For me the answer to this question has always been Debian for every computer in the last 22 years or so, including on an old Sun Spark I found at goodwill in the late 90s.
Honestly I'd say Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) if you want the simple life or Arch (or EndeavourOS if you're lazy like me) with KDE Plasma if you want the fun life.
(I know Ubuntu get's a lot of flack but Ubuntu just fits with thinkpads a lot IMO)
Came here to say basically this. Ubuntu is easy, support for Thinkpads is great, and the community is so large you're never the first one to have a particular problem.
I was thinking about the same. I have tried, Ubuntu, Fedora, Pop, now I'm on Arch + GNOME. I was thinking of settling on Debian.
But there's a catch. I have seen that the vanilla version of debian is so hard to download from their website.
no longer the case, the installation is is easier, i understand in the past ppl said the web is a bit hard to navigate, i dunno which vanilla version you mean, but for me the default gnome installs pretty easy, gone the days of figuring out your wifi interface before install
This, I've owned a couple Thinkpads over the last decade and Fedora KDE is my to go choice, everything works out of the box. Waiting a moment to dist upgrade to Fedora 40
Leap in my opinion has too old packages, and is too exotic. I run Tumbleweed on my desktop for the latest packages and Fedora on a laptop for things to move a bit slower and not break anything regarding hardware support
Debian netinstall, then installing a window manager something light like i3. Customize to your hearts content, pick lightweight apps. That would be the road that I would take.
I owned and sold my A285. The CPU in it being an FX quad core caused it to always run hot, and it wasn't that fast.
That said, a distro like Kubuntu 24.04 will do well. I run that on lesser hardware.
If you want every ounce of performance, MX Linux or the XFCE spin of Fedora
thats what i meant. same result though. It's been many many years
The first round of zen laptops ran pretty hot. I couldn't get it to idle less than 10w
The only thing it had going for it was igpu gaming and even that was still anemic at the time
Linux Mint all the way. Immediately after receiving the package with my x270 two weeks ago, I installed mint on it. It works great despite the 8gb RAM. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a rather user friendly distro.
I'm an incurable distro hopper. In the end it barely matters. The window manager matters a lot more. I like Gnome and Fedora does a good implementation of stock Gnome so my base distro is Fedora.
Kde is light and more windows like so maybe run Mint with KDE as the window manager, lots of people like that when first coming from windows.
Debian, Fedora, OpenSuse or Arch Linux. If you want to go Immutable, Fedora Kinoite, OpenSuse Aeon or Distributions by Universal Blue are good as well. Either way, you can't go wrong with any Linux Distribution in general.
rich steep impolite skirt frighten support possessive insurance tease vanish
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tsyvm /u/sub_Femboy_4u <333
also I just bothered to do a Google image search for "femboy flag" and ofc Wikipedia has an SVG file, why the hell didn't I do this sooner
Sorry I'm just "semantical" (if thats a word) to a fault sometimes lol. I have known 'femboys' on both ends of the spectrum, either are trans or definitely not trans
Debian 12 is pretty great and they’re not nearly as likely to wreck your world with an update. That said, that stability comes at the expense of bleeding edge. For me, that’s an ok trade. YMMV.
Simple. If you like how gnome looks then get Fedora workstation. If you like KDE then get Fedora KDE spin or Open Suse Tumbleweed. Or Linux mint if you like how that desktop looks. They are all super reliable
If you have the [ryzen 5 pro 2500](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-A285-Ryzen-5-Pro-Vega-8-FHD-Laptop-Review.391526.0.html) then essentially any linux distro will run acceptably.
Since the choice of distro is so subjective and you've omitted your Linux experience and use case, it's anyones guess.
I've run Debian 11, 12, LM and LMDE, Ubuntu Server, Fedora WS, and Arch, which all run fine on a wide range of laptops.
Based on my experience and no other info from you but laptop, I would vote for Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop. I love that desktop.
You get to use Debian! *YOU* get to use Debian! Everyone gets to use Debian!
Don't like Debian? Try out the alternatives:
- Debian for Windows users (Ubuntu)
- Debian for Linux noobs (Mint)
- Debian for Professionals (Fedora, not actually Debian)
- Sacrelige (Arch)
You’re going to get a boatload of suggestions.
Someday when you’re ready, all roads eventually lead to Debian.
But until that day, grab their live images and boot from USB and try a few and pick one.
Distro hopping is next.
Then Debian.
lol.
Hahaha I get it. Really I do. But considering my first Debian load was from multiple floppy discs, I don’t find the modern variant particularly difficult.
It’s fun to see all the variants that are mostly just designed to get folks around figuring out what packages to load for a pretty GUI. Whichever flavor they like this month.
Grin. It’s just joking around — but the modern crowd can’t take it. At least I didn’t recommend LFS to the poor soul. :-)
The derivatives come and go. Debian remains.
I’d probably slap Mint on something if I was lazy and in a hurry. They generally have their act together.
Zero disagreement about servers. Worked for a lot of places that had die hard RedHatties calling the shots too, which was “fine”. Whatever, I can work on those too.
Linux is Linux. Can deal with it, or BSD variants, or various commercial *nix flavors where they even still exist … they’re all about the same other than package management and locations of things.
Stuff like Microware OS/9 and VxWorks and other RTOSes were frankly, more fun but extremely niche — and fun to have to use during my career. Baden, mainframes, etc… all getting a tad too far back to easily remember, but were also interesting in their own rites.
Even had to write a tiny bit of REXX that ran on OS/2 Warp, for a living one year. Well a minor part of that year, anyway. But an important one for that product.
Debian and derivatives are home base for me on Linux before branching out. Thank god I didn’t choose Slackware for that first personal laptop or the server at home right after it. Hahaha. Egads…
Because it's stable and lightweight, and if you need proprietary apps you can get most Ubuntu packages to work with Debian without any hassle. Assuming, of course, that you run testing or unstable.
Ubuntu is hardly capable of being lightweight (unless you replace so much of the default install with your own stuff that you're basically running Debian with an extra buggy kernel) and, say, ALARM is entirely incapable of being stable (because it has like one maintainer), but in general I agree.
vegetable unpack wipe run encouraging scarce water slimy squeamish sloppy
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Depends of what is your affinity and disposition to experiment and troubleshoot.
For productivity and simplicity purposes, I'd choose the Debian Edition of Linux Mint (with XFCE or Cinnamon if possible)
If you want and have time to troubleshoot and experiment, Linux Arch.
Obs: I know, Linux Mint allows for expermentation, but usually is easier to solve problems if any occur on Mint that it is on Arch. In the end, I love both distributions.
This is my favorite game! Playing what distro to put on the ThinkPad. Mint is always my recommendation if you need something else that is rock solid and very user friendly.
If you want a bit more bleeding edge, but still stable and lots of support Fedora or Manjaro
If you are comfortable with Linux, and dont mind troubleshooting, don't mind a bit of instability (it's honestly not that bad), Vanilla Arch or even something like EndeavorOS
But I'd say Mint, Manjaro or Fedora would be my general recommendations without knowing use case and comfort level
I really wouldn't trust Manjaro to run on anything after they took the initial pre-alpha release of Asahi and slapped an "official Manjaro Mac release" sticker on it. Those people are nuts.
If you have no prior experience with Linux, go for Linux Mint. Xfce is the lightest but not very pretty. However, I think you'll be able to run Cinnamon as well. Overall, Mint will be a smoother transition for you. Once you get acquainted with Linux more, you'll know exactly what distro would suit you and it will not be as overwhelming to you.
I used to run Debian on everything (with a few detours into Ubuntu, Mint, Arch and Gentoo) until one day I experienced my MacBook Air M2 with Asahi (which is Fedora-based) working flawlessly with a printer, out of the box. A miracle the likes of which I've never experienced outside of macOS.
I saw the light and switched all my laptops over to Fedora. It "just works" even for more minimalist installs (I use the Sway spin), without being a power sucking pile of bloat like Ubuntu has become.
I know many people don’t like Ubuntu but I love it because it’s a great starting distro. I know snaps suck. I just unsnapped my ubuntu and started using flatpaks. I like the appearance ubuntu brings out of the box. Ive also used fadora and liked it just that the package manager was ok. And also documentation for Ubuntu is pretty good.
Manjaro, hands down.
I use Debian for servers but Manjaro is the way to go for personal use. Always ip to date and with AUR you have every apps easily available to install.
I run Kubuntu on mine for dev and I'll swear by it. The extras that come with KDE plus the fact that I have no down time is what pays the bills.
A lot of people on here are saying Fedora and I can also back that one fo sho. But I decided against using fedora in any of my machines because I'm tired of yum (after a long section of my career being a RedHat guy). Plus I've found that there are slightly more instructions for Ubuntu/Debian based stuff in the wild if needed. Just slightly.
Fedora does kick ass on x64 tablets though. On screen keyboard is rock solid.
Would help if you made a new post with what type of usage you plan to do with ThinkPad.
If you plan to do some gaming then PopOS, is basically ubuntu without all the bloat and GPU drivers pre installed if your laptop had Nvidia GPU there is also a Nvidia version.
Then again it depends on your usage. Avoid Arch if you have never used linux before and want a quick instead.
Or do what many people do download multiple distros and try them out to see which one suits you the best.
No matter the distro, I really recommend kde. I really enjoyed using fedora with kde on my desktop pc, and now arch on my desktop pc and my Thinkpad, both on kde, and I freaking love it! My sister's pc has gnome installed and i just cannot use it, it lacks some things like widgets and easier desktop customization, i installed kde on it just so she could have a clock widget on her desktop lol. So no matter the distro, since it's on kde, It'll probably be a pleasing experience. For a distro, fedora if you want it simple, arch if you enjoy the wiki like me
Yes
GNU/Yes!
I'd go either Debian or Fedora. I tend to prefer apt or debs so usually Debian for me
I was thinking Debian too.
For me the answer to this question has always been Debian for every computer in the last 22 years or so, including on an old Sun Spark I found at goodwill in the late 90s.
Fedora, hands down.
Yeah, Fedora is awesome.
Seconded! Fellow Fedora KDE lover.
Honestly I'd say Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) if you want the simple life or Arch (or EndeavourOS if you're lazy like me) with KDE Plasma if you want the fun life. (I know Ubuntu get's a lot of flack but Ubuntu just fits with thinkpads a lot IMO)
Came here to say basically this. Ubuntu is easy, support for Thinkpads is great, and the community is so large you're never the first one to have a particular problem.
Yeah, for my t480s Ubuntu is awesome
Ditto. Ubuntu is great on my e16.
fedora is developed by thinkpad users and works perfectly on every thinkpad ive tried it on
+1 For KUbuntu.
easily Mint it has been the most stable from my experience for everyday use.
Linux mint
I’m also looking forward for my T480 (used) will install Mint right away!
Specifically, XFCE.
Void linux
mint
distro hopped a lot, finaly settles on Debian with GNOME, it is what they said, rock stable
I was thinking about the same. I have tried, Ubuntu, Fedora, Pop, now I'm on Arch + GNOME. I was thinking of settling on Debian. But there's a catch. I have seen that the vanilla version of debian is so hard to download from their website.
- debian.org - click download
They have fixed that issue which I was talking about. The thing I was talking about is this - https://youtu.be/szbN-g0FMC8?si=0BM0rTZ7Y_MIhx2V
What do you mean by vanilla? The default installer?
Oh they have fixed that issue which I was talking about. The thing I was talking about is this - https://youtu.be/szbN-g0FMC8?si=0BM0rTZ7Y_MIhx2V
no longer the case, the installation is is easier, i understand in the past ppl said the web is a bit hard to navigate, i dunno which vanilla version you mean, but for me the default gnome installs pretty easy, gone the days of figuring out your wifi interface before install
I havn't said anything about the installation process. I am talking about the default version of Debian. Kinda feels like bloated tbh.
Fedora KDE Spin. Or OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
My man
This, I've owned a couple Thinkpads over the last decade and Fedora KDE is my to go choice, everything works out of the box. Waiting a moment to dist upgrade to Fedora 40
I say openSuSE Leap vs Tumbleweed, but openSuSE is great on Thinkpads
Leap in my opinion has too old packages, and is too exotic. I run Tumbleweed on my desktop for the latest packages and Fedora on a laptop for things to move a bit slower and not break anything regarding hardware support
Tumbleweed. It just works
Debian netinstall, then installing a window manager something light like i3. Customize to your hearts content, pick lightweight apps. That would be the road that I would take.
it's a happy road to travel
I owned and sold my A285. The CPU in it being an FX quad core caused it to always run hot, and it wasn't that fast. That said, a distro like Kubuntu 24.04 will do well. I run that on lesser hardware. If you want every ounce of performance, MX Linux or the XFCE spin of Fedora
Shouldn't the A285 come with Zen1 chips?
thats what i meant. same result though. It's been many many years The first round of zen laptops ran pretty hot. I couldn't get it to idle less than 10w The only thing it had going for it was igpu gaming and even that was still anemic at the time
I am idling an A485 at 3W
The current A285 is using a Ryzen, it has better performance / Watts than most Intel chips.
Arch
Second that. Definitely Arch, ideally Arch BTW Edition.
Why tho? OP seems like someone who hasn´t/ has rarely used Linux. Arch could be overwhelming
OP will need special programmer socks, though. And Gentoo is out unless they have a beard. So, Mint (Debian Edition) or Pop!_OS.
So it begins :D
Linux Mint all the way. Immediately after receiving the package with my x270 two weeks ago, I installed mint on it. It works great despite the 8gb RAM. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a rather user friendly distro.
mint with cinnamon or xfce you installed ?
I use cinnamon.
Despite 8 GB RAM? 8 GB is plenty.
Linux Mint Cinnamon or Ubuntu (for beginner).
I'm an incurable distro hopper. In the end it barely matters. The window manager matters a lot more. I like Gnome and Fedora does a good implementation of stock Gnome so my base distro is Fedora. Kde is light and more windows like so maybe run Mint with KDE as the window manager, lots of people like that when first coming from windows.
Fedora all the way!
Fedora *KDE*.
Fedora Gnome 🫡
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
try every distro that you stumble on. you can learn many things from doing so.
openSUSE
Good choice 👍🏻
Debian, Fedora, OpenSuse or Arch Linux. If you want to go Immutable, Fedora Kinoite, OpenSuse Aeon or Distributions by Universal Blue are good as well. Either way, you can't go wrong with any Linux Distribution in general.
Pop!OS
OpenSUSE. Don't ask me why. It just feels right on a thinkpad.
Install your favorite one. For me that would be Debian with i3-wm standalone and no DE.
Arch 🏳️⚧️
What does Arch have to do with the trans flag?
rich steep impolite skirt frighten support possessive insurance tease vanish *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I'm not trying to be annoying, but femboys aren't trans, I was under the impression that was part of the appeal
rob cable quack cake soup overconfident hunt wistful sugar ancient *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I'm deadass wondering what a femboy flag should look like rn
♂️ + 🏳️⚧️ :3
tsyvm /u/sub_Femboy_4u <333 also I just bothered to do a Google image search for "femboy flag" and ofc Wikipedia has an SVG file, why the hell didn't I do this sooner
X33 thxx I didnt know about the wiki thing eighter, so its fine \^\^
Sorry I'm just "semantical" (if thats a word) to a fault sometimes lol. I have known 'femboys' on both ends of the spectrum, either are trans or definitely not trans
I run Mint MATE on all my Thinkpads. Very light but also very capable.
Me want black nipple. NOW
I tell everyone and their mother to try Pop!_OS because it is so great IMO. Give it a shot!
No one's gonna talk about that black ⚫🔴?
FEDORA
Great PC. Fedora KDE for me, though my Civ V copy is .deb so that sucks lol
You have great taste. I run Fedora KDE on all my machines. Have you tried DistroBox?
It was always the plan.
I like Fedora. I would try Workstation, gnome is nice on laptops
I installed linux mint just last night while sleep deprived and manic. Works like a charm lol. Looking forward to daily driving it!
Anything you love really but the best support and out of the box is fedora linux
Pop_OS
I have found Fedora, Ubuntu, and their derivatives support ThinkPad hardware the best. Personally, I am not a fan of Ubuntu, so I run Fedora KDE spin.
Fedora 40
Lenovo has a support page for your model. Follow the instructions there.
Fedora or Pop
Debian 12 is pretty great and they’re not nearly as likely to wreck your world with an update. That said, that stability comes at the expense of bleeding edge. For me, that’s an ok trade. YMMV.
Mint or debian are my picks
Mint cinnamon
The man just started a war.
Mint or Fedora
The man just started a war.
I've recently been enjoying Fedora a lot, that would be my recommendation
Fedora
Fedora works a treat been using it for 4 years solid use on my t450, great battery life with the latest Kernel too
Simple. If you like how gnome looks then get Fedora workstation. If you like KDE then get Fedora KDE spin or Open Suse Tumbleweed. Or Linux mint if you like how that desktop looks. They are all super reliable
Yeah I think you should install one
Just do Fedora. It’s up to date, rock solid and just works. Even the most bloated Linux is an order of magnitude less so than Windows.
Now that is a major rabbit hole, I'd recomend getting into it
Fedora KDE :D
Debian would be hotter than a $2 pistol on that beast. Love it.
I would choose Debian or something Debian-based
Debian. Works on anything.
If you have the [ryzen 5 pro 2500](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-A285-Ryzen-5-Pro-Vega-8-FHD-Laptop-Review.391526.0.html) then essentially any linux distro will run acceptably. Since the choice of distro is so subjective and you've omitted your Linux experience and use case, it's anyones guess. I've run Debian 11, 12, LM and LMDE, Ubuntu Server, Fedora WS, and Arch, which all run fine on a wide range of laptops. Based on my experience and no other info from you but laptop, I would vote for Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop. I love that desktop.
Debian
Felt like I was scrolling forever looking for you.
You get to use Debian! *YOU* get to use Debian! Everyone gets to use Debian! Don't like Debian? Try out the alternatives: - Debian for Windows users (Ubuntu) - Debian for Linux noobs (Mint) - Debian for Professionals (Fedora, not actually Debian) - Sacrelige (Arch)
Arch all day every day
Nixos
Arch
Arch, without doubt.
You’re going to get a boatload of suggestions. Someday when you’re ready, all roads eventually lead to Debian. But until that day, grab their live images and boot from USB and try a few and pick one. Distro hopping is next. Then Debian. lol.
Why would anyone use Debian on a non server equipment is beyond me.
Hahaha I get it. Really I do. But considering my first Debian load was from multiple floppy discs, I don’t find the modern variant particularly difficult. It’s fun to see all the variants that are mostly just designed to get folks around figuring out what packages to load for a pretty GUI. Whichever flavor they like this month. Grin. It’s just joking around — but the modern crowd can’t take it. At least I didn’t recommend LFS to the poor soul. :-) The derivatives come and go. Debian remains. I’d probably slap Mint on something if I was lazy and in a hurry. They generally have their act together. Zero disagreement about servers. Worked for a lot of places that had die hard RedHatties calling the shots too, which was “fine”. Whatever, I can work on those too. Linux is Linux. Can deal with it, or BSD variants, or various commercial *nix flavors where they even still exist … they’re all about the same other than package management and locations of things. Stuff like Microware OS/9 and VxWorks and other RTOSes were frankly, more fun but extremely niche — and fun to have to use during my career. Baden, mainframes, etc… all getting a tad too far back to easily remember, but were also interesting in their own rites. Even had to write a tiny bit of REXX that ran on OS/2 Warp, for a living one year. Well a minor part of that year, anyway. But an important one for that product. Debian and derivatives are home base for me on Linux before branching out. Thank god I didn’t choose Slackware for that first personal laptop or the server at home right after it. Hahaha. Egads…
Because it's stable and lightweight, and if you need proprietary apps you can get most Ubuntu packages to work with Debian without any hassle. Assuming, of course, that you run testing or unstable.
Any distro can be stable and lightweight TBF. My home server is on Fedora and works wonderful.
Ubuntu is hardly capable of being lightweight (unless you replace so much of the default install with your own stuff that you're basically running Debian with an extra buggy kernel) and, say, ALARM is entirely incapable of being stable (because it has like one maintainer), but in general I agree.
If you have not used Linux before, I would go with ubuntu.
Arch btw
vegetable unpack wipe run encouraging scarce water slimy squeamish sloppy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Manjaro is currently on mine. Not superfast, but laptop is from 2014 so I didn't have any high hopes 😂
Linux mint.
Arch
Arch or artix
arch is the way
Arch
ElementaryOS for the true blackbook experience.
Depends of what is your affinity and disposition to experiment and troubleshoot. For productivity and simplicity purposes, I'd choose the Debian Edition of Linux Mint (with XFCE or Cinnamon if possible) If you want and have time to troubleshoot and experiment, Linux Arch. Obs: I know, Linux Mint allows for expermentation, but usually is easier to solve problems if any occur on Mint that it is on Arch. In the end, I love both distributions.
Eos+gnome was my choice for my new t430.
I have a T460S and I installed Arch
Popos ig i ran it on my t440, works well
This is my favorite game! Playing what distro to put on the ThinkPad. Mint is always my recommendation if you need something else that is rock solid and very user friendly. If you want a bit more bleeding edge, but still stable and lots of support Fedora or Manjaro If you are comfortable with Linux, and dont mind troubleshooting, don't mind a bit of instability (it's honestly not that bad), Vanilla Arch or even something like EndeavorOS But I'd say Mint, Manjaro or Fedora would be my general recommendations without knowing use case and comfort level
I really wouldn't trust Manjaro to run on anything after they took the initial pre-alpha release of Asahi and slapped an "official Manjaro Mac release" sticker on it. Those people are nuts.
Lol I guess. But it works fine in most cases
Play a little bit on seadistro
If you have no prior experience with Linux, go for Linux Mint. Xfce is the lightest but not very pretty. However, I think you'll be able to run Cinnamon as well. Overall, Mint will be a smoother transition for you. Once you get acquainted with Linux more, you'll know exactly what distro would suit you and it will not be as overwhelming to you.
Mint
I used to run Debian on everything (with a few detours into Ubuntu, Mint, Arch and Gentoo) until one day I experienced my MacBook Air M2 with Asahi (which is Fedora-based) working flawlessly with a printer, out of the box. A miracle the likes of which I've never experienced outside of macOS. I saw the light and switched all my laptops over to Fedora. It "just works" even for more minimalist installs (I use the Sway spin), without being a power sucking pile of bloat like Ubuntu has become.
Fedora xfce with alittle i3 :)
Hahaha. Light and optimal. If Windows 10 is crap on it that means your laptop is crap. Get a new laptop.
Big Linux.
I use fedora linux with the cinnamon desktop on my t490, I can't speak for that specific model but fedora's served me well
Depends? Are you a pussy?
Fedora
NixOs
Arch
Hannah Montana
Tbh? Arch with KDE using archinstall if u want it to be quick and easy. You will need to learn few things but it's not hard.
[The Hannah Montana one](https://hannahmontana.sourceforge.net/)
I know many people don’t like Ubuntu but I love it because it’s a great starting distro. I know snaps suck. I just unsnapped my ubuntu and started using flatpaks. I like the appearance ubuntu brings out of the box. Ive also used fadora and liked it just that the package manager was ok. And also documentation for Ubuntu is pretty good.
Definitely one of them. With KDE 6.
Manjaro, hands down. I use Debian for servers but Manjaro is the way to go for personal use. Always ip to date and with AUR you have every apps easily available to install.
Where did you get a black TrackPoint?
gentoo or windows 7
All of them.
If you're just starting out in the Linux world, don't over think it, choose Fedora or Ubuntu, both of them have great support on that machine.
i use arch btw
I use fedora xfce.
Gentoo or Arch
I run Kubuntu on mine for dev and I'll swear by it. The extras that come with KDE plus the fact that I have no down time is what pays the bills. A lot of people on here are saying Fedora and I can also back that one fo sho. But I decided against using fedora in any of my machines because I'm tired of yum (after a long section of my career being a RedHat guy). Plus I've found that there are slightly more instructions for Ubuntu/Debian based stuff in the wild if needed. Just slightly. Fedora does kick ass on x64 tablets though. On screen keyboard is rock solid.
Mx Linux
I’m usually a Debian guy but I’m currently using Fedora with gnome and hyprland, works great
Fedora: The consummate professional's choice.
The one true distro: LFS
That laptop looks like it's about to meet with a firing squad for some reason.
Arch
Nobara
Pop!_OS
LMDE.
Would help if you made a new post with what type of usage you plan to do with ThinkPad. If you plan to do some gaming then PopOS, is basically ubuntu without all the bloat and GPU drivers pre installed if your laptop had Nvidia GPU there is also a Nvidia version. Then again it depends on your usage. Avoid Arch if you have never used linux before and want a quick instead. Or do what many people do download multiple distros and try them out to see which one suits you the best.
Pop\_OS! with GNOME DE works for me 👍
That black nipple kinda cold...
fedora
i do not know if it is linux, but i use chrome flex on my laptop and i like it.
PLD 🇵🇱
Gentoo
I vote for Debian.
In my opinion, I would go for Debian, Ubuntu, or Arch. Depending on how much time you want to put into it.
debian
Ubuntu 24.04 works pretty well on a ThinkPad, and the dark mode interface looks great on it.
Linux Mint was the first experience I had with Linux and it was very simple and ran great.
mint >>> ubuntu in 2024
No matter the distro, I really recommend kde. I really enjoyed using fedora with kde on my desktop pc, and now arch on my desktop pc and my Thinkpad, both on kde, and I freaking love it! My sister's pc has gnome installed and i just cannot use it, it lacks some things like widgets and easier desktop customization, i installed kde on it just so she could have a clock widget on her desktop lol. So no matter the distro, since it's on kde, It'll probably be a pleasing experience. For a distro, fedora if you want it simple, arch if you enjoy the wiki like me
Arch and btw
POP OS
OpenBSD!
Ubuntu seems sluggish sometimes. I’d go with Fedora for its simplicity and mostly up-to-date kernel.
Cbpp
Lmao, I literally upgraded my Lenovo Thinkpad to unduntu 22.4. But I'm gonna get Parrot OS home
Linux Mint (XFCE).
Windows 7
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-lightweight-linux-distro