Re: [LUG] ThinkPad Laptops

On Wed, Jul 21, 2021 at 9:09 PM comrade meowski <mr.meowski@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 20/07/2021 21:23, Roland Tarver via list wrote:

> Thanks very much for your input; you seem ridiculously intelligent and I
> kind of feel I need to complete some sort of approved course before
> replying to you haha! ....

Ha people only say that when they don't know me... trust me, I'm at
least as dumb as the next person, if not more so. I do know a fair bit
about computers at this point I suppose, but after all the time I've
spent on/with them it never ceases to amaze me how much I still don't
know. Don't overthink things, just fire off stuff at me as much as you
like. Well, preferably not guns or fireworks but y'know, normal stuff
like emails and questions is fine :

> I do know a fair bit about computers at this point I suppose

Haha I think you will find this is a pretty large understatement lol! As all you folks on here are!. Absolute boffins! haha

> just fire off stuff at me as much as you like

Thank you I really appreciate it :-)

> Noted, thank you! So erm, sadly I read this after making a purchase. I
> did buy a ThinkPad. A t460. i5 16gb 256ssd 1080p. Had a few delivery
> issues. Only just got it today. Using it now, with windows 10 (shudder)
> lol. Seems pretty good so far. Sooo fast compared to what Im used to. So
> I guess im pretty pleased - despite not following your suggestions.

Meh, don't worry about that - that's a pretty nice laptop all in all and
you finally got the ThinkPad you wanted so I'd call it a win. Which t460
is it though (p, s or no suffix?).

It lacks a suffix - let me guess, that's the least favourable one? lol

Couple of questions for you: is the Windows install it came with a Home
or Pro license? The Home license isn't worth keeping, the Pro one is.

Despite the Pro sticker on the underside; according to the details I found buried in the setting somewhere it is Windows 10 home.

Second, what specific SSD (make+model) do you have in it? At only 256Gb
and a couple years old already it's decidedly the weak point here. It's
too small to dual boot realistically - Win10 + apps + data is very
greedy and will balloon to fill it's half share of the drive very, very
quickly. Only ~120Gb left over for your Debian install (which is much
more reasonable in terms of space demands luckily) won't give you much
room for all your "stuff".

So, a couple of things to point out here. Windows will very rarely be used, if at all. I just want to keep it as an option in case my 7 year old needs something we cannot do in Linux. Im going to start teaching him to use Linux from the get go and if we can do it in Linux, we will. The huge majority of his remote learning, of which there has obviously been plenty recently!, is done in Google classrooms. So that should work fine in firefox - i think.

The point being the space needed for windows would not be huge - i suggest; certainly not half the disk. Currently, from an apparently fresh install (+cygwin and inkscape installs), its consumed 40GB.

Then for most of my "stuff" I have a piNAS. It has a 1TB drive which is no where near full - yet. So, im not sure if this info would change your recommendation. Either way, I am quite happy to spend a further 80 quid or so on the larger SSD.

I know you've only just spent money on the laptop itself but if at all
possible I'd hugely recommend springing for a replacement SSD and get it
over and done with now. A Crucial MX500 1Tb is approx £80 if you want a
recommendation - but many other options exist of course. It'll be super
easy to replace as Lenovo have at least kept up the old IBM ThinkPad
tradition of publishing really, really good documentation.

I can chip in on your other questions as well but they're a bit
redundant until you've provided SSD info and decided whether or not to
upgrade it.

After a quick poke about (I have no idea how to use Windows) the best info I can currently get about the ssd is that it is a Kingston drive with the folowing ?model number, SV300S37A240G. Googling that model number provides the following...

https://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/hdd.php?hdd=KINGSTON+SV300S37A240G

Like I said, happy to spend a bit more. :-)

Thanks very much.

roly :-) (who has very bravely just taken out a spider!!! lol!)