I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad • Hacker News Board

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#41

Post by interroboink » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:32 AM UTC

Having run some hardware for about 20 years (recently deceased), the problem that eventually happens is that newer OSes drop support for old hardware. If you hit some weird bug on your setup on a new OS release, there won't be anyone to help you fix it[1]. So then you're stuck on an old OS. In time, that means you can't run the latest userland software either, which relies on more modern OS features (eg: your Firefox will get increasingly out-of-date). That means the set of things you can do will eventually narrow and narrow.

If you're only running programs that you have full control of, and can compile/fix locally, or where receiving security fixes &etc. don't matter, then you're good. But things are a bit more interconnected, these days.

I do still enjoy running my hardware into the ground rather than tossing out perfectly good components every few years though (:

[1] In my case, the boot loader stopped working for my hardware on FreeBSD 11.4

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#42

Post by throwaway0665 » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:34 AM UTC

I got an x220 jumping onto the hype but it was too small and too slow to use. Even though I'd maxed out the RAM, replaced the solder paste and was running a lightweight i3 environment.

I've only ever personally owned second hand Thinkpads and they're so great. But you should get the newest, reasonably priced one you can. There are so many affordable T480s/T470s out there or even the newer T14 models. They're still very serviceable and many still allow expansion with unsoldered RAM.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#43

Post by asimovDev » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:36 AM UTC

dpedu wrote: post #10

> A [macbook] battery replacement involves carefully prying out a glued component. Can't speak to every model, but it's not always like this. I just swapped the battery on my 2020 M1 Macbook Air, and it's much easier now. The battery is glued to a metal tray that unscrews and lifts out of the laptop. It is discarded with the old battery. The tray is also held down with pull-tab adhesive strips, but they are trivial t…

The USB-C ports are relatively easy to swap thankfully. What scares me is that on non Apple laptops they are sometimes soldered onto the motherboard which is asinine for such a high wear item. I heard it's prevalent in modern ThinkPads but I am not sure if it has changed recently

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#44

Post by VirusNewbie » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:38 AM UTC

Back in the day, I heard all sorts of great things about how durable Thinkpads were, I bought one with my hard earned money in ~2004 when doing contact web development work. It was my least reliable laptop I've ever had.

My Vaio notebooks always lasted quite a bit longer. Eventually got a macbook and haven't gone back, but yeah, the one Thinkpad I owned was the least reliable computing device I've bought in the ~40 years of my lifetime.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#45

Post by chairmansteve » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:38 AM UTC

joseda-hg wrote: post #8

al_borland wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Framework is still very new. It takes time to build a brand. I hope their new Framework 12 hits it big with the mainstream. It sounds like it’s targeted as the school/chromebook market, but as an adult I’m also interested. I’m hoping when the pre-orders go up next week it’s priced in a way that makes it an impulse buy. I really don’t need it, but I want to support the company and their mission.

As someone that had been thinking on buying both a tablet and some sort of chromebook for light web based workflows on the go, they 100% have my attention I will say, it has weirded me out that they have been so cagey about the pricing in particular, which AFAICT, is the only thing not public about the laptop before the pre order date

Probably worried about tariffs. Now they know.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#46

Post by koinedad » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:39 AM UTC

Something about the font on this blog is not friendly to my eyes.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#47

Post by tyushk » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:41 AM UTC

I run NixOS on a coreboot-ed T420 and I absolutely love everything on the outside, but it really shows its age when compared to the display on my Macbook or it comes to running heavier software ie. rust-analyzer, Chrome, or Nix builds.

If Lenovo were to release a modern T420-like, with identical chassis, battery system and similar IO port variety, but a modern display, modern internals (replaceable SSD! soldered RAM at least has a case for performance) and a modern camera, cash would evaporate out of my wallet.

I remember there was a person [1] modding T60/T61s into "T700"s with 11th gen Intel chips. Unfortunately it looks like the project's been quiet since 2022. Hopefully there'll be more who try.

[1] https://www.xyte.ch/t700-crowdfunding/

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#48

Post by ivraatiems » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:45 AM UTC

I love these old ThinkPads. I refurbish and sell them all the time. Just moments before writing this, I finished fixing up a T580; earlier today I did a heatsink replacement on a W510 which is going strong with an SSD and 20GB RAM.

The older they are, the better they are, but even the modern ones are still pretty good. Like the OP mentions, the market for parts is strong and it's easy to get what you need. Then when you go to sell them, they sell for a good amount. That W510 is worth at least $100 in its current condition.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#49

Post by blatantly » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:51 AM UTC

vvpan wrote: post #27

Off-topic about the Nassim Nicholas Taleb opening: Does anybody else feel like he just restates obvious things in a more formalized and somewhat pompous way? I do not mind formalization but I feel like I am supposed to swoon over it as if some profound truth, that was not already implied in our every day thinking, was being revealed.

I don't think it is obvious to everyone that a 20 year old laptop had a better survival chance over the next year than a new one.

Most people think old is more fragile.

Sometimes it is though (e.g. parts for a plane need to be replaced every X hours of service)

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#50

Post by Vaslo » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 4:55 AM UTC

I have one of these that was a tablet and touchscreen from my mba program in 2008. I still have it and put some version of Linux command line only (peppermint maybe) and it still works. Haven’t touched it in a few years.

Honestly was never that impressed by it and have had to replace the fans on it multiple times but it’s still kicking while other laptops are not.