I have an older X1 yoga. I haven't tried to make the fingerprint sensor work, but the rest works quite well. Especially after I updated the firmware with fwupd.
It's not my first Thinkpad running Linux, and the prior two ran quite well.
I run Arch Linux on mine, with the latest kernel, and custom tools (think fan), and some things disabled (fast boot), and it becomes "usable".
That's ok for any Laptop that isn't advertised as "Ubuntu certified".
But I literally had to uninstall Ubuntu and install Arch to get audio and microphone back to work after the 19.04 update broke it, and some dev mentioning on the bug report that the fix wouldn't land on 20.04 which it didn't.
Imagine Microsoft or Apple telling their users that they have to live without a soundcard for 6 months during COVID-19 because "tough luck". Well that's pretty much how Canonical and Lenovo treat their customers.
That’s probably not what people want to hear but I learned over the years that it’s best to stay one LTS version behind on Ubuntu. I’m running 18.04 and won’t upgrade to 20.04 until next year because Ubuntu always has bugs 6–9 months after release.
Also, MS and Apple charge for their software. Linux OS are free. That doesn’t absolve Lenovo from selling “certified” laptops that aren’t compatible though.
I also find that sticking to older enterprise Thinkpads (X, T, W) and staying away from the toys posing as thinkpads tremendously helps avoid headaches with Linux. Shame on Lenovo for mucking the waters and using the name for enterprise and consumer machines.
And older enterprise class thinkpads are dirt cheap on top of being easily fixable and upgradable for peanuts because every IT department is on a 3 years lease cycle.
> Also, MS and Apple charge for their software. Linux OS are free.
I paid ~2k$ for a Lenovo Laptop certified for Ubuntu. I don't really see the difference between doing that and paying 2k$ for an Apple laptop that's certified for MacOS (which i've upgraded for 8 years for free), or some other laptop certified for windows.
Except for the obvious difference that the Lenovo Laptop does not work with Ubuntu as promised.
I used to be more superstitious about that, but now the most cautious I think I'd recommend being would be to wait for the first point version (e.g. 20.04.1). Ubuntu has been a lot less surprising since 14.04 or so, for me.
How do Apple charge for their software? They do sell things like Logic Pro I suppose, but not the OS itself.
To add some more useful (anecdotal) data, I have a Thinkpad T15 with Ubuntu 20.04 and everything works smoothly (even secure boot) EXCEPT the fingerprints reader, although TBH I still haven't tried after updating to 20.04. So in my opinion Lenovo support for Ubuntu is really good.
You can have a more than decent Lenovo laptop for half that price (T490) and TBH fingerprint reader is a nice gimmick but it's not something I care when I choose a laptop.
Most fingerprint sensors I've run into on laptops use the Broadcom Security Processor, which Broadcom has emphatically stated they will never support Linux for. Just a straight up no on the driver front, and the thing is purposely designed to be a black box so reverse engineering is a huge effort.
For what its worth however they didn't work all that great in Windows either. The sensor was pretty picky about your thumb being absolutely dry and spotless and getting the swipe speed just right. I found it less convenient than just typing in a password. When I switched the laptops to Linux and discovered that the driver situation was hopeless I wasn't too broken up.
It's not my first Thinkpad running Linux, and the prior two ran quite well.