Does anyone think foldable displays is particularly innovative? I feel like most people who are fans of the thinkpad are not looking for innovation - they're mostly people who want conservative laptop designs.
ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
41–50 of 164 posts
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#42Sadly they don't make them like they used to. Keyboards and repairability comes to mind. I don't mind the chiclet keycaps, but Lenovo really ruined the keyboard when they went from the 7 row layout [0] to the current 6 row layout [1]. Each new generation of ThinkPad reduces the travel distance of the keyboard - they've gone from 2.5 mm in the T420 (2011) to 1.5 mm in the T14 G3 (2022). 1 mm doesn't sound like on pape…
Have an gen1 x13 AMD running Pop OS! which is supported well in the latest kernels (early on there were issues with sound). Its a great machine to develop on with no hardware problems yet, although I'm only at the 2.5 year mark.
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#43Anyone here know if it's possible to fix a t43p cooling fan that sounds like a bumblebee?
I doubt I can find a replacement
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#44I think I may have been the first unofficial Thinkpad laptop repair person.
When the Thinkpad 700 came out, I was working for IBM managing the PC side of a regional repair center in SE Michigan. About a month or so before their official release, several IBM exec's had production units, and a few of them were already being dropped or broken. It started with a unit in my region, which I was able to repair, and then word got out that there was an internal employee who could fix these things, and other units started showing up to my attention via FedEx and intercompany mail. One or two via private plane (in those days we had private planes and pilots on call to make high priority parts runs for certain national customers with IBM service contracts).
At the time, the Thinkpad 700 was considered to be a crazy dense and delicate machine to most of the repair guys. Now, you compare it to a modern laptop and it looks absolutely trivial to take it apart.
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#45If Lenovo guaranteed Ubuntu support out-of-the-box for the ThinkPad Carbon models (and I mean proper support, like no configuring, finger-print reader working etc.) then I wouldn't have switched to macOS.
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#46My 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 have an x220 in my line up of older machines. My newest is an X1 Carbon gen6 aka x1c6. I was surprised how quickly I was able to open the bottom of it up install a new wifi6 card. About 5 screws and the back is off and another screw holding in the wifi card. I dont think the x220 is that fast.
To replace the WLAN card in an X220, you must remove all the screws on the bottom of the case, the keyboard, and the palm rest. It's not trivial but anyone can do it.
Unfortunately it would be largely pointless since the X220 has an allowlist for PCIe cards, and I'm sure it does not include any modern wifi devices.
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#47Anyone here know if it's possible to fix a t43p cooling fan that sounds like a bumblebee? I doubt I can find a replacement
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=t43p+fan
Looks like there are still some replacements kicking around.
I've never seen a computer fan be repaired, and it seems the bearings all tend to fail eventually.
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#48It'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.
I made this switch personally. The newer "compact" models from Lenovo do not work as well with Linux as the classic ones. If you want a compact, reliable unix-like laptop then Apple is really the best (for now).
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#49It'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'm not sure "repairability" was the real reason thinkpads were popular. They were clearly better on a lot of criteria, at the time. I think the competition simply caught up, and the Thinkpad line simply doesn't have as much to distinguish it from the pack now.
Re: ThinkPad’s 30th Anniversary: An Insider’s Perspective
#50Does anyone think foldable displays is particularly innovative? I feel like most people who are fans of the thinkpad are not looking for innovation - they're mostly people who want conservative laptop designs.
You want wacky thinkpad displays? I used to own a 755CV.