this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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There's a reason Linux on a Thinkpad is a meme.
You haven't said much concrete about your requirements, use case, or budget, so I don't have a recommendation much beyond whatever Thinkpad meets your requirements. The "serious" models in the T, P, and X series tend to be preferable to the others.
I love mine!
Woah I have the same laptop stand arm at work
Linux on an old T480 is a meme. I'm not sure about the quality of newer models.
I love my X220.
I bought a new T series Thinkpad last year. As long as you're not using it as a hammer or a jack stand, it will hold up pretty well. Supports Linux well. Good build quality.
If you do need that level of build quality I would look at the Panasonic Toughbooks. Just don't drop one one the floor. It may break. The floor, not the laptop. The laptop will be fine.
I don't need crazy build quality, I just need it to not be shit so it'll last me a few years.
never get L or E series, only get T/P/X series
panasonic letsnote (not the toughbook) is actually also quite decent. but it's hard to get unless you're in japan
Other than needing more RAM, I think it will last a while. The 16GB I got was as much as I could afford.
My newer model can kernel panic as well as any model!
I had a T470 previously, and the mechanical build quality and materials of the P14s III are superior.
Can confirm, the P14s feels great
I dunno about ThinkPads but I got a Yoga Flex Pro from Craigslist and it's crazy nice...
X13 here, I can't recommend it enough.
Same here, I got a Gen 1 X13 for 120€, it's not powerful by any means but perfect for running Linux and browsing, coding, writing and so on.
The model is important! I had gotten an E series Ryzen gen 1 years ago and the Linux support on it was atrocious! I swore to never buy a Thinkpad again.
Bro the E485 was bomb for linux. My job at the time purchased a dozen of them for infosec dev, we had gentoo built and deployable for them in about a day. Shit I still have one in the basement acting as a cluster head 😂
At least at launch it was a total mess, Linux would instantly hard freeze at boot time. They did eventually release BIOS updates that fixed them more than a year later, so mine is currently running Cachy, but just google for E484/E585 Linux issues, there's a tonne of people complaining back in the day, and I was one of those early birds >_<
From what I remember, there was a similar-ish laptop a tier above which had received a BIOS update pretty fast, but even though the symptops were pretty much the same, Lenovo dragged their feet on this one.
There’s definitely differences between models, but the best Linux experience I’ve ever had is on my e14 gen5 with fedora. That thing is flawless. If you don’t mind the plastic chassis.
I'm surprised to read that; I would have expected substandard build quality, not problems with Linux.
The laptop BIOS did see updates and now works fine running Cachy, but for over a year it was terible. A whole list of cryptic kerner boot arguments would make it boot, but then touchpad and keyboard issues would remain, and if it ever went to sleep it would hard lock again, not ideal on a laptop. I personally didn't contact support, but on the official forum there was a thread with a tonne of comments about how support would say Linux is not officially supported on this model and people giving up and returning it. I couldn't because I ordered from overseas, specifically because I heard Thinkpads worked great with Linux. Needless to say I was royally disappointed. At least it works now, and works better than with Windows.
I guess then I would add to my advice that people should do a quick check to see whether others are having good results with a given model before purchase. I thought we were past that with Thinkpads.
Where do you check?
Any of the following are likely to work:
Thanks! I'd probably do then all except the last one -- not worth it imo
Yeah, that and avoid very new things when using Linux are the morals of my story. But I can't help it, I am a human and hate all Thinkpads now :P
Are there versions of the keyboard where the function key isn't in the bottom left corner? Ctrl should be there imo.
Ctrl should be on the key that says "CapsLock", and for me, it is.
You can swap Ctrl and Fn in the BIOS.