I think I’ve read in Lemmy somewhere that the T14 notebooks should be avoided is they come with letters after the T14. I’m thinking of buying a T14s G5. It has to be new as we get tax deduction (will be at the reception of small local museum). What do people this of this notebook. I’ll end up installing Linux on it. I was thinking of going DELL as I’ve been running various latitudes over the years without major problems but looks like people are not fond of DELL + Linux. Any thoughts?

  • pr06lefs@lemmy.ml
    5·
    20 hours ago

    I think the thinkpad T14 series is pretty mainstream for linux - except for the Gen6 snapdragon one. Arch wiki thinks the gen5 will work

    I had a top of the line Dell (precision 5520) that I bought with Ubuntu on it, so it ran linux very well. But there were quality issues, mainly the battery swelling up and making the keyboard stop working. Then the screws for the case fell out and the hinge kind of broke, and the power connector stopped working, as did its replacement. I think you aren’t really supposed to work on the dells yourself as it had special screws, not plain philips heads.

    Maintainability on thinkpads is better, in general. And I like the way the computer feels more - just better design.

    • JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      15 hours ago

      Well, I think the latitudes are great to work on (at least my 5290). Just remove the Phillips screws on the back cover and you can replace practically everything. But it’s still way more delicate than the t440p (which is harder to accidentally harm.

      • pr06lefs@lemmy.ml
        1·
        13 hours ago

        Could be they’ve improved! I didn’t have much trouble opening mine but I did need a special star bit for the screws, and they tended to fall out without thread lock.

    • trilobite@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      16 hours ago

      This is a bit interesting. Isn’t Lenovo a Cinese company who bought IBM hardware production or something like that. So Lenovo has outpaced Dell then? I always had a slim view of Lenovo … and stuck with Dell because american superior quality …

      • aim_at_me@lemmy.nzEnglish
        2·
        15 hours ago

        Are you serious? Basically all computers are manufactured in China. Yeah Lenovo bought the IBM line, so they started from a great position, but I’ve always considered them, and the thinkpads in their IBM days, in a cut above Dell.

      • pr06lefs@lemmy.ml
        1·
        15 hours ago

        dell is manufactured globally, in china and in other places. probably lenovo too.

        • trilobite@lemmy.mlOP
          1·
          12 hours ago

          of course they are manufactured globally. but in theory designed in US (for DELL) and China (for Lenovo). So in theory, QA and quality standards are way better specified in US than they are in China? Although, if Thinkpads are still comparable to their IBM equivalents in terms of quality, then the above theory is not true. China is moving ahead fast and everyone else is falling behind.

          • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            6 hours ago

            the chinese aren’t worse engineers than americans, they’re just usually more incentivised to reduce cost than increase quality

            anyway I think the thinkpad design team is still in japan

            • trilobite@lemmy.mlOP
              1·
              4 hours ago

              I never said the cinese are bad engineers. They are probably outpacing american and european engineers. But their priorities are not protecting labour or the environment, which is why on average, i’m skeptical of cinese engineered and produced electronics.