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Linux Mint on a ThinkPad T14 Gen 3

By Wes Ellis4 min read
THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • Linux Mint on a ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 is my get-things-done laptop: quiet, predictable, no surprise redesigns.
  • ThinkPads are the safe Linux bet, and Lenovo ships firmware through LVFS, so fwupd handles BIOS updates without Windows.
  • Dropbox has an official Linux client; on Mint, install nemo-dropbox and set selective sync early.
  • Day one: take every update, set up Timeshift, check drivers and firmware, then Dropbox.

My laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3, and it runs Linux Mint. It's the machine I open when I want to get something done.

I don't have a grudge against Windows. But a laptop is personal, and I want mine quiet: no nagging, no surprise redesigns of the Start menu, no mystery process chewing the fan on a Tuesday. Mint is very good at quiet.

Why Mint

Mint is built on Ubuntu's LTS releases, so you get a huge software catalog and years of support underneath it, without having to accept every opinion Ubuntu has about the desktop. The flagship edition uses Cinnamon, which is Mint's own desktop, and it looks like what it is: a taskbar, a menu, a system tray, windows with minimize buttons. If you've used a computer since 1995, you already know how to drive it.

The part I appreciate most is that Mint seems to assume you're an adult:

  • Updates show up in Update Manager and you decide when they go in.
  • Driver Manager lists anything proprietary it thinks you might want and lets you choose.
  • The first-run welcome screen nudges you to set up Timeshift snapshots, which is exactly the right nudge.
  • Flatpak is there out of the box through the Software Manager for anything the regular repos don't carry.

None of that is exotic. It's just a desktop that stays out of the way.

Why a ThinkPad

ThinkPads have been the safe bet for Linux for a long time, and the reasons are boring in the best way. Lenovo certifies a lot of its business laptops for Linux, much of the hardware is standard Intel or AMD parts with mainline kernel drivers, and Lenovo publishes firmware updates for many models to the Linux Vendor Firmware Service.

That last one matters more than it sounds: BIOS and dock firmware updates without borrowing a Windows install.

Heads up

The T14 Gen 3 came in both Intel and AMD versions, so if you're shopping for one used, check which you're getting.

Either way, it's the usual ThinkPad package: a keyboard that's a pleasure to type on, a TrackPoint if you're into that, a sensible spread of ports, and a chassis you can open with a screwdriver.

If you want to see whether your particular model has firmware on LVFS, fwupd is the tool, and it's in the Mint repos:

sudo apt install fwupd
fwupdmgr refresh
fwupdmgr get-updates

Mint's Software Manager also has a GUI front end for this if you'd rather click.

Dropbox on Mint

I use Dropbox on this laptop, and happily it's one of the few big sync services with an official Linux client. You can grab the .deb from Dropbox's site, but on Mint the smoother route is the Nemo integration package from the repos:

sudo apt install nemo-dropbox

That hooks Dropbox into Nemo, Mint's file manager, so you get the little sync badges on files and a Dropbox entry in the right-click menu. The first time you run Dropbox, it downloads its own daemon, then opens a browser to sign you in.

A couple of things to know going in:

  • It wants a supported filesystem. Dropbox is picky about where the Dropbox folder lives. The default ext4 install of Mint is fine. If you've got clever ideas about putting it on an external drive formatted as something else, check Dropbox's list of supported filesystems first.
  • Selective sync is your friend. The Linux client doesn't give you the same online-only-files experience as the Windows and Mac apps, so on a laptop SSD, decide which folders actually need to live locally and untick the rest in the preferences.
  • Big first syncs take a while. That's not a Linux thing, that's physics. Let it finish before you judge it.

Day-one checklist

If you're setting up the same combination, this is the short list I'd do before anything else:

  1. Run Update Manager and take everything. A fresh install image is always a few months behind.
  2. Set up Timeshift. Point it at the internal drive, keep a few daily and weekly snapshots, and leave your home folder out of it. Your files belong in a real backup, not a system snapshot.
  3. Check Driver Manager. Usually there's nothing to do on a ThinkPad, but it's worth ten seconds to find out.
  4. Check firmware. fwupdmgr get-updates, or the GUI.
  5. Install Dropbox with nemo-dropbox, sign in, and set selective sync before it tries to pull everything down.

After that, it's just a laptop. Which is the whole point.

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