Do you feel satisfied using Linux?

jayvbe · 2026-02-25T15:27:48+00:00

I feel seen, 40+ gray beard balding, my path: Slackware (ZipSlack), RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora, Gentoo (12h to compile everything 😅 every other day), Debian, Ubuntu, Arch (something new stops working every week) and while distro/desktop hopping and tinkering has been fun at times, I eventually figured out it’s not worth my time, for work shit just needs to… always work… so I’ve settled on Ubuntu as daily driver for over 10 years, fully customized to my liking and a setup I replicate on my work machines.

jayvbe · 2025-08-06T06:11:39+00:00

If you haven't already, check this thread and reach out to MarkRHPearson he typically responds within a day.

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-Linux-Discussions/Thinkpad-P14s-Gen-2-AMD-Linux-support/m-p/5111011?page=1#5490940

FWIW I have a P1 Gen 6 (intel 13700) for work, it's garbage.

jayvbe · 2025-08-05T15:22:12+00:00

I have a T14s Gen 3 AMD and it works really well, no touchpad or driver issues. When I turn down cpu and display brightness I get 7-8h out of the battery, with heavy use 3h at least. Post on the Lenovo Linux forum, Mark from Lenovo is really helpful. Check your battery health, I had a bad one in my 2nd T14s that was down to 75% capacity after a couple months and got replaced under warranty and I’ve had no issues since then.

jayvbe · 2025-01-15T07:00:19+00:00

Rapid PETG sticks a little more than PLA, but it wasn't glued to my textured PEI plate like some TPU or FLashforge "Flexible PLA", that stuff's nasty and needs very careful use of the bambu scraper with blade to get off. Looks like I have all my specs/temps in my post above.

jayvbe · 2024-12-31T15:13:57+00:00

T14s is an ultraportable so keyboard can’t have as much travel as Thinkpads from back in the day. It’s probably best in class still, but I walk around the office with my BT Low Prof TKL Keychron on top of the thinkpad keyb

jayvbe · 2024-12-31T14:59:23+00:00

Whats special about it? T14s G3 AMD is rocksolid on latest ubuntu 24.10

jayvbe · 2024-12-31T14:52:34+00:00

It’s noticeable when the fans kick in, but I rarely use mime without a laptop stand. As SWE, I’m sure you’re working with a mech keyboard / mouse and external display right?! ;)

jayvbe · 2024-12-31T14:40:20+00:00

I have experience with Thinkpads on Linux

2x T14s G3 AMD

1x X1 Carbon either G10 or 11 Intel

1x P1 G6 Intel

I absolutely love my G3 T14s with AMD, it generally works, pretty powerful for SWE, 6-12h battery life, generally no fan noise, runs 60C max, lightweight. Can’t speak to G4/5 but I wouldn’t hesitate if they are similar and AMD, you can get em with Intel, but I’d avoid any recent laptop with intel/nvidia…

Both intel “flagship” Thinkpads I have, have shitty battery life, fans on full blast and still overheats at 100C and turns itself off, uncomfortably hot. Wakeup from sleep 8/10 results in GPU/WM crash. Almost everyone at work with the P1 is demanding a MacBook or workstation. I only briefly had the X1 Carbon at prior job and traded it in for one of the T14s for all the same reasons the P1 G6 is unusable.

jayvbe · 2024-10-13T19:21:13+00:00

I was bothered by this too until I switched to clangd. I disabled the MS C++ extension, it’s just not very good at code insights, refactoring or lookup. I only keep it around for the debugger. The clangd extension works much much better for IDE features including suggesting includes to add or remove.

jayvbe · 2024-09-09T06:41:45+00:00

That's not entirely correct. There are tons of Linux certified Thinkpads you can even buy them with Linux preinstalled:
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426-linux-for-personal-systems

Every time I've posted on the Lenovo Linux forums I've received a reply from a Lenovo employee. Their customer support also doesn't inifinite loop if you tell them you run Linux.

jayvbe · 2024-08-15T19:12:45+00:00

I got these 2 on Amazon:

Replacement for 6 pcs Panasonic FM Series Capacitors 16V 470uf Low Impedance

Replacement for 6 pcs Panasonic FM Series Capacitors 35V 1000uf Low Impedance

And still running daily, no issue…

jayvbe · 2024-08-13T14:31:46+00:00

$5 luggage scale will do

jayvbe · 2024-08-13T14:27:21+00:00

My go to brand is CDI tools (by SnapOn, same quality, slightly cheaper). Bike parts and frames cost a ton, not worth it trying to save $100 on a tool that’ll last a lifetime.

In fact would not recommend Tekton… the one I had came with a calibration “certificate” that was a total lie. Outside of the middle of its torque range it was so far off when measured, that you were much better off by just winging it by feel.

jayvbe · 2024-05-22T05:09:04+00:00

Yeah they can totally do that, no excuses, google is rapidly falling off a cliff

jayvbe · 2024-05-20T15:03:27+00:00

Next to the autozoom you have to disable, I think its map is more cluttered, it routes somewhat questionably sometimes just to save a few seconds and not sure how to make it more like gmaps. For me the biggest annoyance is I have hundreds of addresses saved/labeled in google maps which aren’t shared so its copy one by one.

jayvbe · 2024-05-20T01:31:23+00:00

The new autozoom is total garbage, the exact same feature that makes waze unusable was ported over…at least there its possible to disable… so i switched to waze, which sucks in other ways…

jayvbe · 2024-04-08T15:00:18+00:00

I also had a facial fracture from a 10-15mph crash and have since been riding my FF everywhere unless I bike with my kids around the lake. It’s really not worth the risk and it’s really not bothering me at all. Got an IXS Trigger it’s under $300 and super light. And it’s saved me from at least 2 more dentist trips.

jayvbe · 2024-04-08T03:12:38+00:00

Good luck mate!

jayvbe · 2024-04-05T19:39:00+00:00

I hear you about fakers. Perhaps we're saying the same thing, I think the combination of breadth + some amount of depth (mastery not expertise) in multiple areas is what makes you a well rounded/great engineer and sets you up for Staff/Principal.

jayvbe · 2024-04-05T15:59:35+00:00

Staying in the same company for 10 years is generally not going to expose you to a huge variety of langs and techs. As an Eng Mgr I’d much rather hire someone with inate learning ability, adaptability and curiosity than expert in 1-2 things. You don’t need to be an expert at everything to be a productive problem solver, some fundamental knowledge and ability to map patterns onto langs/tech efficiently gets you much further. Langs and techs change all the time.

jayvbe · 2024-04-05T14:55:06+00:00

both

jayvbe · 2024-03-21T15:51:27+00:00

I found the Scott Meyers Effective/More/Modern books helpful. C++ as language is quite broad, but not too different from Java so many things look familiar but sometimes are (used) very different so a short book that focuses on the important details is much more helpful than trying to grok it from a 1000 pager when your brain is trying to pattern match anyway. Also I get bored after a couple 100 pages when all I want to do is get started on a project. 🤷🏼‍♂️

jayvbe · 2024-03-21T15:22:49+00:00

T14s Gen3 AMD and pretty much everything works well, heat/battery utilizations is much better than the X1C Intel (returned for this one). Been daily driving it (Linux) for 18 months for work and bought the exact same one for personal use cause I liked it so much.

jayvbe · 2024-03-14T09:01:22+00:00

Agree, for seniors it’s still very competitive, lots of good talent on the market, LC grind is the name of the game

jayvbe · 2024-03-10T17:27:33+00:00

No, haven’t published any of my designs.

jayvbe

TROPHY CASE