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I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

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Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#151

Post by lproven »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #144
NGRhodes wrote: post #30

I like to buy ex-corporate ~5 year old Thinkpads, get from a seller who gives atleast 6 months warranty, put new batteries in and they are usually far better in every way than anything new for the same price. Am currently very happy with my T460S, runs Linux or Win10 great. My previous machines that the kids use for school work and Roblox are x250 and x220, and previous to that I have an X200 and a T61, that all last…

> I like to buy ex-corporate ~5 year old Thinkpads, get from a seller who gives atleast 6 months warranty I am curious if this a US thing only. I mean, I've heard of company vehicles in second hand market but never company laptops. In my experience all these company laptops get decommisioned by IT never to remove any data, but I never really considered what happens at End-of-life for those. A few questions: 1. Where…

It's 100% a UK thing as well.

Most of mine came from Morgan Computers, but I also check Tier 1 Online and Bargain Hardware too.

I emigrated, and I have yet to find a good such vendor in the EU. Recommendations welcome!

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#152

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

My company decided to sell some of the old laptops before Christmas and I immediately jumped for the T430 and bought a couple of them. I know they are solid and can't wait to install Linux on them to be my main development machine.

Well I ended up installing Windows 10 but still they are pretty solid.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#153

Post by lproven »

zibzab wrote: post #100
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #47

I gave up on a Macbook Pro to use a Thinkpad T420s, the last one with the traditional keyboard. Aside from maxing out the memory and the SSD, I only upgraded the LCD panel to a better one ordered on AliExpress.

Am I the only person who is just fine with the new keyboard? Obviously the ones on ideapad and whatnot are not in the same league, but the keyboard on T450s and T460s are pretty awesome.

I've been discussing just this with the folks in reddit /r/thinkpad recently.

There are lots on your side, but I see lots of upvotes for the new-keyboard-haters too.

For me, the 220/420/520 are the last good Thinkpads. I have all 3 and use them all regularly. Anything after that, IMHO the chiclet keyboards are unusable trash.

They've got even worse since the ?30 generation and now are right down there with Dell and other cheapo glued-together skip-ware.

(Skip = dumpster in USian.)

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#154

Post by ricardobayes »

lproven wrote: post #147
duckmysick wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a classic case of the Ship of Theseus. https://open.library.okstate.edu/introphilosophy/chapter/shi...

No, it isn't. The entire point of the "my grandfather's axe" or "my grandmother's broom" story -- of which Theseus' ship is the original -- is that there's nothing of the original left, but replacement was gradual so there's a feeling of continuity. Whereas this is the original laptop with some upgrades. Same chassis, same motherboard, same screen, same (IMHO, bad) keyboard, but more RAM, more & faster disks, and a n…

Car industry is going in the direction of manufacturer rebuild (remanufacture), so laptop industry should do the same. Instead of making unupgradeable garbage, manufacturers should offer upgrades.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#155

Post by Ensorceled »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #97
fho wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with these projects is that they are all the hype for a while and after the hype dies down you are left with laptop that is only in theory upgradable.

You make it sound like it's a kickstarter.

It may not be a kickstarter but it is definitely a startup in a tough space, being skeptical of its long term success is pretty reasonable.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#156

Post by sundvor »

Shakahs wrote: post #136
black_puppydog wrote: post #65

I find it funny how people seem to fixate so much on the fact that the author upgraded various components to say the title is misleading. As someone with apparently similar requirements, the take-away from this should be this: Even though significant work is required to keep these old machines working, some people prefer to do so. Crucially, they prefer it not because they love tinkering, but simply because the value…

The upgrades aren’t even substantial. The CPU, RAM, and fan are all original parts. You could’ve ordered this exact configuration from Lenovo. The only deviation from stock is the AC WiFi upgrade. I daily drive a T530, it was max spec already so I haven’t changed anything. It has more than enough power to do software dev.

I see you also follow my rule: When buying a laptop, always buy top spec.

My laptop is an OG X1 Carbon i7/8/256. I can't upgrade it easily, but I'm actually happy with it for my purposes. My main driver is a Ryzen desktop though, that's a proper beast.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#157

Post by eb0la »

zwaps wrote: post #73
jillesvangurp wrote: post #17

I'm all for frugality but that seems like a lot of compromises for what is this person's main work laptop. Cool that it works; but why have a slow workhorse like that? I picked up a Samsung Galaxybook a few weeks ago. Nice core i5 system on a chip thing with Iris XE gpu. Runs cool including when under load and it's fast enough. Driver support seems decent in Linux. Even the graphics are quite alright. I played some s…

For one thing (for me, at least): The keyboard. I have yet to see a good keyboard on a modern laptop, and I use a lot of different ones. Some people do not care, but I do. There's some keyboards that are "still decent", but all of them are progressively getting worse. Well, they say that Mac keyboards are getting better again, but I don't like their zero-keytravel style in the first place, not even in the ones that w…

If it is just for the Keyboard, Lenovo sells bluetooth Thinkpad keyboards. I've just checked and the microUSB ones were under 50€.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#158

Post by lproven »

ricardobayes wrote: post #154
lproven wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it isn't. The entire point of the "my grandfather's axe" or "my grandmother's broom" story -- of which Theseus' ship is the original -- is that there's nothing of the original left, but replacement was gradual so there's a feeling of continuity. Whereas this is the original laptop with some upgrades. Same chassis, same motherboard, same screen, same (IMHO, bad) keyboard, but more RAM, more & faster disks, and a n…

Car industry is going in the direction of manufacturer rebuild (remanufacture), so laptop industry should do the same. Instead of making unupgradeable garbage, manufacturers should offer upgrades.

I am not sure of what you're saying, perhaps partly because I don't own a car, and never have since I got my driver's licence at age 38 or so.

I do recall a neighbour of mine saying "back when cars went rusty" to me a decade back, which surprised me. A lot. Apparently they don't now?

But modern cars, and many modern motorbikes, are sealed units which are not maintainable by the end-user. I dislike electronics like that.

For this reason, for years now, I have favoured very cheap smartphones. If I must have a sealed brick that I can't fix or upgrade, then I will have the cheapest one I can get that does what I need.

Luckily, there are very decent £/€ 125 smartphones now, from companies such as PPTV, iRulu and Umidigi, which are entirely usable and which I can replace every couple of years without pain.

For laptops, I just use decade+ old Thinkpads for now. They're fast enough for me and the keyboards are better than any modern thing.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#159

Post by vetinari »

znpy wrote: post #146
black_puppydog wrote: post #65

I find it funny how people seem to fixate so much on the fact that the author upgraded various components to say the title is misleading. As someone with apparently similar requirements, the take-away from this should be this: Even though significant work is required to keep these old machines working, some people prefer to do so. Crucially, they prefer it not because they love tinkering, but simply because the value…

> the value propositions of 2021/2022 hardware doesn't look better I'm glad you managed to distill my feelings so clearly. Most new things are just gimmicks, it's pretty rare that good innovations come into the laptop area. Think of stuff like non-16:9 displays: older thinkpads had beautiful displays that were amazing for doing actual work. Now we're seeing 16:10 displays coming back, and it's awesome. The ThinkPad T…

Getting off-topic, but you know that ribbon bar is collapsible, right? Also Windows up until 10 supported slim task bar, 11 unfortunately doesn't, probably as a compensation for the better displays available :(.
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