I'm using a ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 with some pretty solid specs—Intel Ultra 7 and NVIDIA RTX 500, plus 64GB of RAM. I'm not looking to game on it, but I do heavy 3D modeling, programming, and video editing. My main concern is whether I can make the most of my hardware with Linux. Also, I'd like some suggestions on a Linux distro. I'm not a fan of Linux Mint's look or its user-friendly approach. What do you think about Arch Linux? I've heard it's good for development but also a bit unstable. Any thoughts or recommendations?
5 Answers
Just a heads-up, check the wifi card on your ThinkPad. If it's Realtek, you might run into driver issues with some distributions, especially those with older kernels. Fedora is generally a safe choice.
When I worked in IT for an engineering firm, RHEL performed amazingly on the P14 Gen 5. I’m curious, what CAD programs are you planning to use?
You might like CachyOS; it's based on Arch but has a more straightforward setup, plus it comes with KDE Plasma, which looks great! The rolling releases are there, so stability can be a mixed bag but honestly, the instability of Arch is often overstated. I've been eyeing it myself for a while now.
I've been using CachyOS for about six months and have only had one minor issue with it. Most of the time, it runs smoothly. Sure, you might hit some bumps occasionally, but it's nothing I can't fix. In fact, I've had more trouble with EndeavourOS than Cachy, but that could be just me being new to Linux.
Sounds interesting! I'm definitely going to give CachyOS a shot. Maybe trying it live could help me see how it works with my machine.
Any of the rolling releases are likely to work well for you. I’m currently using Fedora with the KDE desktop and I'm really enjoying it. CachyOS has a nice optimized Linux kernel too, which can give you a small performance boost. Also, there's Nobara, which combines Fedora and that special kernel, but it does lean more towards gaming while still being user-friendly.
If Mint's look isn't for you, don't forget you can choose different desktop environments. You can install it with either Xfce, KDE, or MATE, which might suit your taste better!
Haha, I'm not usually into Mint either, but I've seen their other environments get good press. I'll check those out too!
Right now, I'm using Onshape, but I'm hoping to switch to SolidWorks eventually, once I can afford it!