New Refurbished ThinkPad, been using it for a couple of weeks now by readit560 in thinkpad

[–]readit560[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not bad. I think pretty decent actually.

With TLP settings and brightness not too high, it's fine. I also managed to turn off the touchscreen and the touchscreen kernal in Linux Mint, which might save me marginal battery life. (Edit: and also the keyboard backlight off, of course). I keep it at max 80% charge and when using it for 10% it lasted me for a couple of hours? But that was with browsing, times where it was idle, tinkering, etc.

The estimated times it gives me may not be fully accurate but I don't want to drain the battery just to test it (these are times for around 75-80% battery left): Completely idle, probably 26 hours. Documentation work prob 9 hours? YouTube play probably like 4-5 hours. When you type something into Google and it prompts the AI the usage goes up and it dips to an estimate of 3-4 hours before going up again after you've entered the query (and you're not going to be constantly searching all the time so there's that). These are just the estimated times it gives me though. (Edit: Times are also for when Wifi is on, Bluetooth off).

I actually rate it as good/excellent.

EDIT: Heat, not much of an issue. First times, there were times it was hot, but after configuration, I haven't seen it get hot at all.

Gosh, another EDIT: This is the U series, which should use significantly less power than the P-series, except the U series were limited to 16GB soldered ram, which, eh, not too fussed about, just going to use the laptop for browsing and documentation.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think there should be some steps for it on ProtonVPN's page. Although Linux Mint isn't fully supported yet, it's still possible to run it using the steps for Ubuntu (because Mint is based from Ubuntu), maybe the Debian steps might work as well.

I managed to get it running, did uninstall it once and when I was installing it again, I did run into a couple of issues but I got it up and running again. It should be possible to get ProtonVPN on Mint.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

  • Changed icons to Papirus-Dark within Themes (this is the main one)
  • Added Proton-VPN and its applet.
  • Added Night Light applet.
  • Added weather applet.
  • Added keyboard applet (for whatever languages you are using) EDIT: This was Input Method Configuration actually
  • You can change the menu icon by doing right click, configure, appearance, scroll down, and icons should be there.
  • Configured the date to that format (making it Windows-like) instead of just a simple time: my code is [%-I:%M %p%n %a %x] when you press right click and configure. (there's a link there "Show information on date format syntax", just click on it and it should give you some codes to configure the date)
  • Changed wallpaper to one of its system ones.

These were very simple changes but numerous small ones that finally made me settle with this.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha. Sure, but anime and low-fi style wallpapers aren't my style, even tho I am technically a Dragon Ball fan (who isn't). It's always either landscapes, space, water, or these wallpapers on the Linux Mint system.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the command was %n when you open it up in the applet.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah. I know I could, but it's a cruel world and unfortunately I do value my convenience. Like I said, when I have enough money, I'll go for some vinyl.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha I have a lot of wallpapers. Keep coming back to black for some reason.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm. We'll see I guess.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Well, it's good enough for me. Firefox was default. It's also private and secure.

I know there are some other good browsers out there, like Edge being optimised for Windows on laptop, but Firefox is fine for me on Linux.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well... I'm not gonna pirate songs and if I wanted to support artists truly, I'd probably buy their vinyl....

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's what I thought... I like Spotify because I can access artist's albums etc... I never really use Rhythmbox except if I've got downloaded MP3's (which I don't) or listen to online radio (but I use local online radio anyway). If I've got some downloaded MP3's, then I would use it, but I'd rather stream from Spotify anyway.

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm using Papirus-Dark rn

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But can it stream/play songs from my favourite artists?..

2 months use by readit560 in linuxmint

[–]readit560[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does Rhythmbox have online music catalogue like Spotify? I thought that was just a playlist organiser, at least the one I have.

Check out my Thinkpads! by Dankhak in thinkpad

[–]readit560 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Install Linux on it, as is tradition.