3 ms·

Not cheap, but the Thinkpad X1 Carbons are machines of the same quality as Macbooks. They are comparable to the Air in weight (but a little larger, I think) and

Not cheap, but the Thinkpad X1 Carbons are machines of the same quality as Macbooks. They are comparable to the Air in weight (but a little larger, I think) and are designed with reasonable trade-offs. They (of course) (only) come in stylish matte black, and have the little red trackpoint, which I personally consider the best input device by far (not counting the keyboard obviously)... If you decide for a professional Thinkpad (which the X1 is), strongly consider upgrading the warranty. On-site support with coverage for accidental damages is so nice when you need it.... My 4th gen (the current is 6th gen) machine (which is technically a yoga gen1 and not a 4th gen Carbon, but the same base machine) has been running Linux since it's second power-on :)

0xferruccio 8y ago
thanks for the advice! I like these Thinkpads, they seem what I was looking for
spotman 8y ago
Agree. My sixth gen happily runs fedora daily. I have had it for about a year, no complaints.
geoka9 8y ago
+1, I love my X1C6: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18875925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18875925
dfgdghdf 8y ago
I wish I could agree, but my X1C6 has many issues on Debian. * Hibernate did not work out-of-the-box * Lack of fractional scaling makes everything too small or ludicrously big (100% or 200%) * X server crashes often on suspend * Audio is too quiet on maximum volume * Occasionally CPU performance tanks, and I have to reboot * Track-pad is unresponsive compared to a MacBook (if you have not used a MacBook often before you may not notice this, and it won't be an issue) * Battery life is a pretty middling 5 hours.
- frfl 8y ago
  I think I can suggest the following to address some of these issues - Battery: A package called TLP should drastically improve battery life[1][2]. Thinkpad t480s with battery life ranging from 6-8 for browsing to 13+ with min-brightness and just playing music. Before TLP I think it was close to 5 max. - I'm assuming since X is crashing you're not using Wayland. I've noticed fractional scaling (which is a thing in Wayland) causes blurry text. This isn't an issue in X, but I've noticed if I mess around with custom xrandr config to customize stuff, I have issues -- i.e. total system lockup, reboot required -- with plugging in/out external monitors on to the fly. Anyway, a custom xrandr setup should make things a bit easier on your eyes.[3] - For CPU performance maybe this anti-throttling script should help. I'm able to run at max CPU clock frequency at 85-90+ deg temps without throttling when doing CPU intense stuff[4] I'm running Arch instead of Debian, so maybe having newer kernels or packages help in some aspects, such as hibernating, track-pad, and X. Idk. Running newest versions isn't always great either, there are often regressions and bugs you notice after upgrading. [1]: https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-ma... [2]: This is arch wiki, but it should still have applicable information for other distro such as debian and it's a bit more readable IMO, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP [3]: FYI, this is somewhat specific for a 1440p display, not 4k or 1080p, but you should be able to modify it for 4k it needed by adjusting the `--fb` value primarily. https://gist.github.com/francium/d93bcf75884ebeea216cc04cee0e2b9d https://gist.github.com/francium/d93bcf75884ebeea216cc04cee0... [4]: https://github.com/erpalma/throttled https://github.com/erpalma/throttled
- svennek 8y ago
  I think using Debian combined with an untrue belief of Linux being as polished as Win or MacOS is the root of some of your problems. As for battery, my two year old battery hits somewhere between 7 and 8 hours when I work without power for a day. I don't use suspend at all and have never used the trackpad (why would I, it has a superior pointing device). The trackpad can thankfully be fully disabled in the bios (and has been since the beginning). The trackpoint combined with the on-site warranty is why I don't even spend time looking for "alternatives"!
ctnb 8y ago
Yup, my 5th gen runs flawlessly with arch. Only thing that doesn't by default is the fingerprint reader.

0xferruccio 8y ago

thanks for the advice! I like these Thinkpads, they seem what I was looking for

spotman 8y ago

Agree. My sixth gen happily runs fedora daily. I have had it for about a year, no complaints.

geoka9 8y ago

+1, I love my X1C6: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18875925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18875925

dfgdghdf 8y ago

I wish I could agree, but my X1C6 has many issues on Debian. * Hibernate did not work out-of-the-box * Lack of fractional scaling makes everything too small or ludicrously big (100% or 200%) * X server crashes often on suspend * Audio is too quiet on maximum volume * Occasionally CPU performance tanks, and I have to reboot * Track-pad is unresponsive compared to a MacBook (if you have not used a MacBook often before you may not notice this, and it won't be an issue) * Battery life is a pretty middling 5 hours.

frfl 8y ago
I think I can suggest the following to address some of these issues - Battery: A package called TLP should drastically improve battery life[1][2]. Thinkpad t480s with battery life ranging from 6-8 for browsing to 13+ with min-brightness and just playing music. Before TLP I think it was close to 5 max. - I'm assuming since X is crashing you're not using Wayland. I've noticed fractional scaling (which is a thing in Wayland) causes blurry text. This isn't an issue in X, but I've noticed if I mess around with custom xrandr config to customize stuff, I have issues -- i.e. total system lockup, reboot required -- with plugging in/out external monitors on to the fly. Anyway, a custom xrandr setup should make things a bit easier on your eyes.[3] - For CPU performance maybe this anti-throttling script should help. I'm able to run at max CPU clock frequency at 85-90+ deg temps without throttling when doing CPU intense stuff[4] I'm running Arch instead of Debian, so maybe having newer kernels or packages help in some aspects, such as hibernating, track-pad, and X. Idk. Running newest versions isn't always great either, there are often regressions and bugs you notice after upgrading. [1]: https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-ma... [2]: This is arch wiki, but it should still have applicable information for other distro such as debian and it's a bit more readable IMO, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP [3]: FYI, this is somewhat specific for a 1440p display, not 4k or 1080p, but you should be able to modify it for 4k it needed by adjusting the `--fb` value primarily. https://gist.github.com/francium/d93bcf75884ebeea216cc04cee0e2b9d https://gist.github.com/francium/d93bcf75884ebeea216cc04cee0... [4]: https://github.com/erpalma/throttled https://github.com/erpalma/throttled
svennek 8y ago
I think using Debian combined with an untrue belief of Linux being as polished as Win or MacOS is the root of some of your problems. As for battery, my two year old battery hits somewhere between 7 and 8 hours when I work without power for a day. I don't use suspend at all and have never used the trackpad (why would I, it has a superior pointing device). The trackpad can thankfully be fully disabled in the bios (and has been since the beginning). The trackpoint combined with the on-site warranty is why I don't even spend time looking for "alternatives"!

ctnb 8y ago

Yup, my 5th gen runs flawlessly with arch. Only thing that doesn't by default is the fingerprint reader.