ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

&gt;Ethernet and WiFi work, although WiFi is a bit slow (only up to 802.11a?) compared to 802.11n&#x2F;802.11ac capable OSes.<p>And stuff like this is why I&#x27;ve never stuck with FreeBSD when I&#x27;ve tried it. I screw around with debugging issues all day at work. Why would I want to try to figure out why something as fundamental as <i>wifi</i> isn&#x27;t working in my spare time?

I also use a T480 as my main laptop and love it. Here are my notes &amp; dotfiles for running Arch Linux: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;vesche&#x2F;t480" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;vesche&#x2F;t480</a><p>One big item (which you&#x27;ll see at the bottom of my install notes) is that intel chips in these thinkpads have a throttling issue. There&#x27;s a nice python program to fix that, I run it as a systemd service on boot: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;erpalma&#x2F;throttled" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;erpalma&#x2F;throttled</a>

Checking in with a Lenovo Carbon X1 gen1 running FreeBSD flawlessly. Everything works including suspend&#x2F;resume, the only things I never tried to use are the camera and fingerprint reader but I guess I&#x27;ll check out of curiosity.<p>Battery life is <i>better</i> than Windows. The touchpad is a little less pleasant to use (hard to click on a small target while using the laptop on the couch, the pointer always moves a little bit when taking the finger off). It definitely works better after some 30 minutes of usage but I have no idea why.

I use one of those too and made the switch rather recently from a MBPr. I used Linux Mint on it.<p>It&#x27;s speedy, video calling works fine, can compile lots of code quickly, and it&#x27;s refurbished and saved from the dumpster.<p>I hope to never buy a new computer again instead relying on refurbishing old ones as we go along. I keep all of my configurations and projects synced up so that booting up a new computer into my dev environment is straight forward. If I lose the device or it gets totaled it&#x27;s a couple hundred bucks instead of $4k going out the door to get a new one in a few hours.

I’ve been eying FreeBSD for my next project once feature parity is finalized and I begin to lock down the build chain for long term storage. I think one nice thing about FreeBSD is how the entire ecosystem is maintained by the same team of core developers vs. Linux which focuses on the kernel and has a wider more heterogeneous ecosystem. I want something stable, that has great console mode, and has great Ethernet support, and is absolutely rock solid. Does FreeBSD fit the bill there?

I dropped FreeBSD as my main laptop about four years ago (and have invested a fair bit of time on dockerising my experience on ubuntu so going back is hard)<p>But what I wanted then (and dreamed of having a million or so to make it real) was a FreeBSD reference laptop - basically a <i>distribution</i> of FreeBSD that worked in this laptop series - you bought the laptop and a years support and basically three hackers just kept on producing patches and co-ordinating drivers and making simple tools and simple videos on how to keep your base running.<p>I work <i>on top</i> of my laptop. I would prefer to just take the barest plain vanilla, and not have to work <i>on</i> my laptop unless I choose to.

4 months ago I wrote up how insane value the T480 is: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;thinkpad&#x2F;comments&#x2F;dd2i3y&#x2F;can_we_talk_for_a_moment_about_how_insane_a_value&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;thinkpad&#x2F;comments&#x2F;dd2i3y&#x2F;can_we_tal...</a> and most of that still stands.

I also have a t480, mines running Ubuntu but unfortunately I’m giving it up for a new MacBook Air. The touchpads on the thinkpads are beyond horrible after using macs for many years, it’s finally too annoying for me to keep going :(

Mac user here. Still use a desktop Mac mini daily, but have replaced my 13&quot; Macbook Pro for a 14&quot; Thinkpad running Ubuntu.<p>So far so good. Haven&#x27;t had nearly the amount of hardware issues reported in this thread. Only the fingerprint scanner does not work, despite best efforts to install its drivers.<p>The hardest thing for me so far has been customising it to behave like macOS. The muscle memory of keyboard shortcuts is too hard to shake. But I&#x27;ve changed most of them.<p>Another thing to point out. The display scaling sucks. I have found anything between 100% and 200% unstable.<p>Edit: mine is a budget L380 model. Pretty good value for under $500 (current clearance price).

Ah, finally: A thread where everyone can just post their hardware and software combinations.

Why disable the TPM? One cool thing you can do is store your SSH private key inside:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.habets.se&#x2F;2013&#x2F;11&#x2F;TPM-chip-protecting-SSH-keys-properly.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.habets.se&#x2F;2013&#x2F;11&#x2F;TPM-chip-protecting-SSH-keys-...</a>

The other good development with Thinkpads is the introduction of AMD processors in their mainstream offerings (T495, T495s, X395, etc.). Unfortunately their screens suck though.

I use a Thinkpad T490s and it works great with Ubuntu out of the box. Only thing that doesn&#x27;t work is clicking the touchpad for right click, but since the Thinkpad comes with physical left and right buttons that was a non-issue.

Try the new Thinkpad X1 Extreme Gen 2:<p>9th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-9880H (16 Threads, 16 MB Cache)<p>NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Max-Q 4GB<p>64 GB RAM<p>4K OLED display (better colors than Mac)<p>Great keyboard<p>Infrared Camera<p>Fingerprint Sensor<p>DOULBY Sound System<p>Water-Spoil-Protection<p>...<p>The first generation had some cooling issues, but it is solved now in the second generation.

The T480s has so much better build quality. Its all metal vs T480 which is plasticity and soft touch. Not sure why you would choose T480 unless you REALLY need &gt; 24gb ram or giant extended battery.<p>Even the inside is better built. The plastic front clips of the T480 backplate break super easily, whereas the T480s has replaceable clips.

&gt; SD card reader seems to work<p>Holy shit, Lenovo finally switched from that non-standard Realtek thingy (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bugs.freebsd.org&#x2F;bugzilla&#x2F;show_bug.cgi?id=204521" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bugs.freebsd.org&#x2F;bugzilla&#x2F;show_bug.cgi?id=204521</a>) to something that exposes SDHCI over PCIe?

Have been running Linux on Lenovo laptops forever. A T500, then a T440p, now an X1E Gen2 (can&#x27;t remember what I used before the T500).<p>While I still am not able to buy a Lenovo laptop without Windows preinstalled, at least Lenovo is open enough for other OSs (FreeBSD, Linux, etc) to run relatively flawlessly on them.

i7-8550U paired with a 1TB 5400rpm? that&#x27;s not a bottleneck, that&#x27;s a bottle cap with a pinhole.

I hate the trackpad&#x2F;nubbins on those things. At least for Win10. the response&#x2F;behavior isn&#x27;t really consistent between it seeming to want a swipe, a tap, right or left buttons and whatnot.

Reminds me of Stallman&#x27;s &quot;How I do my computing&quot; post<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stallman.org&#x2F;stallman-computing.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stallman.org&#x2F;stallman-computing.html</a>

Have you worked on external monitors with this setup? The last time I&#x27;ve tried, it had been a pain. The monitors were detected fine, but the scaling was completely off.

I really want to try a ThinkPad with Ubuntu. Currently using an older DELL XPS 13 with Ubuntu and no issues so far expect the trackpad is going out

I won&#x27;t buy another laptop without dedicated graphics card, which rules out most Thinkpads. Sorry, but igpu is not enough these days.

Admire the dude who spend time tinkering and getting it right like that.

Replacing the main desktop, huh?<p>That processor sure has the potential. A few modifications to the cooling system and some undervolting can get it running at 30+ Watt TDP indefinitely.

How about the trackpad? And the power switch?<p>I&#x27;ve been running Ubuntu and Kali on a Dell machine for a few years and the trackpad has always been unusuable and the power switch is always power-down (instead of sleep, standby).<p>Yes, I&#x27;ve messed with the xorg settings for the trackpad and the ACPI settings for the button, but gave up.

I mean, I&#x27;m going to ask the question.<p>Why?<p>If it&#x27;s for funsies okay but pushing to use something wildly boutique is a major red flag for me at work. I have one guy who works for me who runs linux on the desktop and he&#x27;s pretty much always having a problem of some sort. I put up with it because he&#x27;s staff level, but it doesn&#x27;t impress.