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Just thought I’d chime in to say I’m loving my Thinkpad X1 with Debian. If you want to install Debian on the X1 it’s pretty easy. Just make sure to fix some of

Just thought I’d chime in to say I’m loving my Thinkpad X1 with Debian. If you want to install Debian on the X1 it’s pretty easy. Just make sure to fix some of the sleep issues using the (easy) instructions on this page, which in my experience still apply to Debian: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_6) https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carb...

LeoPanthera 7y ago
"Just make sure to fix some of the sleep issues..." A great example of why people buy Macs, though. Most people don't want to faff around with hackery getting Linux to work properly. And with Windows 10's horrible privacy issues, Macs are still the best choice. They're buying them for the software, not the hardware.
- TaylorAlexander 7y ago
  I understand these issues are an impediment to Linux adoption. However people always say this as if Linux is at fault. Well, mostly the sleep issues exist because the laptop ships with windows, and windows has some fancy sleep mode that involves a specific bios setting. Linux uses more traditional sleep settings, so when installing Linux one must change that bios setting and then run a command to tell the OS that setting has been changed. So you didn’t say Linux is at fault, but just to be clear: this is just what you get when the manufacturer doesn’t support your preferred OS. However as a robotics engineer, I prefer open source over ease of use. I’m not suggesting regular people do this, but sharing the tips with the Hacker News crowd who may also be fine with running a few terminal commands to get a great OS experience on hardware which may be a better value than a MacBook today given their issues discussed in this thread.
  - josephg 7y ago
    I think everything you’re saying is right; but also it doesn’t matter. When my mum asks me which computer to buy, I’m not going to recommend the computer that has defects that I can explain away. I’m going to recommend the machine that works out of the box, where I won’t have to goof around with graphics drivers via PPI or whatever to make an external display work.
    - thelittleone 7y ago
      I agree with you and for a long time I recommended apple to others. But now I don’t feel comfortable doing that anymore because “it just works” no longer holds true.
      - josephg 7y ago
        I agree. My 2012 MacBook Air was rock solid and often made it between macOS point releases without being restarted. My 2016 MacBook Pro has display issues, keyboard issues, the USB c power cable falls out sometimes. When I first got it, the machine sometimes crashed when connecting an external display. They fixed that, and then the machine would just not see the display sometimes until I reboot. I use an EGPU now - which performs better but the machine ends up needing a reboot (or just hard crashing) every week or two. It’s abysmal. Oh, and I’m starting to get the stage light effect on the display now. I’m relieved I’ll be able to get that fixed for free now, since I imagine it’s only going to get worse as the cable degrades. I feel like Apple snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I’ll probably replace this machine in a year or two. I don’t want to run Linux or windows on my work laptop but I’ll do what I need to do in order to have a reliable computing environment. Since they’re near the end of this design cycle I’m hoping this 2019 edition or the one after have most of the design problems fixed. If not, Linux for windows is looking mighty fine these days.
    - TaylorAlexander 7y ago
      Sure, but I really must emphasize that I am not advocating this setup for your mom or anyone’s mom necessarily. I’m saying that if you’re a developer you may like this setup. The fact that Linux is not always a great choice for non technical people isn’t really relevant to the value some of the people from Hacker News may get out of it.
- peterkelly 7y ago
  My god. Problems with sleep/resume were what ultimately convinced me to switch from Linux to Mac 12 years ago. It's insane to see there are still issues with it today.
  - thelittleone 7y ago
    I actually have this problem with 2017 MBP. If I put lid down with anything less than 10% it will black screen and repaired a hard reboot upon opening the screen. Fortunately these days most apps have auto save.
  - TaylorAlexander 7y ago
    Well, as I’ve said in a different comment, there is a very clear reason why the computer does not come configured properly for Linux sleep modes. Windows is using a new sleep system that seems to involve disabling a sleep mode in the BIOS, and the laptop arrives installed with Windows. Once you install Linux, you just need to go in to the BIOS and change the setting from windows specific sleep modes to traditional sleep modes, and then after you reboot you need to tell Linux that sleep mode is now available. It’s not a problem with Linux, it’s just due to the fact that Linux and windows are different and the laptop is configured for windows. Once you make the change the sleep behavior is wonderful and I keep the laptop in my bag for days at a time on sleep.

LeoPanthera 7y ago

"Just make sure to fix some of the sleep issues..." A great example of why people buy Macs, though. Most people don't want to faff around with hackery getting Linux to work properly. And with Windows 10's horrible privacy issues, Macs are still the best choice. They're buying them for the software, not the hardware.

TaylorAlexander 7y ago
I understand these issues are an impediment to Linux adoption. However people always say this as if Linux is at fault. Well, mostly the sleep issues exist because the laptop ships with windows, and windows has some fancy sleep mode that involves a specific bios setting. Linux uses more traditional sleep settings, so when installing Linux one must change that bios setting and then run a command to tell the OS that setting has been changed. So you didn’t say Linux is at fault, but just to be clear: this is just what you get when the manufacturer doesn’t support your preferred OS. However as a robotics engineer, I prefer open source over ease of use. I’m not suggesting regular people do this, but sharing the tips with the Hacker News crowd who may also be fine with running a few terminal commands to get a great OS experience on hardware which may be a better value than a MacBook today given their issues discussed in this thread.
- josephg 7y ago
  I think everything you’re saying is right; but also it doesn’t matter. When my mum asks me which computer to buy, I’m not going to recommend the computer that has defects that I can explain away. I’m going to recommend the machine that works out of the box, where I won’t have to goof around with graphics drivers via PPI or whatever to make an external display work.
  - thelittleone 7y ago
    I agree with you and for a long time I recommended apple to others. But now I don’t feel comfortable doing that anymore because “it just works” no longer holds true.
    - josephg 7y ago
      I agree. My 2012 MacBook Air was rock solid and often made it between macOS point releases without being restarted. My 2016 MacBook Pro has display issues, keyboard issues, the USB c power cable falls out sometimes. When I first got it, the machine sometimes crashed when connecting an external display. They fixed that, and then the machine would just not see the display sometimes until I reboot. I use an EGPU now - which performs better but the machine ends up needing a reboot (or just hard crashing) every week or two. It’s abysmal. Oh, and I’m starting to get the stage light effect on the display now. I’m relieved I’ll be able to get that fixed for free now, since I imagine it’s only going to get worse as the cable degrades. I feel like Apple snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I’ll probably replace this machine in a year or two. I don’t want to run Linux or windows on my work laptop but I’ll do what I need to do in order to have a reliable computing environment. Since they’re near the end of this design cycle I’m hoping this 2019 edition or the one after have most of the design problems fixed. If not, Linux for windows is looking mighty fine these days.
  - TaylorAlexander 7y ago
    Sure, but I really must emphasize that I am not advocating this setup for your mom or anyone’s mom necessarily. I’m saying that if you’re a developer you may like this setup. The fact that Linux is not always a great choice for non technical people isn’t really relevant to the value some of the people from Hacker News may get out of it.
peterkelly 7y ago
My god. Problems with sleep/resume were what ultimately convinced me to switch from Linux to Mac 12 years ago. It's insane to see there are still issues with it today.
- thelittleone 7y ago
  I actually have this problem with 2017 MBP. If I put lid down with anything less than 10% it will black screen and repaired a hard reboot upon opening the screen. Fortunately these days most apps have auto save.
- TaylorAlexander 7y ago
  Well, as I’ve said in a different comment, there is a very clear reason why the computer does not come configured properly for Linux sleep modes. Windows is using a new sleep system that seems to involve disabling a sleep mode in the BIOS, and the laptop arrives installed with Windows. Once you install Linux, you just need to go in to the BIOS and change the setting from windows specific sleep modes to traditional sleep modes, and then after you reboot you need to tell Linux that sleep mode is now available. It’s not a problem with Linux, it’s just due to the fact that Linux and windows are different and the laptop is configured for windows. Once you make the change the sleep behavior is wonderful and I keep the laptop in my bag for days at a time on sleep.