Hello, can one install trisquel and alpine linux on nitro pad?
Hi!
Some of the latest OSes might not support Heads, which is a core ingredient of the Nitropad.
You can try to install them anyway, and if that would not work you can always revert to our automatic install images:
Since Linux Mint is mentioned, I guess other Debian flavors would work too.
Connected:
Devuan works, debian probably works too, as for trisquel, as long as ubuntu works, trisquel should also work too.
You could extend the boot chain to kexec into another OS from inside the OS you boot with heads.
The x230 originally has a slot for a WWAN card upgrade which could be used to add a mSATA (!) SSD. So it is possible to modify the hardware to even use a dedicated drive for another OS.
This is untested, I think, but if he wants, he could also do a live install on a usb storage drive and load it.
portable ssd connected via usb 3.0+ also works.
Even an NVME probably could be done this way, as long as it isnt directly in the hardware…
I have installed live persistent operating systems many times.
Only one thing has been an issue for me:
I tried cloning debian to a usb once and running it on many different bioses via the usb option. They were open source, but the long and short of it, is that if the distro has systemd, it hasn’t worked, for me anyways…
Your results may vary, its possible my ignorance with systemd, due to my shiftiness of not wanting to use it due to considering it bloat, might be a problem.
Anyways, just don’t try to install an arch based system, at this time and I THINK you will be able to boot from a usb drive the way I mentioned. 
As long A: you installed the image for that device specifically, or B: it doesn’t have systemd and the install works on other similar devices.
That’s my current understanding, unless they fixed the archlinux issues regarding even loading ARCHLINUX isos on heads.
HTH!