Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

ounapuu.ee

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 432 posts

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#321

Post by NikolaNovak »

Shorel wrote: post #262

> I’d like to thank Intel here for making this possible. The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022. Without this, my laptop would likely be obsolete by now. Hahaha, this last sentence seals the overall tone of the article.

Indeed. Not only are my ThinkPad T420s still usable around home (see another post here), but my AMD FX-8350, approaching a decade, is still going strong as my primary (gaming, photo editing, etc) desktop.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#322

Post by zbrozek »

jkepler wrote: post #113
zbrozek wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used an x220 as my primary machine for a long time. The low resolution screen and the unusually crappy touchpad are what got me to upgrade. The touchpad in particular was horrible because it had different resolutions in X and Y. In one of those (I don't remember which) it was lower than the screen. So I found myself frequently unable to get to the 1 pixel wide handles to resize windows without the wigglestick.

I turned the touchpad off on my x220 and simply used the track point.

I've always enjoyed being multimodal. There were workarounds but I didn't like not having access to a useful touchpad. It seemed like a clear hardware problem because I had the same problem in Windows as in all desktop environments in Linux.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#323

Post by Dylan16807 »

goodpoint wrote: post #288
cehrlich wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even assuming Framework shuts down tomorrow and destroys their existing stock of replacement parts and the specs for making new ones, I would argue that you can at the very least assume permanent availability of RAM, SSD, Display (it uses a commodity panel), fan, and battery (there are knockoff batteries for much more obscure laptops). I would assume that keyboards, trackpads, etc. will also be available as some lapt…

> you can at the very least assume permanent availability of RAM, SSD, Display Quite the opposite. That would only apply to a very popular laptop like some thinkpads.

It uses off the shelf RAM and SSDs. For replacement displays I'm not sure but they seem to be pretty widey available for mildly popular devices.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#324

Post by quickthrowman »

tombert wrote: post #307
jagger27 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it weren’t for the cumbersome and outdated iDRACs and ILOs of those old servers they’d still be perfectly usable for lots of things. If you don’t need out of band management it’s probably best to ignore them as much as possible. I used a PCIe to M.2 NVMe adapter and an EFI shim so that my Dell R820 could boot from it (which is not supported by the BIOS). Stuff like that adds a ton of life to older systems. I still…

> I still got rid of it because it was loud and power hungry. Same! I loved my 48 core server, but there was actually a glitch in the Con Edison system where I ended up getting free power for two years [1], and once they fixed it and I got a power bill email for almost $900 while I was at work, I called my wife and said "UNPLUG THE SERVER NOW. RUN, DON'T WALK!" [1] To be clear, I didn't know there was a glitch, I jus…

$900 for a month? That seems excessive. 720 hrs * 1.8 kW = 1296 kWh. 1800w is a maxed out 120v 20A circuit.

I pay about $0.10 per kWh, that’s $129.60 for a month.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#325

Post by dangus »

The author should be made aware that the 11th-gen Intel products are a no-buy, and should be shopping for 12th gen models that are around the corner, which are quite a leap forward and similar to the Apple M1 in their level of impressiveness.

I'd say overall this article is a curmudgeon-ish view of modern laptops. The author tried two brands of laptops, from two manufacturers who are not even close at the top of the market in terms of level of innovation.

Dell and Lenovo are two brands that businesses automatically purchase like zombies, even though they often represent some of the worst choices available.

There are some truly amazing pieces of tech out there that will stomp all over a 2012 ThinkPad in both performance and innovative features.

Here's an example video showing off the latest upcoming models from ASUS, just from one OEM. I know these laptops are all gaming-oriented, but a lot of them are packed with some really cool and clever features and form factor innovation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdBTkgtnTsw

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#326

Post by selectodude »

emptybottle wrote: post #305
Shorel wrote: post #262

> I’d like to thank Intel here for making this possible. The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022. Without this, my laptop would likely be obsolete by now. Hahaha, this last sentence seals the overall tone of the article.

What's hilarious to me is that Apple considers their own computers of this era to be "vintage" No joke, that's the real term https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 "About vintage products. -- Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago." Well, not much has changed on the intel side in that timeframe. My 2013 laptop is still getting OS updates a…

Vintage is a technical term for "we don't stock parts to repair these anymore" not "they're unusable and you should throw it out".

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#327

Post by disqard »

selectodude wrote: post #326
emptybottle wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's hilarious to me is that Apple considers their own computers of this era to be "vintage" No joke, that's the real term https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 "About vintage products. -- Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago." Well, not much has changed on the intel side in that timeframe. My 2013 laptop is still getting OS updates a…

Vintage is a technical term for "we don't stock parts to repair these anymore" not "they're unusable and you should throw it out".

s/technical/marketing/g

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#328

Post by lowbloodsugar »

I was looking for a linux laptop last week. Dell only showed one laptop (Precision 7760 Workstation) that they support linux on. It doesn't seem surprising that if the reviewer bought a Dell that Dell don't support linux on, then it didn't support linux when the reviewer tried either.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#329

Post by tombert »

quickthrowman wrote: post #324
tombert wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I still got rid of it because it was loud and power hungry. Same! I loved my 48 core server, but there was actually a glitch in the Con Edison system where I ended up getting free power for two years [1], and once they fixed it and I got a power bill email for almost $900 while I was at work, I called my wife and said "UNPLUG THE SERVER NOW. RUN, DON'T WALK!" [1] To be clear, I didn't know there was a glitch, I jus…

$900 for a month? That seems excessive. 720 hrs * 1.8 kW = 1296 kWh. 1800w is a maxed out 120v 20A circuit. I pay about $0.10 per kWh, that’s $129.60 for a month.

Well, $900 was the total power bill. I also had one window units running in that room, and another window unit running in my bedroom, and I also actually had an Apple XServe running that I was using as a media server.

I think what caused such a catastrophic power bill was the surge pricing in NYC that happens in the summer, and the servers pumping out a ton of heat, forcing the AC's to run harder and longer.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#330

Post by lowbloodsugar »

bungle wrote: post #15

> The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022 I recently got M1 Max MacBook, and I was expecting a huge jump from my 2010 Mac Pro, but on my day-to-day work. It is barely noticeable, despite the raving reviews of M1. Perhaps for me it is not about things getting obsolete, but more of that my own needs on CPU/GPU performance were pretty mu…

I had a dual CPU nehalem around 2010 under my desk. It was a beast. 8 cores, 16 HT. Now I have an M1 Max and I have yet to get it to spin its fans up. So I don't know what your day-to-day work is, but is it possible it's just not CPU bound?
Post reply on HN