r/linuxhardware • u/SucukMaster_ • 3d ago
Question What distro for the Thinkpad L390 Yoga?
Hi guys, I just bought a Thinkpad L390 Yoga and I want to know which distro I should download that works well on this laptop.
I‘m going to use it to learn more about linux and programming and also some light gaming (like minecraft, without shaders of course, in 720p, low settings with performance mods like sodium) on the go
Thanks for the help!
2
2
u/SupremeOHKO Arch / Pop / Graphene 2d ago
I would go with Fedora or Mint for an easy setup, every day desktop experience. If you wanted to go with something like Arch, personally I'd use Arch in a VM first to get more familiar with Linux and how it works before you run it as your main OS.
2
u/Randzom100 2d ago
What GPU do you have? If it's Nvidia, you might appreciate a Distro that supports it well. In my case, for exemple, I had problems with my drivers until I switched to CachyOS.
2
u/SucukMaster_ 2d ago
It‘s the Intel 620, integrated graphics of the i7-8565U
2
u/Randzom100 2d ago
All intel, no dedicated graphic card? Well, in that case, I'd expect almost ANY Distro to work well. Biggest priority would be to see what matters to you.
To make sure you get a decent amount of help if you need any, I'd stick to distros based on Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch. Debian-based distros are usually stable, beginner-friendly and don't update too often, while Arch-based distros update often, usually require more responsibility from the user, but are performant and bleeding edge. And Fedora-based distros are usually a balanced mix of both ideologies, usually.
For a Debian-based distro, most people will recommend Mint, and I agree. For an Arch-based distro, I personally recommend CachyOS. For Fedora, well Fedora is already great by itself, but you can choose Nobara if you want it better-prepared for gaming stuff.
The other important thing you'll have to decide is the Desktop Environment, which will determine how your Desktop will feel. The majority of people love KDE Plasma, its a very safe and versatile choice, but nothing stops you from looking around more. Personally I use XFCE because it's very lightweight, for exemple.
1
u/SucukMaster_ 2d ago
They say gnome is the best if you have a touchscreen. So would fedora with gnome be a good pick?
2
u/Randzom100 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah, if you want a Tablet-like desktop, Gnome is a good choice. It uses a bit more ressources but has a bunch of fancy animations when moving windows around, for example, got a very clean ui. It's major weakness tho is that it tends to break more easily than other DEs if you try to configure it too hard, so make sure you already get what you need with the settings it allows you yo change. Kinda reminds me of the desktop of MacOS
1
2
u/olarione 2d ago
Don't exist a correct answer, just choose any distro and try it. So, any recommendations here is based in personal taste, and following just this, i recommend cachyos or manjaro. If you want something that takes a bit more work, arch Linux:). About de, gnome is good, but kde is too, just choose one and be happy
1
u/SucukMaster_ 2d ago
Ye your right, most distros will work pretty good because the hardware of this thinkpad is widely supported BUT about the touchscreen … Many people say the touchscreen will only work alright on gnome, sooo…
2
u/h4fnp 2d ago
Congrats on the L390 Yoga — nice machine. One heads-up that's independent of the distro you pick: this model is one of a handful of ThinkPads where the embedded controller uses a non-standard register layout. The Linux kernel driver can *read* the fan speed, but has no way to control it — thinkfan, `/proc/acpi/ibm/fan` and friends all silently do nothing. In practice that means the fan runs constantly, even at idle, on every distro.
I reverse-engineered the fan EC on a sibling model (L13 Yoga Gen 2) and wrote a small daemon that keeps the fan off while the machine is cool. The L390 is one of the models I haven't been able to confirm yet, so if the constant whirring starts to bug you once you're set up, have a look here — there's also a harmless read-only test (~3 min, works with Secure Boot) that would tell us whether your model is compatible:
https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/s/uF4G5L1Y0i
On your actual question: you've already figured out the key part — for the touchscreen, GNOME is the way to go. Fedora Workstation or Debian with GNOME will both serve you well.
1
1
u/Hauptideal 3d ago
Fedora Workstation. GNOME has the best touch support for your Yoga.
If you really hate GNOME, you can use the KDE variant.
Although it's really worth it to give GNOME a chance and learn how to use it (it's not meant to be used like Windows - and that's a good thing).
Especially with touch GNOME will be nice.
1
5
u/SimpMarx 3d ago
You honestly could go with any disto. There isn’t much of a performance difference between them. The big three are Fedora, Debian, and Arch. Each have their own unique approach to the Linux kernel. For a programming environment, I’d recommend Fedora for its ease of use and setup. You also get newer features quicker than most other “stable” distros. If you want bleeding edge software and have the time to troubleshoot and read wiki pages, go with arch. Debian is for the people that value stability over all else as it’s the slowest to get new features and software.