From June last year until February this year, I was running the stock Kubuntu 20.04 kernel on a ThinkPad T14 with no thermal throttling or power limits. I would often have a few Docker containers running, a JetBrains editor (Java, shudder), Firefox with some addons and well over 100 open tabs, Chrome with the devtools open, MS Teams, Thunderbird, and some smaller apps such as Keepass, Telegram, Anki, a dozen terminals, and Emacs running. Never had a problem with memory (I think only 8 GiB, actually) or CPU (I don't even remember which Intel CPU it had). It was also connected to a docking station with two external monitors and an external keyboard.
It was the smoothest Laptop I've ever used with Linux, which I've been doing since 2008. Everything worked out of the box, including external displays, wifi, printing. I'm sure that a major portion of that experience was using a Kubuntu LTS release.
> RAM (I think only 8 GiB, actually) or CPU (I don't even remember which Intel CPU it had
Sounds like you had one of the cheaper T14's, it's likely you didn't run into any power limits due to that. 1080p screen as well, I presume?
Kubuntu 20.04 and its kernel version certainly throttle power on the higher-end T14's I've seen. If that's lifted then they throttle thermally, unless you manually force both cooling and power limits higher. Windows handles it all tad better, but the battery life is nothing to be amazed of.
I do believe that is was a 1080 screen. I almost never used it without an auxiliary monitor (mostly two aux monitors), I would have been just as happy with a desktop. Alas, the company only provided laptops.
It was the smoothest Laptop I've ever used with Linux, which I've been doing since 2008. Everything worked out of the box, including external displays, wifi, printing. I'm sure that a major portion of that experience was using a Kubuntu LTS release.