Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Gen 1 Review: Running Linux on a Budget Business Laptop

Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Gen 1 is a compact 13-inch business laptop from 2020 that was designed with affordability and portability in mind. Recently I made a bargain and bought a beaten-up unit that came with a 10th Gen Intel Core i3 processor, 8 GB of soldered RAM and integrated Intel graphics. While it retains many classic ThinkPad features such as the TrackPoint, ThinkShutter camera cover, and excellent firmware diagnostics, it also comes with several disadvantages. The RAM cannot be upgraded, there is no Thunderbolt support, the build quality is not on the same level as the T or X series, and Lenovo made the odd decision to place the power button on the side of the laptop, where it can be pressed accidentally while putting the machine into a backpack. The battery life is average and if you plan to replace the Lithium-ion battery look for model L18M4P90. So, can this budget-friendly ThinkPad still be a good choice today despite all compromises?

Linus Torvalds once joked that "a computer is like air conditioning. It becomes useless when you open Windows". Whether you agree or not, I believe this ThinkPad is much better suited to Linux than to a modern installation of Microsoft Windows, especially with only 8 GB of RAM. In this video I install Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, my Linux distribution of choice. Ubuntu follows a six-month release cycle, while a Long-Term Support (LTS) version is released every two years and receives five years of security updates, making it the best choice for most users. Ubuntu 26.04 is the most recent LTS version. It was released in April 2026 and ships with the Linux 7 kernel, the Wayland display protocol and the GNOME 50 desktop environment, providing a polished and modern Linux experience. It also heavily relies on snap packages. This is an universal package format by Canonical. Although they improve isolation and simplify software installation, I am not a fan because they bundle dependencies together and consume more disk space than necessary. Ubuntu is only one option, though. There are many excellent Linux distributions available, each offering different desktop environments and workflows. Although I am long-time Ubuntu user probably nowadays there are more suitable Linux distributions for L13 Gen 1.

If your ThinkPad L13 has just 8 GB of soldered RAM, I highly recommend increasing the swap space to 8 GB, or at least 4 GB, to improve usability when running memory-hungry applications. It is not a replacement for physical RAM, but it can make a noticeable difference during everyday multitasking. If you want to get more out of older hardware and support open source software, watch my full video for the complete hands-on review and practical tips for using Linux on this budget-friendly ThinkPad.