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Thinkpad X210

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Re: Thinkpad X210

#91

Post by blattimwind »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #53
saagarjha wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am yet to see a distribution that works out-of-the-box on a wide variety of hardware like Windows does. Sure, there are some distributions that generally work on most hardware, or some laptops that are “optimized for Linux”, but none of these come close to general hardware compatibility.

You've genuinely never had to install any drivers or change any settings after installing Windows? I find this very hard to believe.

I think you still always need to install graphics drivers from AMD/nVidias site, because the stub-drivers included with Windows don't have proper OpenGL support.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#92

Post by Jach »

badsectoracula wrote: post #77
Causality1 wrote: post #12

This reminds me of just how much I hate whoever came up with chiclet keyboards and ruined laptops forever.

Probably the same person who came up with the idea of using widescreens on laptops. At least with keyboards, if you have enough money, you can buy a brand new laptop with mechanical keyboard. Nobody is even making 4:3 monitors anymore, laptops or not.

Microsoft's been on the 3:2 ratio since the Surface Pro 3 and Surface Book, which is pretty nice.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#93

Post by chronolitus »

xaduha wrote: post #49
no-such-address wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha ha very funny. Yes, just try a lot of other distros until you find one that works, maybe.

Point is that you don't need to, you can make any distro work. "Working out of the box" for Linux doesn't have the same meaning as for Windows. If you're a buying a custom motherboard for an old notebook that's nothing.

I love linux but damn, way to shift the goalposts.

edit: Does any one else feel that redefining "working out of the box" to mean the opposite "just for linux", hurts linux's reputation more than just saying something non-hyperbolic, like it "works with a surprisingly minimal amount of driver treasure-hunt"?

As a tangent, I wonder if this applies to other things. if BMW users tell you "when talking about BMWs the term low-maintenance refers to not having your engine explode every 10k miles. With that in mind, BMWs are very low-maintenance", are you less likely to buy one than if they say "well there's a little more required maintenance than some other manufacturers, but as long as you do it the car is very reliable."?

Re: Thinkpad X210

#94

Post by jpalomaki »

tbrock wrote: post #86

These are awesome. For a long time I’ve thought a 13.3 X thinkpad like the 2X0 series (a proper successor to the x300/x301) would be the best thing ever. You take the x2X0 chassis, renowned for portabiltiy, battery life, and repair ability and shove a 13.3 inch screen in. Just like how the 13 inch class chassis on the x1 has a 14 inch screen. Well it’s happened: the x390 now exists. Maybe ever better would be a thick…

X390 looks very interesting indeed. Did not at first realize that they have actually put the larger screen to the small chassis.

Lack of swappable battery is annoying. Maybe I belong to the minority, but battery life is still one of my main problems with laptops. Just so annoying to have to constantly look for an outlet in meeting rooms or conference places. I guess external USB-C batteries are the way to go.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#95

Post by blattimwind »

0w4u2a wrote: post #25

Please, allow me to hijack this thread. What's the best Thinkpad I could get in Europe for ~200€ right now? (Off eBay of course). I don't care whether it's 13" or 15". Edit: thanks for all the replies.

X220/X230/250

Re: Thinkpad X210

#96

Post by bibyte »

saagarjha wrote: post #6

> Battery life is a little over 4 hours with the flush battery (55Wh) and 6-7 hours with the extended battery (80Wh). Not going to lie, that’s pretty horrible. > Battery life would increase by 50% if I got PC6 or PC8 idle states. The fan only turns on if I’m doing something intensive like compiling go or scrolling in Slack. lol. One of the things that really drives me nuts is my computer’s fan turning on when I know…

I used Arch Linux on a Dell laptop and my fan is pretty predictable. I have never used Windows so I am curious. Does the fan really turns on when you don't expect it ?

Re: Thinkpad X210

#97

Post by hopler »

shasheene wrote: post #48

This is a good time to bring up the fact there was never an industry-wide standardization effort for laptops. A standard form-factor means components would be re-usable between upgrades: the laptop case, power supply, monitor, keyboard, touchpad could all be re-used without any additional effort. This improves repairability, is much better for the environment, and means higher-end components can be selected with the…

The LG Gram teardown on iFixit was amazing. It's "moderately difficult" to remove almost everything including the trackpad and parts I forgot existed.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/LG+Gram+15-Inch+Repairability+A...

Re: Thinkpad X210

#98

Post by hopler »

ekianjo wrote: post #64
shasheene wrote: post #48

This is a good time to bring up the fact there was never an industry-wide standardization effort for laptops. A standard form-factor means components would be re-usable between upgrades: the laptop case, power supply, monitor, keyboard, touchpad could all be re-used without any additional effort. This improves repairability, is much better for the environment, and means higher-end components can be selected with the…

> A standard form-factor means components would be re-usable between upgrades We don't even have to go that far. Just ensuring that laptops can be serviced by their own users would go a long way to reduce e-waste. i.e. not soldering RAM chips to the motherboard, making it feasible to remove every single part (not gluing the keyboard to the MB for example), etc... instead of pursuing an ever thinner laptop design, whi…

Consumers prefer super-thin soldered machines, sadly. The proof is in the shopping.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#99

Post by clydethefrog »

snazz wrote: post #45
0w4u2a wrote: post #25

Please, allow me to hijack this thread. What's the best Thinkpad I could get in Europe for ~200€ right now? (Off eBay of course). I don't care whether it's 13" or 15". Edit: thanks for all the replies.

You could most likely get an X220 for that amount. It has nice old non-chiclet keyboard (I like it even more than the X201 keyboard because it has big escape and delete keys) and is still plenty powerful.

I love my original X220 but it's just a bit too slow sometimes. Definitely would get one with a upgraded SSD and more RAM if you see one.

Re: Thinkpad X210

#100

Post by thecrumb »

zhte415 wrote: post #58
0w4u2a wrote: post #25

Please, allow me to hijack this thread. What's the best Thinkpad I could get in Europe for ~200€ right now? (Off eBay of course). I don't care whether it's 13" or 15". Edit: thanks for all the replies.

For what it's worth, I still use a circa 2011 T420 for my work PC (decent spec for the time with i7 and 8GB RAM) which will probably be around or under your price. Great ThinkPad keyboard (non-chiclet), and instead of following the company upgrade cycle I opted for an SSD and new battery. A lot of corporates off-load perfectly good laptops (as 'company property' they've often been taken care of reasonably well, or ju…

Love my T420. Bought it new, used it for work for a long time. Now it's my field laptop I take with me when flying my quadcopters. It's been dropped, rained on, sat in the sun all day when it's 100 degrees outside and it still boots up happily. Have been thinking about putting a SSD in it but I really don't need the speed and the original drive works fine.
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