[CentOS] CentOS on new Thinkpads

Valeri Galtsev galtsev at kicp.uchicago.edu
Fri Sep 30 14:44:23 UTC 2016


On Fri, September 30, 2016 8:22 am, Johnny Hughes wrote:
> On 09/29/2016 08:34 PM, Eddie G. O'Connor Jr. wrote:
>> I've had success on "older" model Lenovos.....(T-410 / T-420 / T-430)
>> but anything beyond those seems to have some issue or another. I was
>> even able to swap the standard drive to an SD (250GB) on a T-430 and
>> it's running g like a champ. A lot of the newer stuff is OK as long as
>> you don't have any boutique drivers for video network or sound. YMMV. On
>> Sep 29, 2016 9:18 PM, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 9/29/2016 5:55 PM, Michael B Allen wrote:
>>>> It seems optical drives are gone. Do I boot the iso from USB or what's
>>>> the procedure now?
>>>
>>> yup, put iso on USB, go to town.
>>>
>>>> Generally seeking new laptop advice. If Lenovo is not good is anyone
>>>> using Toshiba?
>>>
>>> I have not much cared for Lenovo since IBM sold out to them.    I've
>>> been generally quite happy with business grade ('Latitude') Dell
>>> laptops...  my wife's got an XPS15 (running Windows) thats very nice,
>>> gorgeous IPS 1920x1080 screen, very slim, nicely made, and her new work
>>> laptop is a Latitude 5500-something thats also a really nice super-slim
>>> thing, has monster battery life, and all the latest USB C and so forth,
>>> but it too is running Windows 7 as thats what she needs for her
>>> techwriter job (Adobe Framemaker on Linux is very poorly supported).
>
> I have personal knowledge about CentOS-7 on a Lenovo T520 and a W541 as
> I have run both of those as my main workstation using CentOS-7.
> Everything works fine on these.
>
> I also know that the T440 and T450 work, X1 Carbon Generation 3 and
> lower work (with CentOS-7).
>
> There are some issues with T460 and X1 Carbon Generation 4.  The issue
> seems to be really only Bluetooth and is expected to be fixed in the
> upcoming 7.3 RHEL source code.

I mostly recommend Dell (enterprise level) laptops for my Linux users
these days. My own PC laptop is Fujitsu Ultrabook U900 which I run under
FreeBSD 10, but CentOS 7 runs without a hitch on it. The issue with
Fujitsu is: they are awfully MS Windows oriented (but I got laptop with
Windows as I have to legally run MS Windows in virtual machine anyway).
Lenovo is a separate story (at least in my book).

<rant>
I was hesitant about Lenovo laptops originally, even though I was
recommending IBM laptops before they sold laptop line to [Chinese company]
Lenovo. During first 2 or 3 years Lenovo gained my respect, and I started
recommending to my users Lenovo laptops. They were keeping IBM tradition,
machines were well built and engineered. This lasted till the day they
started selling laptops with malware installed on them (search for
Superfish, lenovo, malware). That did it, and never in my life I will
recommend to anybody Lenovo laptops. In my book whoever did it once
(clumsily first time so they got caught) is likely to do it again. Only,
as everybody learns, their next malware distribution will be much more
elaborate, like hard drive firmware virus, or UEFI virus (these things
have to fit into awfully small footprint, so they are just downloaders of
malcode, but they are virtually impossible to get rid of once you have
them). So, people, use your brain, do your own search and come to your own
conclusions!
</rant>

Valeri

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



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