And of course I’m installing Linux on it. Install went well, even the fingerprint sensor built in to the laptop works.
Mostly this will be a school and DND machine but always nice to have a functional laptop for whatever else I may need it for.
Congrats on the Thinkpad. I look forward to your next post on /c/unixsocks.
I really want to know why we are staring at basically the same screen from decades ago. Why isn’t GRUB menu a fancy little thing by now?
When I was a kiddo, dabbling in duel boot, I remember this screen. It was slightly more basic, but pretty much the same. I always figured it would eventually get upgraded to something more… I don’t know, fun to look at? Something minimal, but also customizable… background image, background music, maybe a menu for doing customizations right there… like what options are to be shown.
No… it’s pretty much the same. Why?
Edit: I realize that I am stupid. It’s because GRUB needs to survive when everything else is broken. GRUB is the first and last standing soldier. Its simplicity is a feature enabling that capacity. But also, you can customize GRUB if you want… so I am just dumb. Have a good day.
I dunno, I run Debian and my GRUB looks like this:
I wish it didn’t but I don’t want to risk breaking it and I don’t want to risk breaking it just for it to be white on black, and I don’t know what I’d have instead
Because there is very little overlap between “programmers who design the systems to be as efficient and reliable as possible” and “UX designers who consider elegance and ease of use, even if it means the install is a few extra MB in size”.
Tons of FOSS UIs tend to fall into one of three categories:
- CLI. Maybe a third-party GUI exists.
- Laughably horrendous monstrosities that make early 90’s websites look good
- A direct ripoff of a paid software that has actual UX designers.
It’s because the people designing the FOSS aren’t UX designers, so they either make their best guess at it (the laughably horrendous choice) or they just copy whatever paid software they’re trying to replace.
Why isn’t GRUB menu a fancy little thing by now?
Because you can’t improve on perfection
If you wanted, you could make a clean and capable boot picker like Apple does with their macs and frankly every hackintosh does. But we don’t. Because nerdcore is a thing.
It’s because GRUB needs to survive when everything else is broken. GRUB is the first and last standing soldier.
And there you are, right on the raggedty edge. Well done, Sir or Madam.
There is no software that does theming for GRUB that doesn’t break it badly and was stopped mid development and GRUB 2.0 takes deep knowledge of how it works to theme it without breaking it.
Hell the little bit of theming they added to Ventoy has them slowing GRUB updates to make sure that it is tested and tested again before they roll it out and break everyone’s install without knowing it.
I plan on doing it but I really don’t have time for it right now or any time in the future.
yeah you already said it in your edit, but just to respond anyways:
grub’s simplicity is a feature. it does one thing and does it well.
You can absolutely rice your GRUB install. I haven’t used it in a hot minute, but I definitely had ones in the past that were themed.
Excellent OS choice - great for noobs and veterans alike.
Mint is great, LMDE is even better; same newbie friendliness, away from Ubuntu specifics
As a newb, could you please help me understand why you prefer Debian to Ubuntu?
In this context,it’s to make newcomers get used to a more open ended version of Linux that has derivatives, to get more mainstream versions of packages so that if they eventually want something more specific, they are learning slight tweaks.
Ubuntu is Debian with a layer of idiosyncratic things applied to it, the new user will need to unlearn those idiosyncrasies and apply new ones.
Also Ubuntu has some controversies associated with it, so the new user should stick to something more … Whatever the antonym of controversial is
Congrats!
Personally rocking Dell Latitude 7490, it is much similar to ThinkPads in scope and layout, down to the iconic knob. An absolute beast for the $200 I paid for it (used). Endless battery, USB-C charging, zero lag and throttling, complete Linux support, famous robustness, and a premium feel in everything, from the materials (the best soft touch plastic I’ve ever experienced) to the build quality.
It’s the kind of laptop you just want to have in your hands. Hope your ThinkPad will give you the same experience :)
I have 2 ThinkPads - a Yoga 370 and a Yoga X13, both running different Linux flavours and they’re honestly the best laptops I’ve ever had. Very capable, sturdy, great keyboards, working touchscreens, pens and fingerprint scanners, passwordless encryption with TPM+LUKS.
The 370 struggles a bit with heavy browser usage sometimes but otherwise they’re both rock solid
I miss my Yoga 730. Best laptop I’ve ever had. The 2-in-1 and pen support carried me through uni. All my lecture notes could be typed and diagramed as needed in the moment.
Awesome, welcome to the club!
I just upgraded from a T420 (bought new) to an X13 Gen 3. I like the much better screen and the much lower weight, but I miss the old style keyboard…
All the best! My SO runs a T480s, the elegant one, for years now, switched to Debian after U went super-slow on her.
I went all fancy-schmancy with a Yoga x390, debian too.
Both cheap secondhand, both issue-free (and both with touchscreen!). Whish the official batteries where still available tho.
480s has a touchscreen? I need to check mine…
This one does. I think certain IPS models got the feature. Tbh, not really much of a touchscreen guy for laptops but I wont say no
Not all of them, we were lucky I think. Yoga’s have it by their very 2-in-1 nature, nice little things, classy matte black like any Thinkpad should be.
I got 5 T420s (nice) from my boss last year. Now they’re all running Linux and loaded up with late 90s, early 2000s games to play over LAN
INSTALL GENTOO
Not for the weak of heart. If they’re not well introduced I may suggest an arch install by hand first. I wonder how like it’ll take to compile FF on that Thinkpad.
emerge firefox-binezpzWould be even cooler if you were the guy who wrote the source. And if you are kudos, dope shit.
huh? what source? sorry i don’t understand D:
I CHANGED MY MIND THEY NEED TO DO LFS
First stockings, then gentoo
ARE YOU KIDDING? STOCKINGS ARE FOR NERDS – ARCH USERS – AND ONE CERTAIN FALLEN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN. NEWPORTS AND SHITTY INSTANT COFFEE ARE THE GENTOO PREREQUISITES.
Ah sorry I forgot. I thought stockings are for ThinkPad owners
Stockings are for fems
Thinkpads are great. But how did you get the fingerprint scanner to work? Mine does not work.
I followed this guide, worked right out of the box:
https://github.com/SeniorMatt/How-to-enable-fingerprint-in-Linux-Mint-for-T480
Oh I will try that as soon as possible. Thank you for the link.
I got an old HP ProBook from my parents because they got a new one. I also installed Linux Mint on it :D Everything works, the keyboard lights, the wifi, the preset buttons work the same.
it’s really fun trying out Linux on older hardware. Don’t know when was the last time I had fun with playing around tech stuff. Linux really made it fun again for me
there’s currently a retired T420 in my home and a stalwart E15 assisting me with my everyday computing needs.
make sure you say ‘thank you for your service’ every morning.
Wow I literally just installed mint cinnamon on a T590 like an hour ago. Small world!
Great minds think alike haha. Good for you brother. Hope it works well for you.
Do you call a dead Thinkpad a Thoughtpad?
A Thunkpad.
Cool! What model did you get? Despite the high prices right now, I’m also considering a new one right now, because my old one, which I love, does start to show its age a bit.
T480 but I’m wondering 7th or 8th gen Intel. Both options were offered.
Its 8th gen. Intel Core i5-8350U.
Well done, super capable 4 core device. I’m typing on a T580 now and it’s still my low power machine (let’s the desktop power chewer stay off most of the time) a decade+ later. Hunt down the dock, super nice, and replace the TN screen if that’s what you have (horrible, but a sub$100 upgrade, it’s lego, you can do it)
Enjoy, I have. Easily one of my best computer purchases.
I made sure to get the IPS model so no TN for me. And yea so far, seems to work well.
Good choice on the IPS and in general. Still recommend the dock, super useful, prolly cheap these days. Network, displays, USB for days. Have fun.
