BeepLenovo’s New ThinkPads Score 10/10 for Repairability— Repair goes mega mainstream with the launch of Lenovo's new T-series laptops
DarkcoffeeLenovo also owns the Motorola phone brand, and they’re going to adopt/allow GrapheneOS. I think they know how to grab customers right now, and I honestly like it.
artyomThey’re usually also well supported on Linux, and even sell them with Ubuntu pre-installed. Generally not a terrible brand.
Is that a good idea for a non tech person* with no Linux experience who absolutely needs to send documents successfully to others the first time without delay or should I just wait until my degree is finished and I am less dependent on document interoperability and have fewer absolute deadlines?
- My level of technical knowledge is here: if a program or usb device isn’t functioning, I know to check the driver, but I always have to look up what the device manager is called. On the other hand, I am capable of looking things up and following simple instructions, which has to count for something.
Not gonna lie, Linux is a pretty big learning curve, but it’s worth it to get away from Apple and (especially) Microslop Winblows. It’s the only OS that respects the user.
IMO switching to Linux as a new user is no harder than switching from Windows to Mac, which I think is something more people can identify with and aren’t afraid of, for the most part.
Couldn’t disagree more. Having to learn how to use the command line to complete basic tasks is a huge learning curve.
what basic task have you run into that requires the command line? have you tried Mint? my 83 year old dad has been on mint for over a year with no complaints, and I don’t think he even knows how to open the terminal …
I’m just not interested in rehashing this conversation. Anyone who has used Linux already knows, even if they won’t admit it. Being dishonest about it isn’t helping anyone. I used Windows for 30 years and never touched any kind of CLI in that time. I did use it on MacOS but only for Homebrew because there’s no other GUI alternative.
OK, if your talking homebrew on Mac, then your not just doing “basic” things. yes, for power users on Linux, we need to use the CLI. For actual basic things (browsing, word processing, consuming media) you absolutely don’t need to touch it at all on many “noon” distros.
So claiming that there’s a steep learning curve for basic things is going to turn off new users, who would be perfectly fine never looking at a terminal to do what they need
i think it heavily depends on the person’s use case. if someone is doing web browsing and maybe making a couple word documents, the learning curve is negligible. also, you dont need to use BASH to do most things, it’s 2026. most anything you can think of, you can do via GUI.
That Is almost always a hardware compatibility issue, if you get a machine that is specifically meant for Linux, even the jankiest of distros will not have all but the last issue, and for the last one if fractional scaling is causing issues just double your scale.
if you get a machine that is specifically meant for Linux
LOL those are all like $2k
if fractional scaling is causing issues just double your scale.
I don’t think you understand what this is…
LOL those are all like $2k I’ll give you that if you want it officially supported they tend to come with those price tags, although i did find this one which is officially supporting linux at the midrange price tag Laptop, I mainly mean that the individual components are supported which you could determine through a little bit of research, but generally speaking if you don’t want to pay the premium, you should be prepared for a little bit of trouble shooting, but normally it is only for the webcam nowadays. Overall, I have changed the os on many of my laptops, and they have always either had no missing functionality after installation or had a forum that explained how to fix its issues that was a one and done fix.
if fractional scaling is causing issues just double your scale.I don’t think you understand what this is…
Could you be more specific about what you mean? I don’t think I claimed anything that would be out of the purview of fractional scaling.
Amazon.com: Lenovo Business Laptop - Linux Mint (Cinnamon) - Intel i5-8265U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 15.6" FHD 1920x1080 Display, Full Keyboard, Fast Charging : Electronics
Amazon.com: Lenovo Business Laptop - Linux Mint (Cinnamon) - Intel i5-8265U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 15.6" FHD 1920x1080 Display, Full Keyboard, Fast Charging : Electronics
LOL those are all like $2k
I’m typing this message from a 16-year-old ThinkPad T410 running Linux flawlessly. cost 60CAD. any ThinkPad will run Linux like a dream, and the newer ones are like, $200-600 second-hand, depending on how fancy you want it to be.
We’re discussing brand new dedicated Linux laptops and you want to bring up a 16 year old Windows computer? Yeah nah, you’re just intentionally arguing in bad faith. Goodbye.
no shitdip, im emphasising how cheap shit can run linux. your “ohhh computer has to cost ten bajillion dollars to work good onlinux !1!1!!1” argument is dumb as fuck.
that still pertains to usercase. if a user has a thinkpad the whole shebang is gonna work ootb. if you cant research ‘is my laptop compatible with [os]’, stick to iphones.
TʜᴇʀᴀᴘʏGⒶʀʏ⁽ᵗʰᵉʸ‘ᵗʰᵉᵐ⁾Couldn’t disagree more. Having to learn how to use a Mac is a huge learning curve.
Lol what I was using Linux when I was a kid. Other than learning how to use terminal commands and a package manager occasionally it’s hardly any different from other OSs
Try with a VM first, or install on an external drive and boot from USB.
I got a Mac at work and I struggled for a long time to do many basic things. Any change can be a challenge and there’s a learning curve. Same moving to Linux
You’re as prepared as anyone ever is. Getting good with a search engine is the best preparation.
Also, if that fails? Most distros have a forum where you can ask for help and actually get it.
Document interoperability? LibreOffice works well, and you can save in all the same formats as MS Office and more.
The learning curve is mostly what the new tools and programs are called. But so much stuff actually works better over there in Linux land - VLC, Krita, Blender, Audacity, much more.
Try things in a Virtual Machine! If you really can’t give up some of your windows tools, you can try dual-booting, but Windows Update doesn’t always play nice with another OS on the machine.
Also, don’t forget creating a bootable USB stick with the distros you think you’d like. Rufus or balena etcher should get you there, just figure out what distros you think you’d like to try out, as sometimes it can be easier to set those up than create a vm, plus you might be able to notice any obvious issues running natively.
I’m my family’s “computer guy” despite not being overly tech savvy, and I always tell them it’s just cause I can use google. Being good at something is literally just a matter of how quickly can you pick up on how something is done, and how well can you retain that for the future through whatever means work for you.
Your technical knowledge as described is unironically far beyond the average user so I’d say you’re probably good. Depends on what you want to do though. You can occasionally have problems if you need tk dk something specific. Word processing is down pat at this point. You won’t have the local version of Microsoft Office, but there are open source alternatives like LibreOffice that are compatible with Office file types. For formatting, you may have tk download some Microsoft owned fonts since they’re technically proprietary and not bundled with Linux/your office suite. In browser, Microsoft 365 and Google Docs works no differently than normal.
You should be fine if it’s just messing with the usual document types but my understanding is universities use a lot of proprietary bullshit for homework and stuff these days that probably doesn’t play well with Linux. I would try setting up a virtual machine or a old PC if you have one first to dip your toes in the water
Sargon of ACABInstalling something like Linux Mint or Ubuntu is fairly easy. The hardest part is probably creating the install media and that’s not particularly hard ei her.
If you don’t rely on specific software (like Adobe), using Linux is a good idea. I’d still advice not to mess with a computer you rely on and wait until you have sufficient time to troubleshoot something. Even if nothing goes wrong a new OS can still take a little getting used to.
Depends. If you use Google docs or the browser version of Office 365 (or whatever it’s called now) you’ll need fine. If you want to use an offline document editor, you’ll need to be technical enough to understand the difference between file formats like doc, odf and pdf.
If you receive a doc file, edit it in LibreOffice and send it back, the recipient might complain that the layout has shifted slightly.
If you need to be absolutely sure the recipient gets the document layed out exactly as you created it and they don’t need to edit it, exporting to pdf is a good option.
If you need to send or receive Excel/spreadsheet files you might have a bad time, I think. Though interoperability there may have improved since the last time I tried that sort of thing.
Before switching to Linux, download the Windows/Mac version of LibreOffice or OnlyOffice and see if it suits your needs. If not, it should be possible to run Office 365 on Linux using Wine or Winboat. However, Wine might not work or require too much tinkering for the average noob. Winboat should be more foolproof, but will increase the startup time of the application because you’re running it inside a Windows VM.
NinjaTurtleI think you’ll be OK but there will be a slightly learning curve since it is a different OS. As for documents make sure they work well with either LibreOffice or OnlyOffice, which should be available on other OSes. There are also always online office suites if needed.
If you have a spare flash drive, you can also test out Linux distros (flavors) before installing them in a live mode, like a demo.
Best of luck.
your level of technical knowledge is so far beyond the average person’s that it’s insane. the idea of ‘my computer has a problem, i’m going to google what the popup says’ simply does not occur to so, so many people.
also- you can definitely make and send documents with linux, no problem. more popular distros (ubuntu, mint, fedora (which i recommend, but im biased)) are as intuitive and point-and-click for surface level use as Windows is, and most come pre-installed with an office suite.
If your computer has 4+ cores/threads and 8GB or more of ram, I’d set up a virtual machine to test it out.
Linux itself works just fine for anything, but it’s different. There’s a learning curve and you might find that the thing you need to do immediately has a different process than what you’re used to, or needs some setting up first. There’s also always formatting differences between word and libreoffice writer (same can be said for different versions of word), and some higher level excel things that aren’t easy or not possible in calc.
You’re exactly at the perfect level to start getting your feet wet without losing productive time (as long as you don’t go on a distro-hop frenzy 🤣).
Weirdly enough, you’re way ahead of 99% of the tech-using population worldwide.
If you know what a driver and device manager is and know how to Google search you are already leagues ahead of most ordinary people, especially with AI now getting answers is even easier, if your use case is simple student stuff and sending documents, Linux is gonna be very comfortable for that, the only concern is a minor chance of driver issues for something like biometric sensor or graphics cards on laptops, for that you can look up which distro and driver combo works for your specific hardware, but in my experience these days by and large most Linux distro just work out of the box with mordern hardware, you can test one out before installing with a live USB and if you want the most amount of compatibility but a laptop that comes pre installed with Linux or has the option of Linux provided by the manufacturer as that guarantees the hardware plays nice at least with the distro the manufacturer supports
who absolutely needs to send documents successfully to others
While the problem is Micro$lop intentionally not following their own document standard, i’d say wait until you finish your degree.
Generally speaking though, unless you ave very specific needs, you’ll most likely do fine with linux. You can try a liveUSB version: boot it of off a USB drive, test it, without installing (it’ll be slower though).
Didn’t they have some huge controversy for having spyware pre-installed or something like that a few years ago? Doesn’t take away from the direction they’re moving in now, though! Hopefully they continue to move in this more pro-consumer direction.
Yeah the Superfish incident. AFAIK they haven’t done anything sketchy since then and if you’re the type to just wipe everything and install your own distro anyway it shouldn’t really affect anything but still not a great look.