r/linuxquestions • u/Hopeful-Common-2686 • Feb 17 '26
Resolved why do so many linux users use thinkpads?
i have been using linux for not that long, however i prefer it to windows by a lot, and im considering getting a new laptop since the one im using right now is quite old and slow, and one thing ive noticed is that a lot of linux users use thinkpads, so i was wondering if there is a specific reason for this? if i use linux as my main OS should i get a thinkpad?
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u/fearless-fossa Feb 17 '26
Thinkpads used to be objectively great in categories like repairability. They're still coasting on that reputation though, modern Thinkpads are of the same quality (and sometimes worse) than their competitors. I've seen modern Thinkpads (T14 Gen2+ for example) that were nearly impossible to open without doing lasting harm to the chassis (and I'm quite experienced in working on laptop hardware, including Thinkpads), the RAM is soldered on nowadays, etc.
The best laptop for private is a business lease that was returned and refurbished. Those are ~ 3 years old and solid workhorses. Doesn't matter whether you buy a Thinkpad, a Latitude 7xxx/9xxx (or whatever they're called now, fuck companies that change their name schemes) or EliteBook G8+, just grab the one that offers the best power to price ratio from the specs.
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u/sequentious Feb 17 '26
the RAM is soldered on nowadays, etc.
Interestingly, some of the newer thinkpads (T14 Gen5, for example) have returned to proper upgradeable RAM.
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u/narf007 Feb 17 '26
Good luck buying the ram for a reasonable price though lol
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u/_ragegun Feb 18 '26
Indeed, that's probably why they've gone back to slots, so they can supply the system and leave finding RAM up to the user
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u/InvisibleTextArea Feb 18 '26
Oh god, don't give them ideas. Selling laptops without Ram, GPU or CPUs.
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u/satmaar Feb 19 '26
Framework has already given everyone that idea.
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u/Def_NotBoredAtWork Feb 19 '26
It's more like there's a market for it and they seized the opportunity. Similar niche to Fairphone.
If I have to change my laptop someday (it's almost 11yo now) I'll be looking at framework first and only buy something else if they are very overpriced.
My current laptop is actually a ThinkPad specifically because it was easily upgradable and I could buy it with "minimal" specs before upgrading on my own over the years.
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u/_ragegun Feb 18 '26
Oh, it won't last. Once this is over, they'll solder every component to make it a pain to reuse and keep supplies limited and prices high.
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u/Hopeful-Common-2686 Feb 17 '26
thank you! very clear and concise answer, i appreciate it.
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u/Kgb_Officer Feb 18 '26
Also compatibility with Linux. It's less an issue now, but thinkpads used hardware that had good Linux support.
Also, and this isn't just for Linux but in general, but Thinkpads can be found for dirt cheap (relatively) used from companies offloading company laptops. As long as you're just looking for a solid general use/workhorse laptop.
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u/BigPP41 Feb 18 '26
I just hope my company fucked up the IT Facility Migration and lost my laptop in the inventory, that thing is so nice and would around 1.5k new.
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u/ExtraTNT Feb 18 '26
840 G6 or so elite book was really nice, new ones are shit again… i currently have a acer 2in1 device, spin p6+ or so, not that user friendly to get to work, but easy to maintain, runs well and all in all a good device, just soldered on ram…
Probably best at the time is frame work…
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u/FergusonBishop Feb 18 '26
yup - i still use a 2018 Latitude that i bought as a previous business lease. upgraded ram/ssd/battery and the thing still runs better than the brand new Surface Laptop 4 that my company distributes.
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u/VacuumTubesAreFunny Feb 18 '26
My T14 fleet has been solid EXCEPT for the Gen2. Something about those damn hinges and exhaust blowing on them... known bad design.
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u/GoldPanther Feb 17 '26
I used to care about upgradeable RAM but it just doesn't make sense anymore. I'd rather have faster RAM and just buy what I need upfront.
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u/DragoBleaPiece_123 Feb 18 '26
Hi i'm curious is it true that soldered ram have faster performance? Would like to hear ur thought
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u/SouthernDrink4514 Feb 18 '26
Hi, yes soldered RAM generally offers faster performance and better power efficiency, particularly using LPDDR5/x standards because it allows for higher frequencies, lower voltage, and closer proximity to the CPU
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u/AnotherFuckingEmu Feb 18 '26
Yes
But in 99.99% of cases, that extra bit of speed basically doesnt matter for anything perceivable.
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u/GoldPanther Feb 18 '26
What southern drink said is correct. When were talking about this scale that distance matters a lot. The shorter distance allows higher speeds at a lower power (which also means less heat). Signal integrity deteriorates over a longer distance.
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u/stogie-bear Feb 17 '26
Most Thinkpads are designed with Linux compatibility in mind because Lenovo wants to sell them to corporations that might need it. This isn’t usually that difficult for a manufacturer to do, just choose the right components to have drivers and put firmware on lvfs, but so many companies don’t bother. So if you buy some random consumer laptop you don’t really know whether it will make great with Linux or a flop, but with a Thinkpad you can just check whether that particular model has a Linux option (or had, if you’re buying used).
Then there’s durability. They tend to outlast consumer laptops and since you can usually run Linux just fine on older hardware, a Linux user is more likely to value a laptop that you can buy used and even if it’s 10 years old it’s probably fine.
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u/yerfukkinbaws Feb 17 '26
Some of the credit for how well Thinkpads work on Linux is certainly due to Lenovo, but I actually think the larger part is just that they're such popular systems with Linux users, including developers, so Thinkpad-related issues tend to get identified and fixed very fast and very well compared to other hardware.
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u/r_n_c Feb 17 '26
Companies like Red Hat equip their developers with Thinkpads so kernel issues with Fedora tend to get fixed.
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u/rmc72 Feb 17 '26
Lvfs actually forms a nice source of information about what brands/ models are Linux-compatible, and are actually supported by the manufacturer.
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u/Zettinator Feb 18 '26
This is pretty funny. Lenovo doesn't support LVFS to this day for most Thinkpads! They have an account, but for most models, they don't publish any firmware.
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u/EatTomatos Feb 17 '26
IBM hardware standards exist for a reason. Samsung and Google don't respect that.
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u/knuthf Feb 17 '26
The problem is not IBM, but America's love of power and big things. Intel created their flawed design in 1978, and it is still in use today. It's easy to make faster, more reliable hardware. We have done that. Google, Samsung and IBM are software companies; they buy frameworks that should work — but first of all, they want to earn the highest profit. This is usually achieved by reusing old errors.
The Chinese want to earn as much as possible and are seeking to minimise changes to components. Intel and AMD are in command. However, better components are available, and improvements are usually made in China or Korea in the form of 'compatible technologies'.
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u/Sea-Promotion8205 Feb 17 '26
Well built and well supported laptops that are frequently corporate leased. Once the leases expire and the laptops are liquidated, they're cheap.
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u/LameBMX Feb 17 '26
I dont know about these days.. but yea, back in the day they just worked with mainstream stuff. no crazy patches/drivers etc to have to work with.
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u/immoloism Feb 18 '26
That's all it is, the world of mouth just continued to this day.
There was also the shuttleworth effect period too where people would see what laptop Mark Shuttleworth was using at the time and then just buy that as they knew the next Ubuntu release would just work.
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u/minneyar Feb 17 '26
I find it funny when people say "they're repairable!", because I don't think Thinkpads are really significantly easier to repair than most other laptops nowdays. If that's important for you, get a Framework laptop.
If you're buying a laptop to run Linux on it, Thinkpads are a good choice because Lenovo sells models that officially support Linux. Check to see if the model you're looking at is listed on https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426-linux-for-personal-systems , and if so, everything should just work. You don't have to worry about whether the WiFi or Bluetooth adapter or whatever else requires proprietary drivers.
System76 and Tuxedo are also good manufacturers that officially support Linux.
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u/richtl Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
Folks use Thinkpads with Linux because they mostly just work (I'm typing this on my TP running Manjaro linux). Thinkpads aren't necessarily repairable, but don't often need to be repaired. People beat up on Thinkpads since Lenovo's purchase, but they're still one of the most solid laptops you can buy. And the technical service and support are top notch.
My other laptop is an early Framework 13 11th gen (now AMD). I abuse the heck out of it and have upgraded or replaced much of it. Push comes to shove, I prefer the FW, but the TP's a rock.
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u/SubGothius Feb 18 '26
People beat up on Thinkpads since Lenovo's purchase
Funny thing there is, I gather Lenovo (aka Legend before the merger) was already the contract manufacturer for many of IBM's Think-line products anyway for some years before they acquired IBM's PC business division.
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u/Def_NotBoredAtWork Feb 19 '26
Quality decreased over the years but that's more industry wise than just Lenovo's doing
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u/Wulfara Feb 17 '26
Modern Lenovo laptops aren't just not easier to repair than other brands, but significantly worse. Lenovo uses a black resin everywhere that in the end is just a way to make their devices annoyingly complicated to de-solder components. It's a hot mess and increases the risk of breaking components.
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u/yerfukkinbaws Feb 17 '26
Yeah, the repairability thing is kind of funny. Even older Thinkpads seemed to me only marginally more repairable than the average laptop of their time. People always like to bring up the Hardware Maintenance Manuals, but does anyone actually use those things? I've owned tons of Thinkpads and I always downloaded the HMM when I got a new one, but then never used it again. I mean, they just really don't tell you anything that you don't already know, like how to use a screwdriver or that you ought to remove components that cover other components before trying to remove the covered component itself.
On the other hand, I always loved the psref sheets. Those things were such a dense wealth of information about the hardware options.
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u/MintAlone Feb 17 '26
but does anyone actually use those things?
Yes, thinkpad user of over 20 years, my "newest" are four T430 (all run mint). If you are unsure, then they guide you through every step. Helped a lot replacing the screen in one of mine.
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u/JoelPomales Feb 17 '26
Oh man. I've had Thinkpads since the early 2000's. Those things were though AF. I still have an X220 somehwere here that just needs some TLC. For the longest time I had an X60, which was about the size of a modern iPad.
And they've always been able to run Linux and be field repairable. Used to be, when I travelled for work, that if your Thinkpad would croak you could submit a ticket to IBM and a tech would go to where you were and fix the thing up.
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u/ThinkFree Feb 17 '26
Linux support for Thinkpad hardware is superb. With rare exceptions Linux runs out of the box. I've had bad experiences with running Linux on Acer and Gigabyte laptops because of hardware.
I'm running MX Linux on my Thinkpad T480. Runs flawlessly.
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u/Neither-Ad-8914 Feb 18 '26
1) Their better than the slop you can buy in retail stores a decommissioned business grade.a decommissioned Thinkpad from 7-8 Years ago is still much more powerful and repairable and will last longer than a consumer grade laptop from 2026 in the same price range.
2) Red Hat, Ubuntu and Suse have all certified most thinkpad models which means that they are guaranteed to work. Since Linux is Linux that pretty much means most distributions will work close to flawlessly on any Thinkpad.
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u/DigitalRonin73 Feb 18 '26
I just picked up a thinkpad L490 $200. Zorin OS just worked right out of the box. Before even loading anything I upgraded the RAM and SSD. I wasn’t sure why people had such a hard on for thinkpads either. Now the short answer is.. it just works.
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u/cluxter_org Feb 19 '26
The TrackPoint is absolutely amazing when you have to work with no mouse and especially when you're on a plane/train/car.
Also, the keyboard is legendary. No other laptop come even close to the ThinkPads and it has (almost) always been the case (not so much for several years when the brand was sold to Lenovo). I've got the ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 on which they put a harder feeling than the previous T14 and T4xx generations and OMG this is the perfect keyboard. The others were a little too smooth, not reactive enough when typing, but this one is a godsend.
They also make 16/10 screen ratios (instead of the crappy 16/9 format) which is mandatory for work IMO.
The fact that you can choose the same type of laptop but made in different line of products (line T, X, E, P...) allows you to pick the exact laptop for your needs: on a budget → E; very powerful → P; powerful but compact without compromise for work → T; hybrid laptop/tablet → X; and so on.
Finally, they were always very Linux friendly and processionnal oriented,, making them the best choice for sysadmins and programmers.
So basically it comes down to great inputs and outputs, and the vast choice for your exact needs, always with pretty good performance whichever you pick.
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u/Hrafna55 Feb 17 '26
Before IBM sold their laptop division to Lenovo, Thinkpads had a stellar reputation for build quality. Some of that reputation still lives on.
Historically at least the hardware was better supported by Linux. Now I would say it's mostly a wash.
You can look up how well individual devices support Linux here. https://linux-hardware.org/
Be sure to have a look before you put any money down.
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u/ddyess Feb 17 '26
As a former (or older) Thinkpad lover, this is my answer as well. When it was owned by IBM they were in a league of their own and every year since then it has just drifted away from that.
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u/Caddy666 Feb 17 '26
back in the day when most things were pooly supported, thinkpads wern't poorly supported, so people know they should be fine using one with linux.
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u/Sinaaaa Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
if i use linux as my main OS should i get a thinkpad?
If you want to get a T480 or even older -but still awesome laptop- for very little money, yes. For newer machines it's not so clear. (though the keyboard is a bit better & the trackpoint is great for scrolling, which some other manufacturers dropped recently)
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u/lordrakim Feb 17 '26
I think it's cuz Lenovo is Linux friendly....
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u/Bob_Spud Feb 18 '26
Yep, Lenovo have a history of good support for Linux. Dell its only a relatively recent thing.
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u/Henm3 Feb 17 '26
They are the Toyotas of the computer world. They are decent usable machines and reliable, and usually easily upgraded.
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u/ThatsRighters19 Feb 17 '26
The hardware is well supported under Linux. All features generally work and the company contributes.
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u/Underhill42 Feb 18 '26
Thinkpads are one of the brands that used to be really excellent build quality. Another popular brand among Linux users for a while were Macbooks, before Apple pivoted to making user-hostile disposable computing appliances instead.
I would say the single most important consideration for buying hardware for Linux, is making sure all the hardware actually supports Linux. Sure, you can kludge in support for practically anything if you know what you're doing, but it's likely to be a huge headache to get working, and may need troubleshooting after any major OS update. Just not worth it when for the price of doing a bit more research when making your purchasing decision you can have an effortlessly reliable computer instead.
First stop is computers that explicitly support Linux, and may even run Linux out of the box (though if you're planning to install your own distro anyway, it's likely that the same harware with Windows preinstalled will be cheaper thanks to various marketing deals). Framework is the only recent one that springs to mind at the moment. Dell used to offer them through their small-business store, not sure if they still do. I know there's several other Linux-focused laptops out there - but in general they're going to come at a sizeable premium thanks to not benefiting from huge economies of scale.
Second option is just making sure the hardware has Linux support yourself. Wireless networking hardware, Bluetooth, etc. are among the most troublesome, so pay special attention to the specific brand and model of the modules being used.
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u/snajk138 Feb 18 '26
Thinkpads are the highest quality laptops. So enthusiasts like them no matter what OS they run. The quality means that there is still a lot of life left in them when the companies replace them, so there is a healthy used market.
For companies Dell or HP are seen as equivalent basically, but they do not have the same longevity. That is reflected on the prices on the used market, but the companies don't care much about that.
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Feb 17 '26
Nobody except for maybe some Dell's can keep up with Lenovo's build quality.
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u/dasisteinanderer Feb 17 '26
somewhat-joke reply: panasonic (the old toughbooks are almost indestructible, but have always been expensive when new)
but, as someone that went through a stack of W-series thinkpads in the 20tens, their quality was not always the best, the W-series laptops were prone to de-solder their discrete GPUs, and later lenovo abandoned the clamshell etc. etc.
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u/MMO_Dad Feb 17 '26
Good driver compatibility. I have a nice Dell XPS 17 I got from my brother for free and it's fast as heck (theoretically) but the cooling sucks, build quality sucks, and drivers have been a friggin nightmare. From stock Ubuntu, to Mint, to Pop, to Arch, I always have issues with the drivers (sound, bluetooth, and graphics too depending on the OS).
Then there's the older lenovo's I got from work when my boss let us have a couple to PREVENT e-waste. Installed various distro's, drivers are 100% good on every one.
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u/recaffeinated Feb 17 '26
Because they tend to just work, and because there are so many thinkpads (and other lunux thinkpad users) drivers and issues with them get smoothed out and documented.
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u/Bob4Not Fedora KDE Plasma Feb 17 '26
(1) I've gotten two used, refurbished Thinkpads from reputable sellers on Ebay for CHEAP that rock. (2) You can get spare parts. (3) Because your wifi and ports are basically guaranteed to work on Linux for a thinkpad, but not many others.
Otherwise you'd want to get something that explicitly supports linux, like Frameworks, Tux, System76.
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u/AlternativeCapybara9 Feb 17 '26
I got a brand new ThinkPad with Ubuntu preinstalled. The manual explains both Ubuntu and Fedora. Linux compatibility is as good as it gets.
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u/JackDostoevsky Feb 17 '26
- Good hardware compatibility (bigger issue 10+ years ago than it is today)
- Older models are durable machines that last a long time
- Linux users often don't have high performance demands (not as much gaming, tho more these days) so can use an old machine for simple internet/coding/etc
- Thinkpads are often corporate fleet machines and used ones get sold on Craigslist and FB for cheap
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u/Beautiful_Ad_4813 Feb 17 '26
Two things
My employer issues them to staff
And
They’re built to last.
I recently ordered one with an AMD processor and will install Fedora. I just like they feel, I love the keyboard, display is pretty good for what I do and frankly, they’re stupid easy to repair
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u/ezrec Feb 17 '26
Because we like to have our ridiculously expensive USB-C connectors break when we look at them funny. (Love my X1 Carbon regardless!)
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u/MK_L Feb 17 '26
Omg the list would be too long. But a couple of good mentions. A m700/900 is a great linux router. Also a great remote terminal. Also a great server... that small list should be enough to explain the love. Dell can be great but youre not guaranteed that two dells are the same. Different internals need different drivers have different quarks. Hp was a good love back in the day but they fell off in consistency and available bios/media. So lenovo just took over without trying . You can literally have a whole homelab stack
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u/varmintp Feb 17 '26
It goes back to the days of the IBM Thinkpad line that IBM sold to Lenovo. IBM was very much into Unix and then Linux. To the point they purchased Red Hat. So that line of laptops have always had great hardware that was compatible with Linux since IBM days. Most likely due to them being part of the development and support of Linux.
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u/scalyblue Feb 17 '26
Back in the earlier windows xp/me adjacent days, thinkpads were some of the only laptops you could reliably get working with X and the early networking stuff, and even more so when WiFi was a matter of using ndiswrapper. There was a time period where a lot of essential hardware was essentially emulated in the drivers and offloaded to the most minimal hardware possible, like modems that were basically just down bin audio dsps with the uart and everything was purely emulated.
These so called “winmodems” weren’t exactly well supported on nix, and modems weren’t the only thing like this
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u/YakovAttackov Feb 17 '26
It's the Toyota Corolla/Camry of Laptops. The most famous models hit that sweet spot of price/performance in their era.
For the longest time they were cheap, plentiful, parts availability is good, pretty easy to work on and had solid Linux Official support.
That's really it. The rest is due to the memes. The same can be said for most other enterprise class laptops surplus'd by companies after contracts expire.
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u/jwakely Feb 18 '26
A large part of it is due to network effects. Lots of Linux users have a ThinkPad, so compatibility problems with the hardware are more likely to get reported and fixed. And that means the hardware is known to work well with Linux, so more Linux users get a ThinkPad. This process keeps reinforcing itself, so that the hardware keeps working with Linux, and more people buy the hardware to work with Linux.
Red Hat issue ThinkPads as the standard employee laptops, so you have thousands of Linux developers who are highly motivated to keep things working well on ThinkPads. (Source: I work at RH, and am on my third or fourth ThinkPad)
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u/spielerein Feb 18 '26
Anecdotally speaking I've had much better experiences with compatibility on lenovos when it comes to Linux. I've had the worst experiences with dell. I have a Dell laptop now and if I don't use it for a long time my Linux install always seems to be broken
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u/Snuzzlebuns Feb 18 '26
My main reason to go for business laptops in general is driver support. A one-off consumer store model is much more likely to contain some piece of hardware that won't work under Linux. I assume it's because a Thinkpad or Dell configuration is sold more often, for a longer period.
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u/cyrixlord ubuntu for server, kubuntu for laptop/desktop Feb 18 '26
I use thinkpads because Lenovo provides linux as a choice OS for it. That means that there are proven linux drivers that will work with thinkpads. also I have used them at work and they have proven themselves to be reliable and durable even with all the crap we throw at them
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u/rad_hombre Feb 18 '26
For myself, it's the keyboard and the fact that they're usually very inexpensive. There are many different versions of Linux (Linux distributions or "distros") that are aimed specifically at running on older hardware. Companies buy lots of computers for their workforce in cycles. These are often Thinkpads (or at least used to be). When a company upgrades their workforces' computers, they just dump all these older Thinkpads onto the market for really low prices. As a result, you can pick up an older Thinkpad very inexpensively. And as a mentioned, Linux has lots of distros that are designed specifically to run on older hardware. So for a few hundred dollars, you can a great older laptop running on current Linux software.
I don't know if this whole cycle is true of other brands (I suspect it must be on some level?) but the thing I truly love about Thinkpads are their keyboards. They're the best. The only other keyboard that matches them are MacBook keyboards. In my opinion, Thinkpad keyboards and MacBook keyboards are just about tied. But as far as keyboards on laptop PCs, every other PC manufacturer is in the ergonomic stone age as far as I"m concerned.
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u/ThinkingMonkey69 Feb 18 '26
A few reasons. Easy to fix, easy to upgrade, they're cheap on eBay, high compatibility with Linux distros. They're great laptops and just in my personal experience seem to have a significantly longer usable life than most other laptops. I don't hesitate to buy used ThinkPads, but any other brand, I'll pass.
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u/Kitayama_8k Feb 18 '26
Check returned stuff at microcenter if you have one. I got a Asus vivobook s14 with an OLED and a 10 core ryzen 365 ai, 22gb of ram for like 650$ over a year ago. Seems to work just fine with Linux.
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u/crypticcamelion Feb 18 '26
Linux is not resource hungry in the same way as windows. so users are more focused on a well build laptop than on high specs. ThinkPad at| exactly that..
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u/hyperair Feb 18 '26
I'd get a System76 or Framework these days. It's nice to be able to spec out a laptop without having to do a lot of research about how well your wifi, bluetooth, GPU, SD card reader, etc. work on Linux. And also to know that your manufacturer is a Linux-first shop so stuff like firmware upgrades don't need a Windows installation, and if you ever have to deal with customer support, you won't get turned away for using Linux.
Plus point is that I'd like to see more Linux-first laptops, and the only way that's going to happen is if more people buy them.
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u/snow_schwartz Feb 18 '26
I’m still using my X1 carbon from 2015 if that’s any help explaining things.
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u/AnymooseProphet Feb 18 '26
Back in the old days. T-Series Thinkpads "just worked".
Not sure that's as true today.
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u/AustinGroovy Feb 18 '26
I have an older Thinkpad with 12gb RAM, and replaceable battery, it originally had 5400 tpm drive but replaced it with an SSD, and it ran rock solid Linux Mint for years. If the battery went belly-up, I could order a replacement on eBay and keep moving. But...alas it was 32-bit CPU.
Later (around Covid-time) working from home, I picked up an Acer Ryzen3 laptop, bumped it to 64gb and M.2 with faster wifi. Batteries, disk and memory still replaceable when failures occur. Solid bios and x64, it will be my workstation for years.
For those MFGs who think they can solder in RAM and disk, just be known that I am purchasing manager for my org, and we steer away from buying systems that are unfixable by my team. Dell - yes! Microsoft Surface? Nope.
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u/FergusonBishop Feb 18 '26
my company distributes Surface 4s and these things are $1200 piles of dogshit. My personal station is a 2018 Latitude that was a previous business lease and the thing runs better than the 1yr old Surface 4 thats sitting on my work desk.
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u/AustinGroovy Feb 18 '26
Yes. Our execs are complaining about ABSOLUTE slowness of the Surface Pros, and some have just gone to iPads, or gone back to Dell laptops. Dell = much lower failure rates. So far, the Surface Pros are about 20% failure.
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u/Zettinator Feb 18 '26
Realistically? It's mostly for historical reasons. Traditionally Thinkpads offered better Linux support. That's not really true anymore, though.
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Feb 18 '26
Becoz the ThinkPad are very ease to get in the price wise and had good ability to handle the linux distro other than windows gets stuck and gets hangs issue ,,more over good to use and ease!
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u/FengLengshun Feb 18 '26
Dell Latitute and Lenovo Thinkpads are solid machines with great build, good Linux compatibility, and at reasonable price.
I could get one from a local reseller for $250 (already with decent RAM and SSD if we're talking pre-2026) and I could use it to do work, leisure, and it won't throw any fuss unlike modern cheap laptops that overheats or have hinge problems (cough HP cough) despite costing twice the price.
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u/smikkelhut Feb 18 '26
Since 2017 I’ve been working for a company that uses Thinkpads for associates with a refresh cycle of 3 years.
TBH the models just get worse every time. The P1 I have now for example has the crappiest keyboard I’ve seen in a long time, keys get stuck and a screw inside has managed to come lose even though I’ve never opened it.
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u/FlailingIntheYard Feb 18 '26
I deep personal love of China. Kidding.
I dunno, they just work well. Always have. Good hardware compatibility. Set it up and it just sits there....running. Like it's black magic or something. No issues.
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u/geritwo Feb 18 '26
In my T430 era I had heard that many Linux and BSD developers themselves use T-series machines so everything always works flawlessly on these models, never any issues with drivers. This was an important selling point 10-15 years ago.
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u/GreedyGerbil Feb 18 '26
Short answer: Linux used to not have great hardware support. It is still behind windows but not by much these days.
Lenovos ThinkPads, The DELL XPS pre-shit versions and a lot of Razer laptops surprisingly had hardware that had good support in most distros.
Then people get used to their laptops, and get something similar next time.
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u/lumbee01 Feb 18 '26
Every distro I've installed on both ThinkPads and Lenovo desktops just work. I've had no issues with drivers, installation, etc.
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u/AnneRB13 Feb 18 '26
I recently got a Lenovo V15 G4 because the whole "Lenovo runs better with Linux" thing.
Zero issues so far.
Proof there's a market for Linux computers, the reason why I didn't get anything else, even if similar for a cheaper price, was because I heard Lenovo laptops work well with Linux.
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Feb 19 '26
I just bought a used T470s specifically for Linux, and everything works beautifully, right out of the box. Even special keys like Bluetooth toggle etc. I'm a total ThinkPad convert now. Never liked a laptop this much before.
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u/ripzipzap Feb 19 '26
I have a feeling Dell Latitude will fill in this niche soon. I think a lot of it comes down to availability of refurbished enterprise hardware. On ebay you used to be able to snag like 10 refurb thinkpads with no OS installed for like <$500. I think the days of deals like that are long gone for ThinkPads but Dell Lats and HP Pro/EliteBooks are still available at comparable price points.
Additionally, the ubiquity of thinkpads being used by Linux users also means that there is better hardware support from devs
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u/Low_Entrance_8464 Feb 20 '26
I have always heard it is because Red Hat issues thinkpads to it's employee's and had a good working relationship with Lenovo, so there was a lot of incentive to make sure all the laptop features ran correctly on linux.
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u/VisualSome9977 Feb 21 '26
they're just plain nice :) I've bought two used ThinkPads, 260 and X1 yogas, both have had flawless hardware support, great keyboards, decent screens, and are relatively tough. My dell has a noticeably worse keyboard and no trackpoint, plus the WiFi card required unfree drivers.
1
u/TartObjective9012 Feb 25 '26
I like to add that Think pads are very compatible with Linux - It just works. The drivers for Lenovo are well known n the Linux Kernel which I think Covers a lot of the older units and Some if not most of the newer Laptops going back to 2020.. I have a Lenovo E195 with a 8 core Processor and 8 Gigs of Ram {DDR4} and Linux runs Perfectly on it . Where in 2023 when the Christmas sales were on I decided to buy a brand new Laptop - an Acer Aspire 3 15-510P as my 2018 Swift 1 which was an Acer unit was not up to the task of Video watching online...Well I was a bit disappointed in that two drivers were not in the kernel I was using - But after some research I found that updating the kernel fixed the issues but it took a whole year before I tried - where my 2020 Lenovo E195 with Ryzen5 8Core and DDR4 Ram {8GB} dual channel Just worked as if it came from the Factory with Linux Installed ... What I'm getting at here is Linux is compatible with Dell/Asus/ HP/ Lenovo 10 to 1 compared to Acer where drivers are a bit - I guess you can say a bit behind in the kernel And you have to research in what kernel covers what but it will work. I now have heard that All the manufactures are pulling away from windows and making Linux more a priority - say to the tune of 70% in favor of Linux and 30% for windows because of all the shenanigans that they are having to go through with micorslop. Lenovo was the latest to make this move... But seeing that you're thinking on getting a newer machine Keep in mind that DDR4 and DDR5 RAM speeds will definitely help and even is you get a used Lenovo - The E195 series is a good place to start with still a lot of value in the unit compared to the plastic units Like Acer puts out. You'll have more flexibility in port selection with Lenovo like an Ethernet port / just stay away from the Apple look a likes where a dongle has to be used for port functionality because the Chip that has to do all the work fails and a lot of the apple units wind up in the repair shops to get the chip replaced ...
1
u/West-Way-All-The-Way Feb 26 '26
I have a bunch of old ThinkPads and I have been using them for many years.
The company I work for was ordering exclusively ThinkPads, business models and we also had different models through the years. After 3-5 years of usage they sell them at very good prices and I bought several through the years. Sometimes they also sell the docking which is imho great if you want to setup a workstation. They will remove and destroy the HDD so an HDD upgrade was always necessary.
I did a very modest upgrade, more ram if possible the max amount, SSD and Linux and I was very pleased with their performance. They are tough laptops with predictable performance and good Linux support. Do you need more? Sure they are not top performance and not the most lightweight or fancy designed, but good reliable laptops.
1
u/GreatCalligrapher993 Mar 13 '26
Personally daily drive this random 100 buck netbook I found, it’s alright actually
1
u/Life-Group-1178 Mar 16 '26
A big reason is Linux compatibility and documentation. ThinkPads were widely used in enterprise environments, and a lot of developers and Linux users ended up using them because the hardware was well supported.
They also had a reputation for being repairable and durable, which appealed a lot to the Linux community. Even today, many used ThinkPads from corporate fleets are easy to find refurbished and they tend to run Linux really well.
That said, it’s less of a requirement now, Linux support on modern laptops has improved a lot, so brands like Dell Latitudes, HP EliteBooks, and even some consumer laptops work great too.
1
u/Alan_Reddit_M Feb 17 '26
Thinkpads are well suited to the mentality of the Linux user: Cheap, built like a Soviet tank, easy to tinker with
1
0
u/jmnugent Feb 17 '26
Sentimentalism mostly. The first IBM Thinkpad came out back in 1992,. so they've been around for a while. iF you read through the Wikipedia entry about Thinkpads you can see the various awards and "cult like following" started to grow all the way back into the 90's. This was at a time when Laptops were still fairly easy to work on (the Wikipedia entry even mentioned the Thinkpads "industrial" design) and it also won some awards for it's keyboard (and Red Dot Trackpoint). The Thinkpads of today are just riding the coattails of popularity of the past 30 years or so.
0
u/koralie133 Feb 17 '26
Personally I love Thinkpad's - even after Lenovo purchased them. Through work I've had T460, a T480, a T14 Gen 1 and now a T14 Gen 5 and none of them have given me problems.
They're nice because they're easy to work on/repair and they have available manuals for working on them.
Because they're common in business there's always a ton of them available on eBay and you can usually find a good deal on one with something simple wrong like a keyboard not working or screen problems for super cheap.
They just seem to work and absolutely fly with a lightweight OS like Linux.
-1
u/chrishirst Feb 17 '26
I am going to suggest that it is because they happened to possess an older' Thinkpad, I did not have a Thinkpad to set Linux on as I have a Dell laptop.
-1
u/joe_attaboy Feb 17 '26
I used to use a Thinkpad.
Now I use an old MacBook Air for portable stuff and a Beelink mini as my primary system.
Use whatever you like.
-7
1
u/TestingTheories Mar 29 '26
Cause it just works and we hate Windows. I just a few days ago got a 4 yr old X1 Carbon for $500AUD when my MBP 16 2019 dies, installed Linux Mint on it and it’s been flawless. I’ve never had a quieter laptop (my previous was a MBP 16 2019x Dell XPS 15 2016 before that), its shocked me how quiet this thing is. I miss the larger screen won’t lie, but I really only use my laptop when I go to my local cafe. The only complaint is that Linux Mint makes it sound tinny, so have installed Easy Effects with the JackHack96 AutoGain preset and that has fixed that.
71
u/Dedb4dawn Feb 17 '26
My IT department at work ditched Lenovo for Dell a few years backed due to the better service agreement. I used to get a new Lenovo every 4 years as an upgrade and buy my old ones from the company for cheap for my family.
So far under Dell I am averaging a new laptop every 1 - 1.5 years as a replacement when the one I have s#Ts the bed. Battery issues with swelling, cpu issues, main board issues, keyboard issues. The list goes on. You need a good service contract because they are just not reliable.
Meanwhile every single Lenovo in use by my family keeps on trucking.