On my old LiveJournal I made a few posts of “Life with…”: first for netbooks, then after I got modern-at-the-time Apple hardware, so here’s “Life with ThinkPad”!
It’s been about a month since I put a new-to-me Lenovo ThinkPad T480 notebook computer into service as my travel machine, and I am beyond pleased with it.
I decided to run Arch Linux on it, and it has already come in handy. There was a firmware issue on a MikroTik switch I have, and thanks to the Linux port of netinstall-cli, I was able to get it back up and running quite easily.
All the hardware works in Linux, and the Windows 11 VM I have on it for ham/commercial radio software runs acceptably well for as little use as it will get. Excepting those, every other tool I need runs natively on Linux, including Dropbox. Enough things are Web-based these days, and the remaining things are RDP, SSH, or serial console, so those are easily covered.
My T480 doesn’t have the discrete GPU, so any games will need to be done remotely to my gaming desktop via Moonlight. Maybe one day Parsec hosting will be available in Linux. Maybe. I could upgrade a dGPU-equipped motherboard, but it’s quite an old one, so I probably will pass on this.
In terms of ports, this machine is quite well-equipped: the left side has 2 USB-C ports and the ThinkPad Dock Connector, and the right side has a 3.5mm audio jack, 2 USB-A ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and an SD card slot. I will certainly miss some of these ports whenever I am able to get a new Mac laptop.
This was a pleasant surprise: the T480 isn’t as bulky as expected. Its dimensions aren’t much bigger than the 14″ MacBook Pro, its weight is very similar to the MBP, and it easily fits in my Timbuk2 bag, which also affords a place to store a rolled-up jacket or hoodie along with other things (mouse, cables of various types, 5G hotspot) and has water bottle holders, which is a huge plus.
This is the real elephant in the room, though: would it be better for me to get, say, the Framework 13 Pro and run Linux instead of getting a new MBP? A certain part of me says yes, but considering the one thing that’s only on Linux or Windows and not on macOS is MikroTik’s netinstall(-cli) software for firmware recovery, I think that’s doable. After all, I’ll keep a USB-C Ethernet adapter for the Mac in my bag at that point, so I can pass that through to the Windows 11 VM I’ll have on the MBP if the need arises. I’d also keep a small USB-C hub and certainly USB-C-to-USB-A adapters, so losing the USB-A ports wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
For now, I’m definitely satisfied with my ThinkPad. I still need to stickerbomb it, but a part of me wants to leave it unstickerbombed. We’ll see though.
Until next time!