Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook | Hacker News Reader

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Extreme – 64GM RAM and GTX 1050 in an Ultrabook

lenovo.com

50 pointswp38164023 comments

Is there any in-depth dive into how well it runs Linux? I'm considering jumping off of MacOS with Mojave so something I can run fedora on comfortably with good battery life/stability would be great

I can't speak to the X1 Extreme but I use the X1 Carbon 6th Generation and it runs Linux great.

Initially, there was an issue with S3 sleep but Lenovo addressed that with a firmware update. Lenovo also recently joined the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS). It is now extremely easy to update firmware in Linux by executing the fwupd command. The one remaining issue is some thermal throttling threshold issue. I've installed a service that is a work around but I'm hoping this gets addressed in a subsequent firmware update.

I was coming from a MBP as well and I've completely switched to Linux. I went back and forth between getting the Dell XPS or the X1. I finally settled on the X1 because I liked the keyboard more after using both at Microcenter, but it was a tough decision.

The Arch wiki entry[0] on the X1 is a good reference point regardless of what distro you use.

[0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carb...

How's the touchpad and trackpoint experience? Are you using libinput?

I'm using libinput. It seems fine to me. No trackpad has come close to my MBP trackpad. However, this one is fine for my purposes. I will say that I'm not a heavy trackpad user though. I use a tiling window manager and use vimium to scroll in Chromium.

The only modifications I made to the stock configuration was to enable the following flags in my Xorg config:

  Option "DisableWhileTyping" "0"
  Option "Tapping" 1
  Option "TappingDrag" 0

Enabling tapping makes it match my preferred tapping behavior I had on my MBP. I disabled TappingDrag to prevent spurious drag events. The first flag was to let me use the trackpad while typing so I could do some light gaming using the trackpad.

On the X1 gen 5 using synaptics it misses proper palm detection. Oftentimes I accidentally place the cursor at odd places when typing. truly annoying. Possibly there is a fix. any pointers appreciated.

I run a 1st gen Thinkpad Yoga X1 (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, had a 2kEUR price tag in 2016). Linux runs nicely, even with the digitizer. The single frustrating thing is that on Linux, the Intel Sky Lake graphics chip can only control a single external drive (HDMI / Mini-DP or VGA via a Thinkpad docking adapter). In contrast, on Windows the notebook can control three external displays in parallel :-(

nVidia automatically means hassle w current gen laptop hardware.

Running a T480 with dedicated nvidia hardware. The GPU in mine is mostly off, as I use the intel onboard graphics for most day to day tasks. The occasional gaming session in windows is the only time the dedicated gpu actually gets some power fed to it.

I run linux on this without any nvidia drivers even. Just bbswitch that turns off the dedicated GPU.

WTF, no it doesn't. Nvidia releases Linux drivers and updates regularly now, they get pulled into all the major distro repositories, and they generally work well.

If you're doing any sort of gpu accelerated machine learning, you're basically expected to use Ubuntu with Nvidia hardware and drivers.

Maybe the folks over at https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1032482/linux/optim... could use your advice :)

I think the assertion was that having an iGPU and a dGPU in a Linux laptop means problems, not that NVIDIA parts alone do.

You can run that just fine too.

The only thing I dislike about this machine is the screen options. FHD is too low, and 4k is too high density for a 15" notebook. MacBooks have had a ~2k display for ages and it works great in my opinion. (Also, I don't want a touch screen display.)

Oh that and the repeated fiascos of Lenovo embedding spyware in their devices: https://thehackernews.com/2015/09/lenovo-laptop-virus.html

Recently tried to order directly through the website, since retailers only offer FHD but no 2K screens.

Education store didn't proceed after checkout, with a 1$ reservation on my visa account. Lenovo's solution via e-mail: just buy at normal price without education discount :-)

[not US, not X1. just mocking about the customer experience]

Why don't more hardware vendors see Linux as important? I know the first answer is they sell more windows laptops but we devs are willing to pay for high-end specs that normal people don't need, and aren't those more profitable? Maybe the relative numbers are just so much smaller for Linux it just doesn't matter.

Because Linux on the destkop is a usability nightmare and basically unusable for the average user. The Linux destkop platform is a mess. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18113338

Devs will live with that to some extent, like me. I spend way more on hardware than nondevs, I hope there are enough of us to make it an attractive market.

This seems to be better than the current Macbook Pros on almost every level - specs, ports, weight. Only the screen is worse.

Too bad nVidia graphics aren't supported on macOS - otherwise would have been the Macbook of many dreams.

E: looks like I had missed the latest Macbook update; the specs are not that different.

NVIDIA does publish a graphics driver stack for macOS, it's not as great as the Radeon stack, but still performs admirably.

I wonder how long the battery will hold out displaying its own advertising page? On a mid-2012 MBP on Safari, the page is using 17% CPU just sitting in the background behind Activity Monitor. Switch tabs, its fine, but as soon as that tab gets focus...

That said, given that I don't hold out hope for Apple to build a laptop any time soon that I care to purchase, if it would indeed run Linux it looks like $2300 gets what could be the 32GB/1TB laptop of my dreams. Or at least something that I can live with happily that's not six years old.

I bought a Thinkpad Yoga X1 in 2016 and would buy a successor like the proposed one anytime again. It is really very lightweight and as I mainly do science/devops/programming on that machine, I enjoy the silence despite having access to a powerfull machine. The fans only start at load. Even the display improved compared to older Lenovo machines.

I'm currently on a x200 and would like to upgrade to a newer ThinkPad. Unfortunately this has a processor that has Intel ME. When will hardware companies start caring about user privacy?

Probably runs *nix at 30% the speed of windows... very sad :(

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