4 ms·

I recently purchased a T490 and it works reasonably well with Linux. My model has the base 1080p display rated at 250 nits, and while resolution and colour are

I recently purchased a T490 and it works reasonably well with Linux. My model has the base 1080p display rated at 250 nits, and while resolution and colour are no match for an MBP, the display surprisingly gets bright enough for some outdoor use. Build quality is solid and keyboard is great. Speakers sound pretty rough but get decently loud. I got maybe 7-8 hours of use with the screen at 60%, and alternating between coding in Emacs and watching some videos. I've tried Manjaro and the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and have had no issues that would be a deal breaker. The only annoyance is jittery movement with the TrackPoint, but I've had that on every modern ThinkPad running Linux. I've been leaning towards using the trackpad more often and it seems to work okay.

faizshah 7y ago
Same, I bought a t480 but I went with POP OS. I bought it to see if I could switch to linux. On the plus side its a solid and stable dev machine, iterm seems slower than the linux terminal. Rubymine, pycharm etc are stable. Google cloud shell freezes in browser sometimes but firefox quantum and chromium work pretty well otherwise. It also works great with my uhd monitor even tho it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card. But, I encounter screen tearing a lot on web pages. The trackpad is horrible in comparison to a macbook pro. There is some pretty nice support for multiple workspaces but they dont have the amazingly useful trackpad gestures. I honestly feel like if there was a thinkpad with a trackpad as good as a macbook pro 2012 then there would be no problem switching.
- mdtusz 7y ago
  Learn to love the trackpoint and when you go back to a MacBook you'll be sad it's not there.
  - ahnick 7y ago
    honest question, how to love the trackpoint? I constantly overshoot or undershoot my target when applying pressure to the stick. Any suggestions? Should I adjust some settings? Do I need to just dedicate to using it for a couple of weeks?
  - disposedtrolley 7y ago
    The trackpoint is kinda crappy on newer ThinkPads. I'm not sure what they've changed, but movement is always jittery under Linux for me. My X230 is buttery smooth. The X1 Extreme and T490 I've tried, not so much.
    - faizshah 7y ago
      That's been my experience with my new t480. I wonder if there's some other drivers that could make it smoother?

faizshah 7y ago

Same, I bought a t480 but I went with POP OS. I bought it to see if I could switch to linux. On the plus side its a solid and stable dev machine, iterm seems slower than the linux terminal. Rubymine, pycharm etc are stable. Google cloud shell freezes in browser sometimes but firefox quantum and chromium work pretty well otherwise. It also works great with my uhd monitor even tho it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card. But, I encounter screen tearing a lot on web pages. The trackpad is horrible in comparison to a macbook pro. There is some pretty nice support for multiple workspaces but they dont have the amazingly useful trackpad gestures. I honestly feel like if there was a thinkpad with a trackpad as good as a macbook pro 2012 then there would be no problem switching.

mdtusz 7y ago
Learn to love the trackpoint and when you go back to a MacBook you'll be sad it's not there.
- ahnick 7y ago
  honest question, how to love the trackpoint? I constantly overshoot or undershoot my target when applying pressure to the stick. Any suggestions? Should I adjust some settings? Do I need to just dedicate to using it for a couple of weeks?
- disposedtrolley 7y ago
  The trackpoint is kinda crappy on newer ThinkPads. I'm not sure what they've changed, but movement is always jittery under Linux for me. My X230 is buttery smooth. The X1 Extreme and T490 I've tried, not so much.
  - faizshah 7y ago
    That's been my experience with my new t480. I wonder if there's some other drivers that could make it smoother?