I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad • Hacker News Board

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#351

Post by organsnyder » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:18 PM UTC

herbst wrote: post #201

maccard wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When would you define as “before”? I’ve had a thinkpad on and off and I’d describe the quality as consistent. People talking about old Lenovos being good quality are often talking about in the pre-IBM days which is far more likely to be nostalgia at this point.

I have a T420. A few years ago I switched to a slightly used T480, keyboard was a huge downgrade and the whole series can get really stupid USBC issues. After half a year or so it didn't dock anymore and I got an X1, basically the same laptop glad I found it without touch and the 'bright screen' because the screen is barely good enough, keyboard is the same and USBc already started to get finicky. Meanwhile my T420 s…

Yup, my T480 got upgraded to a Framework 13 after the T480's Thunderbolt port broke (known firmware issue that basically fried the chip). I loaned my T480 to someone about a year ago, and haven't bothered asking for it back.

Meanwhile, my T410 works great as a workbench computer.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#352

Post by ukd1 » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

kodt wrote: post #345

I have a 14 year old T420, I upgraded the processor, ram, hard drive, battery, and wifi chip several years ago which really sped it up and gave it more usable life. Still runs great for most things.

I have few old thinkpads X220, X230, etc - outside of raw power, the two things that really suck are the speakers (they're truly trash), and the standard screen's performance with anything but trivial light around it.

Still, it's fast enough to use with linux, and the keyboard is a joy to use. Swappable batteries are fun, and useful.

However, I can't really use one outside of just nostalgia, or for tuning cars.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#353

Post by 4fterd4rk » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:20 PM UTC

jxjnskkzxxhx wrote: post #104

You can run an LLM on a Mac laptop?

They're quite good at it, actually.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#354

Post by Groxx » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:26 PM UTC

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #338

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

imo the modular ports are a massive longevity feature. charging cable ports are one of the most common laptop killers, so making that modular is a huge step up

Modular ports are good, but I’m not sure I need to be able to hot swap them. Larger port module plates that bolt into the sides of the chassis with a few screws would be just as good from a longevity standpoint, would enable better rigidity, and would allow the FW13 to host a considerably higher number of ports.

I kinda both agree and disagree...

A screw or two definitely wouldn't have impeded the handful of times I've moved my 16's parts around, not even in the slightest, it's just not that frequent. And I don't usually carry other kinds of ports + wouldn't be able to have the screwdriver too, it's usually "I have them all" or "I have none" and then all I can realistically do is swap sides. I'd have zero complaints with some standard screws.

... but tool-less lowers the barrier to literally zero, which is pretty big when you need it. It's a very different mental-space: absolutely zero concern.

... and if they were smaller, they'd be incompatible, and it'd be harder to build custom ones due to even less internal space.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#355

Post by agentultra » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

I still primarily use Thinkpads for all these reasons. One incident with fluids and a $3k Apple machine is e-waste. I had young kids, it was inevitable.

Instead, refurbished Thinkpads are still coming off leases. Available for a 250-700 refurbished. Bench repairable. I keep good backups. If something incredible happens and I can’t fix it I can get a new one same day and be back on my feet.

And I like the aesthetic. They’re built to be durable. The chassis has fluid channels. The parts are replaceable. They’re black, unassuming, and utilitarian.

It is getting harder to keep the latest versions of some distros running on them. Software continues to expand like a gas and developers don’t seem to run their stuff on anything but the latest spec hardware. But there are distros out there where folks take care to keep things minimal and fast.

These are still powerful machines. Not editing 4K video on them. But they’re dang useful for coding, writing, and day to day things I do.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#356

Post by scarface_74 » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

daxelrod wrote: post #287

bambax wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are those places? Do most people have multiple residences? Or do they think they might need it, and in practice never do?

I have a relatively high-end desktop with a nice monitor. I also have an aging laptop with a tiny screen and an anemic amount of RAM. Most of my computing ends up being done on the laptop. With a family and a kid, it turns out I’d prefer to spend most of my time at the computer in common spaces; at the dinner table, on the couch, etc. so that I’m present and available for my family. This is far better than squirrelin…

You don’t see any conflicts between this:

> it turns out I’d prefer to spend most of my time at the computer in common spaces; at the dinner table, on the couch

And this?

> I’m present and available for my family

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#357

Post by mock-possum » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

CursedSilicon wrote: post #6

I wish that Framework could attain the same lofty levels of "second hand market success" that ThinkPads enjoy. A lot of the "Thinkpad fans" I've talked to genuinely want them, or respect them for similar reasons they enjoy the ThinkPad legacy. ThinkPads are durable but every day they get older, slower and more difficult to source parts for as collectors entrench themselves and the requirements of operating systems (a…

I just can’t with the thinkpad’s keyboard layout. The left function being swapped with the ctrl key is a nonstarter for me - you can’t just put keys in the wrong place.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#358

Post by mtreis86 » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

neilv wrote: post #34

ajxs wrote: post #16

My x220 has traveled around the world multiple times. It's been through dozens of airport scanners, dropped multiple times, and shared a few cups of coffee with me by accident. It just keeps on kicking. My x220 running Debian is actually quicker and more responsive than my friend's modern Lenovo running Windows. I'd be tempted to upgrade to a lighter and thinner laptop, but I'm too attached to the keyboard.

One of the few things I'd change about the X220 is the strange 2-piece lid. (What looks like a cosmetic flourish in the lid is actually a seam.) Two of the four used X220 units I've bought arrived with the lid end piece wiggling, because it was no longer firmly attached to the main piece. The X200 and almost every other ThinkPad managed just fine with a 1-piece lid, including being rugged against drops, so I don't kn…

The extra bit of the lid houses the antennas, it's plastic to not interfere with the signals as much as the magnesium would have. I do wish they could have attached it better or made the whole lid plastic over a magnesium frame or something.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#359

Post by fadedsignal » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

moffkalast wrote: post #245

jamesdhutton wrote: post #239

I’m currently coding a Flutter app on a 15-year-old Dell desktop, running Linux. The experience is great. I’m running latest versions of VS Code, Flutter, you name it. It’s nice and snappy and a joy to use. I’ve upgraded RAM, SSDs, GPU over the years to keep it somewhat up to date. Eventually I’m going to have to cave in and buy a Mac so that I can publish my app for iOS. I’ve been loathe to do it though and I’ve bee…

> The experience is great. Aside from it being a principled thing, Linux does work a lot better on older machines. Newer hardware tends to have shit driver support for a few years. Like my 10 year old Asus laptop which is supposed to have horrid Linux compatibility runs multiple versions of Ubuntu with KDE perfectly, with only bluetooth crapping out occasionally. A new Lenovo laptop that we just got at work that's su…

That sucks. I remember buying my XPS when the new version released and tried to install Linux (Fedora). Nvidia driver issues, CPU E/P core issues, and many more. It literally took 2 years to get stable. Recently, Nvidia released a new version of the driver. Guess what happened? PC doesn't wake up from sleep anymore. I'm not even mentioning the so-called 8-hour battery life.

Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

#360

Post by M95D » Thu, Apr 03, 2025, 2:37 PM UTC

Tade0 wrote: post #321

cge wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - FW13 has no audio outputs, except as USB sound card >That was a conscious design decision, as you're supposed to use swappable expansion cards. Also, unless something has changed or I am misinterpreting what they are saying, the fw13 does have an audio output that is not an expansion card.

Indeed! I was not aware of that as I have the 16, which doesn't feature it. Community forum posts from 2021 suggest they sort of forgot to include this information initially. It so happens that the audio jack in my previous laptop started getting loose after four years, which was a first, as usually it was the USB ports which would go, so having it as an expansion card was a major selling point for me. This really is…

As I said, I never saw the FW16 except in pictures and everything I know about it was from the net. I might be wrong about some of the things I wrote.

So, does it really have a headphones jack or not?

My X60T headphones jack only recently started to cause troubles after many many years of use, but it was an easy fix: drill 3 tiny holes in the connector casing and push a needle through each one to bend the contacts tighter.