Thinkpad T14s without OS

2026-05-01 14:37 UTC

I think I’ve read in Lemmy somewhere that the T14 notebooks should be avoided is they come with letters after the T14. I’m thinking of buying a T14s G5. It has to be new as we get tax deduction (will be at the reception of small local museum). What do people this of this notebook. I’ll end up installing Linux on it. I was thinking of going DELL as I’ve been running various latitudes over the years without major problems but looks like people are not fond of DELL + Linux. Any thoughts?

Replies (8)

@pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 2026-05-01 14:57

I think the thinkpad T14 series is pretty mainstream for linux - except for the Gen6 snapdragon one. Arch wiki thinks the gen5 will work I had a top of the line Dell (precision 5520) that I bought with Ubuntu on it, so it ran linux very well. But there were quality issues, mainly the battery swelling up and making the keyboard stop working. Then the screws for the case fell out and the hinge kind of broke, and the power connector stopped working, as did its replacement. I think you aren’t really supposed to work on the dells yourself as it had special screws, not plain philips heads. Maintainability on thinkpads is better, in general. And I like the way the computer feels more - just better design.

Open ##1854716
@reallyzen@lemmy.ml 2026-05-01 15:30

The “s” suffix is for Slim, which you don’t really need if it’s used at a desk in a fixed position. S series generally are lighter, slimmer (eh) and harder to repair / more fragile. That said, when careful, these are slim, elegant professional machines with excellent Linux support.

Open ##1854959
@AcornTickler@sh.itjust.works 2026-05-01 15:35

I have been using T14s Gen 6 (AMD) and it works perfectly

Open ##1855031
@KianaTabion@lemmy.today 2026-05-01 16:19

Unfortunately, I can’t really comment about that specific device. Regardless, I’d reckon the following is worth noting: ThinkPads (and to a lesser extent the Dell’s Precision/Latitude line of devices) are (generally-speaking) the best supported laptops on Linux. We can e.g. see this when software like TLP has exclusive features to ThinkPads-only. Linux-specific vendors like NovaCustom, Star Labs, System76 and TUXEDO are cool. But, they have to do a lot to catch-up. Some of them don’t even have an entry within ArchWiki’s entry on laptops. While not a Linux-first vendor (at least initially), Framework has been picking up a lot of steam. Definitely deserving a mention alongside the others. Anecdotally, I’ve moved from HP to ThinkPad and there’s a very clear difference. To name one of my many frustrations with HP, my battery died every year or so on Linux. That’s just ridiculous. By contrast, the experience on ThinkPad has been absolutely glorious. It’s clearly meant to offer a first-class Linux experience.

Open ##1855486
@gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2026-05-01 19:41

The “s” means it’s a tiny bit thinner and lighter, but the components are soldered on so you can’t upgrade anything. One of the big selling points of the newest T14 is that it is probably the most modular and repairable modern laptop you can get, except for Frameworks. Get the non-s if you care even a little bit about that part.

Open ##1856574
@Luccus@feddit.org 2026-05-01 21:02

I use the T14s G6, running Fedora Silverblue, as my only PC. I bought it mainly for its AMD 880M iGPU, which just hits the performance I need for the few games I still play, as well as its mobility so I can blender on the go (and because I got fed up with the seemingly endless hiccups from my ASUS G14). It’s good. No issues I know of. The display is a bit slow even for a 60Hz panel, but the battery life is stellar (probably also because of the slow panel). However, if it’s static, as you say, I'm not sure if a small desktop PC wouldn't be the better choice overall. After all, modern ThinkPads are pretty expensive.

Open ##1864858
@meowcar420@lemmy.ml 2026-05-02 19:04

I have 3 T14s gen2 and gen3 with broken keyboards, one with a broken usb-c port and a gen4 where smoke just started coming out of it and it broke. The enshittification of ThinkPads really makes me sad, it doesn’t even benefit Lenovo since all of them still were under warranty. Also to replace the keyboard you have to remove like 70 screws first

Open ##1891112
@pauldoo@lemmy.ml 2026-05-02 18:47

Others have already answered what the “s” means. I’ll just add that it’s worth checking Lenovo’s Linux support page for the model you’re considering: https://lenovo.com/linux Also, I’ll point out that the ThinkPad X9 14 seems to be quite heavily discounted right now. You get better core specs for your money than T14 or T14s.

Open ##2114429