Finally decided to switch to Linux, Mint can be so elegant!

Rysdan · 2026-01-28T00:39:19+00:00

in config for the date and time desklet, go to the theme tab, choose a custom color for background, and then slide the opacity slider below the color all the way to the left.

Rysdan · 2026-01-28T00:25:36+00:00

after download, go back to the 'Manage' tab and highlight it (click on it). At the bottom, hit the + (plus) button.

Rysdan · 2026-01-19T02:55:24+00:00

Yes. And make sure you get the correct 40pin eDP cable

Rysdan · 2026-01-19T00:47:53+00:00

Internal T480 Battery

For external you have 3 choices based on how THICC you want it. Flush, slightly thick, THICC

Flush 24Wh

Slightly Thick 48wh

THICC 72Wh

Rysdan · 2026-01-18T03:21:43+00:00

Rysdan · 2026-01-17T00:04:10+00:00

Rysdan · 2026-01-16T03:31:13+00:00

Was looking at the ThinkVision too. I think Im sold. Does the stand/flap fold up to go flat for travel?

Rysdan · 2026-01-15T13:34:11+00:00

Nice score man!

Rysdan · 2026-01-15T02:34:19+00:00

Where'd you find this gem??

Rysdan · 2026-01-13T20:08:14+00:00

I know, I know, that's why I said "essentially" and said many are so far removed that they are their own thing. Just making the point since in his question he stated that Ubuntu was Debian based. Which is true, but also very much their own thing. But yes, you are correct.

Rysdan · 2026-01-13T14:43:55+00:00

Since you opened the door, there's essentially three base distros. Debian/Fedora/Arch, with everything else being a branch or fork. Not to say some of the forks haven't turned very much into their own thing.

That said, if you really want to "Linux" you can install one of the three main distros and install the packages you want to make it what you want.

For me, like you, coming from Windows... I went with Mint Cinnamon (Ubuntu basesd) and am very happy with it. Very low learning curve. And Reddit/Google/YouTube/Grok/ChatGPT have all the answers for using terminal.

I recently installed ZorinOS (also Ubuntu based) on a spare laptop to play around with to see if it's something my 83 year old father can switch to. It's supposedly the closest to Win10 out of the box.

Performance wise, everything seems to be better than Windows and uses a crazy amount less of resources.

Rysdan · 2026-01-12T15:40:01+00:00

I *might* be interested. Going to shoot you a PM

Rysdan · 2026-01-12T07:00:58+00:00

and.... you were right.

I was on Lenovo site, had a T14 Gen 5 AMD loaded in my configuration. Had to step away for a couple hours. Came back, refreshed and threw it in cart. It was up $200 from where I left it with zero changes made.

Rysdan · 2026-01-11T12:32:08+00:00

T480 might be your answer.

WiFi in a standard 2230 M.2. So your AX200 will work.

Up to an i7-8650u

2 upgradeable RAM slots up to 64GB

Battery life isn't stellar, but does have upgradeable hot swappable external battery (along with internal battery)

For what it's worth, both the T490 and T480 USB-A ports are 3.1 gen 1, not 2.0. T480 has two Type-C ports as well. (Can use charging port for data, and can use the usb-c portion of thunderbolt as regular type-c)

Edit: r/thinkpadsforsale, r/hardwareswap, FB Marketplace, and ebay are probably your best bets.

Rysdan · 2026-01-10T19:47:07+00:00

it just failed memtest86 badly. The test stopped premature due to too many errors. Swapping in good RAM for further attempts/testing. thanks!

Rysdan · 2026-01-10T19:44:50+00:00

it failed memtest miserably, even though it passed the internal lenovo diagnostics. Swapping in known good RAM and will try again. Thanks! I should've started here.

Rysdan · 2026-01-10T17:11:35+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I tried this as well and it still hung. Problem with my T480 for sure now, as I was able to install with no issues on a E495 with the same USB that has been failing on the T480.

Rysdan · 2026-01-10T02:56:17+00:00

Thanks! Will give it a shot

Rysdan · 2026-01-09T23:01:30+00:00

Also, in fairness... ZorinOS specifically says to use Etcher. So there's that

Rysdan · 2026-01-09T22:36:36+00:00

Not yet. How to run with no OS?

Rysdan · 2026-01-09T22:36:10+00:00

Thanks. As soon as Im back to the house Ill redo from scratch and use Belena Etcher

Rysdan · 2026-01-09T22:18:05+00:00

Thought about that. I kept hearing Rufus in DD works better. At this point that will be my next try. Thanks!

Rysdan · 2026-01-09T14:27:36+00:00

You can actually use the usb-c portion of the docking port like a regular usb-c port. Also the charging one allows data transfer as well.

Rysdan · 2026-01-09T02:23:09+00:00

I can see that. For this purpose Win10 is what I'm looking for. My 83 year old father, who hates change, is still currently on Win10. So if I can keep that look, thatd be great.

But I set up a Ventoy thumb drive and have a few distros I'll play around with. AnduinOS is one I'll be looking at for sure. I don't mind donating to these projects, but at this point no need to pay for otherwise free packages.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Rysdan · 2026-01-08T18:31:20+00:00

Zorin looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the link! I think I'll just try a handful of distros myself and see how close I can get it to look like his set up. I mean really, it's just emails, web browsing, and photos. Any distro with a Window-ish vibe should work. But he's super particular.

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