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I'm listing below the specs of my Lenovo laptop:

  • Lenovo ThinkPad T430
  • 2349-Core i5 2.6 GHz-3230M/64-bit
  • Windows 10 Pro/Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
  • 4 Gb RAM
  • 500 Gb HDD
  • DVD
  • printer
  • 1366 x 768/14 wide
  • HD-Intel HD Graphics
  • update 4000

I'm hoping to run the latest Ubuntu on my Laptop, but it's not on Ubuntu Desktop certified hardware list, and so I'm a little worried that if I switch from Windows10 to Ubuntu the hardware might not be 100% compatible resulting in poor performance.

As a side note, I did see the T440 and T450 in the list but for past releases, and Lenovo in general seems to be pretty compatible with Linux.

Do you guys think that it's okay to make the switch? Thanks!!

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    I would suggest downloading the ISO you would like to use, writing it to thumb-drive & trying it out. Certified hardware lists (or really any list) are usually out-of-date minutes after published, as they take resources to maintain...
    – guiverc
    Nov 11, 2018 at 7:37
  • good idea. how much memory do you think the thumb drive would need? Also, everything (files, programs, etc..) would be saved in the thumb drive, right?
    – richie
    Nov 11, 2018 at 7:42
  • By default, the ISO is written to the thumb drive as if it's a cdrom/dvd-rom (ie. is read-only). You can write it as a persistent thumb-drive (or install to thumb-drive) which then allows you to read/write files to it, and update your system, but the default ISO write runs from memory (slower as it's run from squashfs - compressed filesystem but still perfect for testing hardware works, just at a slower pace). Any 2gb thumb-drive should be fine - see help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick if you want some aid on writing (there's better, but can't currently find it sorry)
    – guiverc
    Nov 11, 2018 at 7:54
  • If it's not on the list, just don't go for it. Unfortunately I didn't realise there was a hardware compatibility list and spent 7-8 hours straight installing 16.04 an 18.04 on the T430 and guess what, I could feel while typing away on the terminal, the machine was not liking the software it was running. Oct 5, 2019 at 2:53

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After a quick Google search on the subject, it appears users of Manjaro Linux, a linux distribution based on arch linux, claim it is compatible with this version of your laptop.

This suggests to me that your laptop will be compatible when installing Ubuntu, and there should be no issues because the hardware is pretty good. For additional peace of mind, I will link you a thread I found on Reddit.

There are two users there claiming to run Mint on the same model. There is a user there claiming to run ElementaryOS with VM's and Matlab. There is a user there claiming to run Debian who had to configure wi-fi drivers.

So things look positive for you indeed and it is well worth a shot. As a side note, you can pick up windows installation media on ebay for about $15 with a license key, as I have in the past, and you should have no issues with the ISO. So a recovery to Windows would be a cheap and easy thing to perform worst case scenario - and nothing to worry about.

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    Thanks for clearing this up! Do you think it would be better to run Mint, Cinnamon, or even Manjaro over Ubuntu? I've used Ubuntu in the past, but I would be open to using new distros if it means better performance.
    – richie
    Nov 11, 2018 at 8:07
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    That's an interesting way to go about it, but I already have a windows machine, and some of the stuff I'm planning to do requires Linux. Right now I'm trying to figure out how I should proceed with the Ubuntu installation.
    – richie
    Nov 11, 2018 at 8:35
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    Because I don't wanna have windows on it while running ubuntu
    – richie
    Nov 11, 2018 at 8:36
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    I've read some posts saying that Darik's Boot and Nuke might be a good way to wipe any OS (but it might be overkill).
    – richie
    Nov 11, 2018 at 8:37
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    Do you have any suggestions?
    – richie
    Nov 11, 2018 at 8:37

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