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

ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 164 posts

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#31

Post by EamonnMR »

JamesAdir wrote: post #3

My Thinkpad X220 still going strong, and I miss a computer I can open up, replace or upgrade what's needed in an easy way. The form factor is good enough and I don't need or want this inch thin laptops just because one company decided it's suits them and fashionable. Unfortunately Lenovo doesn't really keep the brand and in the gazillion models they have on stock, there isn't one that can replace my X220 in convenien…

I just replaced my x220 workhorse with an x280. Grabbed a cheapo referb and had to replace a single busted key. So far so good and it's far more solid than it looks.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#32

Post by bloep »

Beta-7 wrote: post #16

It's interesting how the ThinkPads used to be the tech person's™ laptop of choice because of their repairability and extendability, but nowadays most tech people (at least in the professional setting) are using Apple's MacBooks which are the opposite when it comes to repairability and extendability.

Modern ThinkPads are unfortunately also not very repairable. Replacing the USB-C port on the X1 Carbon is a 1 hour Job. The RAM is soldered on. Replacing the keyboard requires disassembling everything. Replacement parts are prohibitively expensive because Lenovo keeps the prices high. It's still better than Apple though.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#34

Post by jeffbee »

jtwaleson wrote: post #8

I’ve been a bit of a Thinkpad fanatic ever since my dad got a T42p somewhere in 2004. I have been on Thinkpads since 2006. I bought old ones on eBay and now have a collection of about 15 machines. The 700c, two butterfly keyboard 701cs, the 240 and a lot more. I’m currently on a T495s. From my experience I can say that the “old IBM machines were reliable and well constructed” is not true. They were bulky and over tim…

My nostalgia for the ThinkLight is not for the light itself, which was all but useless, but for a past where there were things outside your computer that you might want to read. Now everything is behind the screen.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#35

Post by mkoryak »

jtwaleson wrote: post #8

I’ve been a bit of a Thinkpad fanatic ever since my dad got a T42p somewhere in 2004. I have been on Thinkpads since 2006. I bought old ones on eBay and now have a collection of about 15 machines. The 700c, two butterfly keyboard 701cs, the 240 and a lot more. I’m currently on a T495s. From my experience I can say that the “old IBM machines were reliable and well constructed” is not true. They were bulky and over tim…

The T42p is one of the best laptops ever made (in my opinion).

I saved for months and bought one using a friend's IBM employee discount.

I remember thinking that I wouldn't need to ever buy another laptop again.

I still have it and it works fine. I wrote this on it.

Edit: and there is another java update!!

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#36

Post by yourapostasy »

Beta-7 wrote: post #16

It's interesting how the ThinkPads used to be the tech person's™ laptop of choice because of their repairability and extendability, but nowadays most tech people (at least in the professional setting) are using Apple's MacBooks which are the opposite when it comes to repairability and extendability.

That’s likely more a function of the OS’ “It Just Works” factor than the hardware, and Apple’s grasp upon that factor is increasingly fragmenting and growing more tenuous because mobile form factor products and profits have taken leadership focus off of the overall product ecosystem experience.

The ascendancy of Macs in technical staff ranks commenced simultaneously with the ascendancy of Linux in the datacenter. The Windows tooling to integrate with Linux wasn’t as smooth as Macs. Back in the Dark Ages, about half of the battle IMHO came down to Cygwin and similar weren’t as nice as Terminal.app and Homebrew. And Terminal.app was a better ssh client than PuTTY. Back then if your backend heavy iron lived on Linux, then the overall development experience was simply lower friction on a MacBook Pro.

This has changed these days, of course. macOS’ low-friction edge is narrower now but a lot of what remains like mobile power and video management continues as especially challenging areas for Windows and Linux. VS Code is doing a lot to decouple developers from their hardware.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#38

Post by wintermutestwin »

I have a stack of ThinkPads (T400,T510,T530) that I use for testing out new distros, etc. I love how easy it is to swap SSDs around and that they are built like tanks. I only really need one, so I'd ditch the 400 and 510, but shipping costs make it not worth ebaying them. I figure that, one day, I'll meet some local techie kid and gift them, but I haven't run into any in my RL circles. Any other suggestions?

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#39

Post by blowski »

gruez wrote: post #19
Beta-7 wrote: post #16

It's interesting how the ThinkPads used to be the tech person's™ laptop of choice because of their repairability and extendability, but nowadays most tech people (at least in the professional setting) are using Apple's MacBooks which are the opposite when it comes to repairability and extendability.

Sounds like the demographic of "tech person" changed. It used to be mostly hardliners back in the days of the thinkpad, but now it's filled with moderates who don't really feel too strongly about repairability and extendability.

I consider the likelihood of needing to repair or extend it within a 6 year lifetime, and I believe the Macbook has by far the best reputation in that regard.

Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective

#40

Post by jeffbee »

JamesAdir wrote: post #3

My Thinkpad X220 still going strong, and I miss a computer I can open up, replace or upgrade what's needed in an easy way. The form factor is good enough and I don't need or want this inch thin laptops just because one company decided it's suits them and fashionable. Unfortunately Lenovo doesn't really keep the brand and in the gazillion models they have on stock, there isn't one that can replace my X220 in convenien…

The X220 was for many long-time ThinkPad users the last good one. It had real keycaps and no trackpad. Too bad about the display, since the X220 was during the era that Lenovo was gaslighting buyers about how IPS panels simply could not be procured on the open market, right before Apple showed them to be liars. The X220 display is truly ghastly.

Like some other X-series enthusiasts I consider the X61 Tablet with the AFFS panel to have been the pinnacle of the series.

Post reply on HN