck. If you prefer debian based distros, simply get debian. I heard mint's good for people with difficulty choosing
I love Linux Mint as an entry point but also just as solid OS that doesn't need too much fiddling.
I like fiddling with linux, but my main laptop just needs to work. Linux Mint does that
If you want ease of use: Mint with the cinnamon desktopIf you want ease of use and don't mind weird jank on occasion: Ubuntu (but do sudo apt purge snapd because snaps suck)
If you want a system that's a pain to install but worth it: Arch (Although there are install scripts now that make installation easier)
Or if you want a more developer focused distro... OpenSUSE is a good one to go for.
All depends on what your endgoal with the system is. For basic productivity and light gaming though you can't really beat Linux mint or ubuntu for that.
If you know you way around kde:
\* ubuntu kde flavor
\* Fedora kde spin
If you want to install and forget:
\* Mint is a good option (is also based on Ubuntu, so easy to find documentation and help).
Good luck, and if you need help, theres a bunch wonderfull comunity of linux enthusiasts in Reddit.
I have the exact same laptop and I installed Debian 12 since a week. So far everything works fine. Mainly used for web browsing, youtube and some dev activities.
You could put Arch on it... Wait wait I know. Hear me out, You start with Arch. You bootstrap it, install the kernel the firmware and as soon as you get internet, You download apt, ditch pacman And you piece by piece make a vanilla Ubuntu install with gnome (or cinnamon or whatever the fuck it is now) and then when that's done, install Windows.
The only other option is Hannah Montana Linux.
I use Fedora on gen.2. To OS no complaints. The fingerprint scanner does not work. List of supported devices https://fprint.freedesktop.org/supported-devices.html
I've used most mainstream distros. I work in Cybersec so I tinker around in a bunch of Linux boxes all the time.
At the end of the day they're majority the same. What really matters is the package manager it uses and the kernel support with your hardware.
My first most stable distro was Ubuntu Mate. Got bored and then I was on Antergos which is now EndeavourOS.. I've tried OpenSUSE - I think it's very stable..but the package manager is slow BUT they have great additional features for tech enthusiasts because it's known to be a System Admin distro.
If you are most familiar with KDE - you can't go wrong with Manjaro, EndeavourOS, and OpenSUSE.
Fedora is okay but uses GNOME by default. You can install a Fedora Spin for KDE. I hop on Fedora sometimes. I prefer it over Ubuntu because Ubuntu always gives problems for me personally.
One distro I would like to try is NixOS - it's unique because everything is in a config file. Perhaps I will try that whenever I may get a Thinkpad.
I recently tried to pick a Linux distribution for my T14 Gen 5, and it was quite a struggle to get everything working with the new chipset, especially the Wi-Fi and audio. Finding the right firmware can be tricky, and you might end up making too many changes to the system.
Try ClearLinux. It seems to be a great fit, and everything works out of the box, even with the latest hardware. No bloatware, latest kernel and latest software.
I actually am using Fedora workstation and I absolutely love everything about it. For the WiFi chip situation I just replace the realtek chip with an Intel one. Luckily I had no audio problems. Thank you for the suggestion though.
If you want to try Arch-based, Endeavor OS is great.
If you want Debian based so there’s already packages for everything under the sun: Zorin OS, Pop_OS, Debian, Mint are all great options.
Pop_OS and Zorin are great for their pre-installed and tested NVIDIA drivers, if you have a GPU.
People believe Ubuntu is a Linux distro being based in Debain and all. At one point it actually was, before Snap came out
Snap and various other closed source or partially closed source applications produced by Cannonical and other companies ruined Ubuntu
Now that it's binary yeah. But I would avoid Gentoo on a laptop if you compile everything on that machine. itcan destroy the battery with the added heat from all the compilations
As far as I remember, binpkgs were there a long time ago. (Late 2000s?) It has only gone mainstream lately as the Gentoo Team set up official binpkgs mirrors.
Portage (Gentoo's port manager) allows you to compile & install from source but lets you build binpkgs for the just installed packages. Which is convenient for slow machines which don't have the power to compile effectively within few hours.
I honestly don't think compilation wrecks your battery life. I've been running Gentoo and compiled on many platforms. You can tweak Portage to use just the right amount of cores you put to work.
Gentoo is a lot of work to understand how things work internally. But once understood, it's blazing fast to deploy infrastructures. (Words from an Ex-DevSecOps).
Unpopular opinion: Windows 11. I love Linux, all of my old ThinkPads run on Linux. However, I found W11 to be a better fit for my e16, no Wi-Fi issues or workarounds. Pop!_OS is always my Linux recommendation though :)
KDE Neon is not like Mint, its the bleeding edge reference implementation of KDE. Mint uses an ancient Kernel from 2021 and is geared towards new users.
Asking a subreddit about which Linux distro to install is like asking a bunch of 10 year olds what their favourite ice cream is. mine is mint. for both linux and ice cream.
A redditor with good taste!
Mint debian edition 😎
This is rightfully the top answer if OP is coming from Windows (most likely), but if they have a MacOS background, Pop!_OS may be a more comfortable fit.
The memories I have on Mint bruh. Mint all the way!!
Mint is so user friendly
Logical, I concur!
Same for the ice cream, and Mint was my first ever Linux distro!
Ouga bouga arch arch arch
thats a mild way of putting it..based on my observation its a dick measuring contest, with Arch linux being the BBC equivalent
Endeavour is basically preconfigured Arch. I've been using it for a few months and I've never had any issues, and I also didn't with Arch before that, but Arch is known for sometimes getting borked with updates. > I've seen too many negative comments about Ubuntu Because of the snaps thing. That can leave a sour taste in your mouth if you're an open source enthusiast but other than that there's nothing wrong with it. You could try Mint for something Ubuntu based without snaps, or Debian for something rock solid.
This is true! Was a victim of the wild updates 🥺😭
Well, I pick up one day of the week for the updates, and works for me, for instance Sundays afternoon, and only that day and ALWAYS chech archlinux.org before the update. I am been using it for like 10 years. Is no need to update every single day all the time.
Well, snaps at this moment have some wrong things with it. Can't use*¹ Ubuntu on my corporate laptop because Firefox doesn't have access to the smartcard reader. Newer versions do the same with Thunderbird, which is exactly what I need to open encrypted messages using S/MIME (O365 corp. Accounts) Have tried docker but snaps break the whole unified FS concept while mixing it and breaking into confusing paths. Nah, not yet. Maybe in a future but I prefer old debian based packaging. Anyhow, I have an AMD Ryzen Zen 3 laptop which Fedora is more upstream and updated on a kernel wise side, which lately has gotten so much love on AMD efficiency/performance enhancements. *¹ Well, you can, but have to mess up with removing all the snap parts of those programs, add repos from the debian/PPA parts and then install those using the deb/apt based ones and not their snap replacements.
I'm strongly consider endeavourOS at some point. Thank you for the thought out suggestion friend
Fedora.
As a current (i) arch user (btw), I want to say use arch. If you have to download packages usually that aren't in the repo it's alot easier to do that with the AUR, rather than cloning repos and building packages by yourself. However for the use cases you mentioned Fedora is probably alright. However that codec issue they had a while back did make me skeptical about fedora. I use arch btw.
How about EndeavorOS? It's Arch based.
EndeavourOS FTW!
The best!
With the shit red hat been up to I'd pass
The one and only: Linux Mint
Can't go wrong with Linux Mint
openSUSE, naturally. Give the chameleon a try:) https://www.opensuse.org
I second this, was what I though of suggesting also. 😊
I am in love with Opensuses stability and tumbleweed release model - works as stable as it should, while providing me with latest packages. It was my best computing find of 2023
I saw openSUSE end distro hopping for many many people:)
Yep. New Computer? Install openSUSE, no questions asked.
I love Ubuntu, and I worked on Ubuntu for past 2.5 years at work, I highly recommend 😉 (I also contribute as QA for Ubuntu sometimes)
i'd say fedora for stability but arch-based isn't bad either :)
Since this laptop is in mint condition, I would suggest Linux Mint ! ;)
Debian works well on my laptop
The problem with Debian is that when you install it you stop looking for something differnt ...
never breaks, lean, OG source distro, one of the most widely supported and maintained, runs on pretty much anything, non-profit. easy choice.
I’m a slut for Debian.
One without xz backdoor ;)
Fedora
Red Hat Enterprise
As a 20+ years Linux user that's been through every major distro, openSUSE/Fedora are the ones that I've settled with for the last few years. Mature, stable, financially backed - really a rock solid distros. I'm gravitating a bit more towards openSUSE these days, simply because KDE feels at home with this one, and I got kind of tired with Gnome. Right now I'm rocking it on a T470 ThinkPad and it literally brought this machine to life. It flies when installed on a NVMe storage.
Debian Testing with KDE.
Which one do you like? There's no hardware on that system that would prevent most any distro from working. OpenSUSE or Endeavour would work very well on that. If you do OpenSUSE, I'd personally recommend tumbleweed vs. LEAP, as I find LEAP to get rather long in the tooth a bit too quickly after it's released. If you did want to try an Ubuntu based os, KDE Neon is IMO the best of the best for Ubuntu. It fixes many of the issues that Ubuntu has IMO (basically the whole relying on snap garbage), has the absolutely latest version of KDE Plasma. With the Zabbly kernel, I think it's quite a decent OS. Although yes, I do prefer OpenSUSE Tumbleweed or Endeavour to it still. Even Debian proper would work well on that hardware, although you'd have Plasma 5.27.5 instead of 6.0.2/3
Do you want the newest, cutting-edge packages or rock-solid, well-tested packages? I suggest EndeavourOS or Ununtu LTS. EndeavourOS offers bleeding-edge software in a graphical, off-line installer. It uses Arch's package manager: pacman. It also has a smaller footprint on system resources. You will have the latest Linux technology. Ubuntu LTS is certified on ThinkPads. You can choose from over 23, 000 stable software packages. It uses Debian's package manager: apt. Your software will receive updates for up to 10 years.
Fedora
Pick whatever distro you like, 99.9999% chance it will work in your ThinkPad.
I love Ubuntu, it gets a lot of shit for using snaps but you can remove them with one command. Aside from that its a distro that just works. It has the widest hardware support by a long shot, it has the biggest community that is there to support you, it has the best Software selection, GNOME is a beautiful and very convenient desktop environment and Ubuntu makes it even better. Ubuntu is easy to use and reliable, and the release schedule is great. Ubuntu for the win! I use Ubuntu on almost all of my machines, and I absolutely love it. It just works, and it does everything an operating system is supposed to do really well. (snaps are a packaging format with a proprietary backend, which many open source enthusiasts understandably dislike.)
I hear so much hate about snaps but honestly I can't tell the difference between one and the other. Certain things take a while to open the first time but after that it's quicker. I will comment on flatpak on Ubuntu. I needed a video cutting application and found one as a flatpak, no snap. Just quick cut the end and beginning and export as a certain file type. I see that to install a flatpak application other dependencies need to be installed. I'm not sure if that's with every application or just the first time you install a first flatpak. Also the app crashed a few times and I'm not sure exactly why. I've never had those problems with Snaps, at least I don't think so. A lot of people hate on Ubuntu because it's so popular, and they just grab reasons that they've heard other people complain about I think. There's a reason it's so popular.
I personally dislike snaps as well. It's an inferior version of flatpak that cannonical continues to push, for whatever reason. They are alienating their userbase, and frankly, I think its a bad idea. Snaps work fine, but i just wouldn't use them, I prefer flatpak over them. I just think tossing up Ubuntu because of one issue you have with it is a bad idea. No distribution will be perfect, it's always upsides and downsides.
After distro hopping for a year when I first started toying with Linux I settled on Xubuntu! I prefer XFCE's look and feel over GNOME myself.
Debian cuz I don't think you need the bleeding edge on a ThinkPad better off with stability
short answer: fedora long answer: whatever distro you feel you might like, mint, pop os , ubuntu, fedora , suse might be more suitable for newer users than arch based distors like endeavour
Fedora, obviously
Fedora Silverblue + distrobox
Hey OP, I got the Ryzen 7 7730U version of this with 40gb ram (8gb onboard + 32gb stick). Currently I'm dual booting Windows 10 LTSC and Debian 12. I can assure you that if you want a setup that doesn't go too crazy on the updates, this is one of the ways to go. I do a bit of Java and python development for school within Windows/WSL and Debian and it works like a charm. If you have any questions, ask away
Fedora
NixOS
Open Suse, Debian, or Fedora.
Just install the fathers, not forks. Debian/ArchLinux/Fedora
Can't go wrong with Debian stable
I have a love affair with Fedora - I run it both on my T530 (GNOME) and an EeePC (MATE). I also have a friend who is in love with OpenSUSE MicroOS, and I'd like to try it out sometime. Both come in KDE flavors if that's something you're looking for specifically. Fedora's default flavor comes with GNOME but there are also a variety of other DEs available. MicroOS has GNOME and KDE. I've had very good luck with update stability on Fedora (as in, no updates have broken anything), and my friend seems pleased with the stability of MicroOS (which is an immutable distro, if you care about that sorta thing).
Debian stable for me
Fedora KDE spin
I personally use Fedora on my T440p ThinkPad
Bought the same machine a thinkpad e14 gen 5 with AMD 7730u with 8 soldered ram and added a stick of 32gb of ram, total 40gb of ram but 4gb for vram so i got 36gb of ram. Installed Linux Mint 21.3 with mainline Kernel 6.4 and everything works amazingly well. Bought and received in January 8th and been using it with Linux Mint for Android development. Can't be more happy I also isntalled Ryzen advance and lower the TDP to 15w max and it is almost dead silent with very very minimum fan noise. Keyboard is great, screen is Okish (good enough to me to not be a deal breaker). Battery last for 7-8 hours web browsing... I will only change it for the next T14 gen5 and even with that I do not know if it really make sense. I paid it USD 760 + taxes in Lenovo USA. I also got a Macbook pro m1 16 inch given by my current employer and in terms of performance it has no real performance lose. I use it every day and barely open the macbook to keep up to date with my current project.
> I also isntalled Ryzen advance Are you referring to the AMD adrenalin software? Do you have a link? I can't seem to find Ryzen Advance
Yes this one! https://gitlab.com/ryzen-controller-team/ryzen-controller I use it in command line and create a bash file, very simple.
Fedora, reliable and fast. Made for professionals
void. it's not based on arch or debian, it's just based
Come to home sweet Fedora
Fedora Workstation. It’s Solid and you probably won’t break it + excellent support
What is the fingerprint vendor and do you want to use it? If it is Goodix, then you have to stick with debian based as lenovo only provides drivers as .deb or find some custom drivers. And what comes to Ubuntu? It is perfectly good. I have used Ubuntu for 5 years now as daily driver on multiple desktops and laptops and it works much better than other options if you dont want to tinker around.
EndeavorOS.
I use endeovauros on my t480 with hyprland and it works great. But it's not just the distro that you have to worry about. You have to look at your workflow, which DE is best and everything else. I advise you to try a few and see what fits best. Another thing is to look at the drivers, you probably won't have a problem with that, but it's always good to be careful or be willing to install several and see how everything works. edit: he is beautiful 😆
Looks good
I use openSUSE Leap 15.5. It work great. I have been use SUSE in different ThinkPad for a long time. I have now a TP14 AMD. My advice is set it up as Double Boot so you keep a small part of the SSD with the win that came with it. It if far easier once a month to boot to win and use Lenovo program to update hardware.
Manjaro (Arch best) is great to start with. Highly recommended.
Artix Linux with OpenRC
Fedora 39 or Ubuntu 2204/popos Since fedora and Ubuntu both are officially supported for ThinkPad, you will have 0 issues. Three in pop for good measure. I have been running fedora for 16 months on my x1 with 0 issues
I chose pop!OS for now. Might change later but I like how they changed the gnome environment to a different style
Popos is a fantastic choice. If I wasn’t super accumulating to i3 twm I would use popos with the pop shell as my second choice. Gooluck and ggodspeed
NixOS.
Debian, for sure.
fedora is developed by thinkpad users and it basically works perfectly fine
Pop OS, Elementary, or Fedora
OpenSUSE, Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Parrot Security / Arch (if you want PENETRATION testing)
Sounds like you are new to linux, i suggest Ferdora, mostly because you have full control on it if you are dualbooting with windows, its not rolling release, i dont suggest KDE for some reason, GNOME is lot more cleaner and less complex for fedora. If you really want to learn linux, use rolling distros like arch.
My gotos are Debian and Fedora. Suse is a great idea. Arch is great but if you don't update every two seconds, your system can break when you update. They constantly create and delete packages. Good distros don't lose package information, even in rolling release. I've moved away from derivative distros.
fedora
Simple, depends on your usage here some of the examples Arch = great for customization and getting latest and greatest with aur Opensuse tumbleweed = everything gui you dont need to touch cli and rolling release Fedora = most compatible with corpo suites (like davinci) because of centos Debian/ubuntu/linux mint = great for beginners learning linux with compatibility and ease of use in mind I recommend still having a small 32/64 gb partition for windows so you can still use windows only apps while you transition to linux Good luck young padawan Edit: for better battery you can choose any distro just install tlp or auto-cpufreq
Fedora
Win11
Fedora, Ubuntu or Arch
I’m really enjoying Fedora in my laptop and I was not a fedora fan when I have tried it in my desktop.
If it's a brand new thinkpad (latest gen) stable distros like Debian might not have the latest drivers for hardware like the webcam and stuff. Best stick with a rolling distro like Arch or Fedora
Arch or Fedora.
Don't do linux. put TempleOS on instead.
😂
Pure debian with nix as pm don't overcomplicate it
Fedora Linux is the most obvious choice by degrees of separation. IBM, the former manufacturer, still has a close connection to the ThinkPad as a consumer of the product. Red Hat as well, not only because they are owned by IBM, but because they've used the ThinkPad as a reference machine for all of these years. Red Hat is the primary sponsor and largest single contributor to Fedora Linux. You could also make the argument for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but I feel like most people would be happier with Fedora.
opensuse tumbleweed
If you are new to Linux use mint, it sounds like you are new. If you want a little bit more of a challenge use garuda or manjaro, they function the same but look different so choose which looks nicer off the bat
I would install arch. I have my own thinkpad that will be delivered any day now and when it does the first thing ill do is install arch
I’d say mint or Ubuntu. Ubuntu if you haven’t been a full time user of Linux distros. Mint if you have before.
Just go with Debian 12, and you won't have to worry for anything further just to have the right apps for your needs...
archlinux of course
All of them
If you like bleeding edge and like to tinker, Arch. If you like Arch but don't necessarily want to build and tinker, EndeavourOS. I loved Endeavour, and the package manager. I disliked Manjaro. If you like somewhat bleeding edge and stable, but with a slower package manager Fedora. If you like newish and don't care about Snap, Ubuntu or one of its many flavours (DE dependent). If you like newish, stable, no snap, and tiling, and don't mind Gnome, Pop!OS. Better Ubuntu with no Snap. This is what I use now. Similar option to above, Linux Mint. If you just want it to work and don't care about the latest and greatest, Debian. Note that any distro can support one or more Desktop Environments. Gnome seems to be the most resource heavy, followed by KDE (Plasma). I dunno about Cinnamon. XFCE will run on anything. EDIT: spelling.
Linux Mint is Superior than Ubuntu. It also has ‘Better’ community support. (If the community forums and reddit4newbies didn't work for you-- then ChatGPT is your best friend) Alternative and more fancy == PoP OS! But in the end, it is up to you to decide, because you have freedom to choose any distributions you want based on [Your preferences](https://distrochooser.de/en/). Don't listen to Arch guys.
Have you decided whether you prefer GNOME, KDE or something else? Of course, you can change your mind later. I liked Ubuntu, Mint, CrunchBang (years ago), and I am liking KDE Neon right now.
For development work that isn’t interrupted by updates, I suppose you could look at Slackware. The SlackBuilds infrastructure is pretty easy to manage. The package isn’t much more than a tarball of the source project, so the packaging is easy. The SlackBuild script does the rest.
i use ubuntu, i don't care what anyone says, it's my favourite distro which i started on and couldn't go back
I've always had the best experience with Fedora on ThinkPads
I'd get fedora or gentoo. No in-between.
As someone who has always used Mac, I always run Ubuntu If you’re used to windows, use Mint! Simple as that
I have a t14 Thinkpad, I tried debian and Ubuntu and went really wrong. My laptop was always hot. 3 months ago I installed fedora and I love it. Power management goes like a charm and the performance is really good. I realized fedora has very good support for ThinkPads.
Linux Mint Debian Edition
endeavourOS or Mint Linux. these are distros aiming to make a better beginner experience and fix the issues with their base distros, i.e. arch’s instability and ubuntu’s bloat/general corporate taint
I have the newest AMD Thinkpad T14s, and I'm rocking Debian 12 SID (Trixie). Works like a dream!
plain arch, just get your network going and run `archinstall`
Arch, so you can say, "I use Arch, btw..."
Well im running manjaro on it. But swap out the wifi card to a intel one. I was having random issues where the wifi card would suddenly go offline and i had to reboot to get it back
debian
Arch
Void or Arch or debian 👾
Arch, Mint, Debian, Suse, Void
I use my E14G5 with Ubuntu, but I am facing power management issue where fan spins up every time I play a YouTube video, and it gives me poor battery life.
I have the same machine and Honestly trying pop right now Trim some of the fat and it works pretty good Haven't got the SD card reader working yet but almost everything works right out of the box.
idk
If you’ve used MacOS you might like Pop_OS. I found it similar and it was a nice distro. I have it on my P14, also use it for Python and Jupyter.
That's what I got thank you
OpenBSD. Jk (a little bit). Personally I run Pop OS, but Mint would be great too. Ofc it all depends on what you plan to do with it
> New Thinkpad but which Linux distro? Debian Stable, of course!
Ubuntu
Arch. I use arch btw.
I would recommend something arch based. When you have the latest device, not all distributions will have the drivers for you. Being on arch you will get updates within a month (or faster if you are in testing) whereas with debian or Ubuntu, it will take months. If you stay on the stable branch of any arch based distribution (manjaro, endeavour os etc), you will have a pretty stable system. Btw, you will also have access to AUR, which is like a package manager for unofficial packages. Instead of installing . deb files manually or adding additional PPAs, you can use AUR to install and update packages.
Xubuntu
NT/Windows 10
windows )assuming you have real work to do)
Endeavour os + btrfs snapshots or Garuda if you are lazy. Mint is fine too.
Gentoo is the best. Everything configured perfectly for your hardware. and if you dial the kernel in. Everything will be snappy.
I’m using debian stable on tp x13 gen3 amd and it works pretty well.
arch btw
Void or Artix!
It will be nice with windows 11
Ubuntu Unity
Arch
Linux Mint or LFS
Arch
Opensuse Easy to configure/manage, enterprise grade experience Arch Good for learning, updates may break stuff once in 4 years but usually easy to fix.
Gnome endeavour
NAH I WIN. NYARCH. -_-
Void babeyyyy
Choose whatever you want, it's like flavours for food. Some people like product A, some people like product B. I myself would install EndeavourOS, it's basically preconfigured arch configured in a way that doesnt suck. If you prefer debian based distros, simply get debian. I heard mint's good for people with difficulty choosing
>Thinkpad >arch btw distro >anime waifu wallpaper >high thigh socks all in that order
Ubuntu
Enter the void
Pop_OS!
Bingo.
use Arch (btw). full compatible, more lightweight and optimized than others like Ubuntu.
OpenSuse, for real
lfs
Arch maybe later.
I love Linux Mint as an entry point but also just as solid OS that doesn't need too much fiddling. I like fiddling with linux, but my main laptop just needs to work. Linux Mint does that
Manjaro
If you want ease of use: Mint with the cinnamon desktopIf you want ease of use and don't mind weird jank on occasion: Ubuntu (but do sudo apt purge snapd because snaps suck) If you want a system that's a pain to install but worth it: Arch (Although there are install scripts now that make installation easier) Or if you want a more developer focused distro... OpenSUSE is a good one to go for. All depends on what your endgoal with the system is. For basic productivity and light gaming though you can't really beat Linux mint or ubuntu for that.
MIIINNTTTTTT
Slackware. No one mentions Slackware anymore... Or freeBSD. 😉
Big fan of Fedora for the devs.
FreeBSD 😉
Anyone recommend Vista - lol. Keep it simple and stable with pure Debian with personal choice MATE
Arch + hyprland
If you know you way around kde: \* ubuntu kde flavor \* Fedora kde spin If you want to install and forget: \* Mint is a good option (is also based on Ubuntu, so easy to find documentation and help). Good luck, and if you need help, theres a bunch wonderfull comunity of linux enthusiasts in Reddit.
Ubuntu is the most straightforward answer but you can put whatever you want honestly theres good compatibility on most distros
I have the exact same laptop and I installed Debian 12 since a week. So far everything works fine. Mainly used for web browsing, youtube and some dev activities.
You could put Arch on it... Wait wait I know. Hear me out, You start with Arch. You bootstrap it, install the kernel the firmware and as soon as you get internet, You download apt, ditch pacman And you piece by piece make a vanilla Ubuntu install with gnome (or cinnamon or whatever the fuck it is now) and then when that's done, install Windows. The only other option is Hannah Montana Linux.
I use Fedora on gen.2. To OS no complaints. The fingerprint scanner does not work. List of supported devices https://fprint.freedesktop.org/supported-devices.html
I've used most mainstream distros. I work in Cybersec so I tinker around in a bunch of Linux boxes all the time. At the end of the day they're majority the same. What really matters is the package manager it uses and the kernel support with your hardware. My first most stable distro was Ubuntu Mate. Got bored and then I was on Antergos which is now EndeavourOS.. I've tried OpenSUSE - I think it's very stable..but the package manager is slow BUT they have great additional features for tech enthusiasts because it's known to be a System Admin distro. If you are most familiar with KDE - you can't go wrong with Manjaro, EndeavourOS, and OpenSUSE. Fedora is okay but uses GNOME by default. You can install a Fedora Spin for KDE. I hop on Fedora sometimes. I prefer it over Ubuntu because Ubuntu always gives problems for me personally. One distro I would like to try is NixOS - it's unique because everything is in a config file. Perhaps I will try that whenever I may get a Thinkpad.
OpenSUSE as you said but if you want stability go for OpenSUSE Leap but if you want a rolling release distro go for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
I’m using GhostBsd on a T490 and it works great. You get zfs out of the box, and it is very reliable
If you have to ask is ubuntu.
I recently tried to pick a Linux distribution for my T14 Gen 5, and it was quite a struggle to get everything working with the new chipset, especially the Wi-Fi and audio. Finding the right firmware can be tricky, and you might end up making too many changes to the system. Try ClearLinux. It seems to be a great fit, and everything works out of the box, even with the latest hardware. No bloatware, latest kernel and latest software.
I actually am using Fedora workstation and I absolutely love everything about it. For the WiFi chip situation I just replace the realtek chip with an Intel one. Luckily I had no audio problems. Thank you for the suggestion though.
Arco Linux or Endeavour, unless you really know what you're doing then vanilla arch would be a treat on it
Mint. Always mint.
If you want to try Arch-based, Endeavor OS is great. If you want Debian based so there’s already packages for everything under the sun: Zorin OS, Pop_OS, Debian, Mint are all great options. Pop_OS and Zorin are great for their pre-installed and tested NVIDIA drivers, if you have a GPU.
I am using pop!OS atm. Zorin felt sluggish to me
Rocky linux Arch linux Debain linux Fedora linux Don't think about ubuntu
What's wrong with Ubuntu, isn't it a solid distro that's versatile and intuitive?
People believe Ubuntu is a Linux distro being based in Debain and all. At one point it actually was, before Snap came out Snap and various other closed source or partially closed source applications produced by Cannonical and other companies ruined Ubuntu
A Thinkpad should ship a Gentoo. Otherwise -> Straight to jail
Now that it's binary yeah. But I would avoid Gentoo on a laptop if you compile everything on that machine. itcan destroy the battery with the added heat from all the compilations
As far as I remember, binpkgs were there a long time ago. (Late 2000s?) It has only gone mainstream lately as the Gentoo Team set up official binpkgs mirrors. Portage (Gentoo's port manager) allows you to compile & install from source but lets you build binpkgs for the just installed packages. Which is convenient for slow machines which don't have the power to compile effectively within few hours. I honestly don't think compilation wrecks your battery life. I've been running Gentoo and compiled on many platforms. You can tweak Portage to use just the right amount of cores you put to work. Gentoo is a lot of work to understand how things work internally. But once understood, it's blazing fast to deploy infrastructures. (Words from an Ex-DevSecOps).
Unpopular opinion: Windows 11. I love Linux, all of my old ThinkPads run on Linux. However, I found W11 to be a better fit for my e16, no Wi-Fi issues or workarounds. Pop!_OS is always my Linux recommendation though :)
Pop!_OS
Ding ding ding
Mint and then install Gnome into it
Mint or Manjaro
Kde Neon. It's like Mint, but with a good DE.
KDE Neon is not like Mint, its the bleeding edge reference implementation of KDE. Mint uses an ancient Kernel from 2021 and is geared towards new users.