Hi everyone.
Can anyone guide me into choosing a Linux distro for this laptop (or laptops in general)?
I want to get it for my dad as a general browsing machine that can maybe also play some very old games. (think 2010 era)
How do I pick a distro? I tried checking the drivers page but it seems, at least from this page, that there are almost no drivers available on linux for this machine.
The same seems to be the case for many other laptops I looked at...I also have a ThinkBook 16 G7 IML as a work machine that I could not find proper drivers for (keyboard, camera, graphics card - I get artifacting very often)
Help? How do I research this?
EDIT: Thanks for the overwhelming support! What I took away is:
- Most drivers are packaged in the kernel in Linux so no dedicated drivers are needed most of the time
- Proprietary drivers are an issue (camera on the 16 G7 IML, Nvidia drivers)
- The 940MX may not have Linux support, I'll check
- It's a good laptop overall
- Consider Mint, Tuxedo OS, Zorin (for mac users), Ubuntu
- Consider A485 (AMD version of T480 with Vega 8), T470 (non-P - no nvidia driver issues), T480 (faster low power CPU than T470 high power CPU)
- Resources: DistroWatch.com DistroChooser Linux Hardware
Yes I've considered desktops and would build one in a heartbeat if it would be useful for my dad, but he 100% needs the portability. Thanks for the heads up.
This thread proves 100% that the linux community really is friendly as hell. I don't know where people get the impression that noobs are treated badly.
I just checked compatibility between Mint and the 940MX and it seems good. Here are some links. The ones with "computer" in the link are specifically T470 or T470P models. The site is very slow for some reason but it will load eventually. If you get a gateway timeout it's likely to succeed if you retry.
- https://linux-hardware.org/?view=search&vendor=Nvidia&name=940MX&typeid=graphics+card#list
- https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci%3A10de-134d-17aa-2246
- https://linux-hardware.org/?computer=f4e6936f5da7
- https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci%3A10de-134d-17aa-38e2
- https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci%3A10de-134d-17aa-39c8
- https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci%3A10de-134d-17aa-39ce
- https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci%3A10de-134d-17aa-39f1
- https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci%3A10de-134d-17aa-39f4
- https://linux-hardware.org/?computer=768a61add139
- https://linux-hardware.org/?computer=99a6c68e065d
- https://linux-hardware.org/?computer=846677ea455f
- https://linux-hardware.org/?computer=7598b7212af5
Most Linux distros will have you create a bootable USB, and with that you can try out the distro before installing it. I just did this with my wife's laptop to see which ones had the best support.
That PC is new enough that you won't have any particular limitations, so pick whatever looks and feels good.
If you're not sure, go with Linux Mint. If you dad is more familiar with using a Mac, go with Zorin OS.
hmm sure that's probably the best way to know. I'll try a few and check if any have issues, thanks man
I run Mint on a couple of older thinkpads (430 era) and have zero problems.
I think this is the best reply here, the best thing is to just try it out!