Oldest Viable Laptop (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#21

Post by pingec » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:04 PM UTC

markvdb wrote: post #9

2011 Lenovo Thinkpad X220 daily user here. Really nice machine really for my needs, running the latest Debian smoothly. I do have a spare ready to take over if needed. Old hardware could always die very suddenly. It's a frugal solution, both cheaper and more ecological than buying new.

I like it too, the screen is poor though

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#22

Post by mbrumlow » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

pingec wrote: post #21

markvdb wrote: post #9

2011 Lenovo Thinkpad X220 daily user here. Really nice machine really for my needs, running the latest Debian smoothly. I do have a spare ready to take over if needed. Old hardware could always die very suddenly. It's a frugal solution, both cheaper and more ecological than buying new.

I like it too, the screen is poor though

Poor how? I have a nice IPS in x220 and it looks amazing!

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#23

Post by fabioborellini » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

ianwalter wrote: post #10

larrik wrote: post #7

I'm genuinely surprised it doesn't have a touchpad. I don't think I've ever seen a laptop without one, and I used laptops back in the early/mid 90's.

Yea same. The thinkpad I had from 2004 had a trackpad. Maybe the trackpad was optional?

At the time X61s was notably smaller and more expensive than its competitors and other models in the Thinkpad lineup. The "normal-sized" model T61 has both touchpad and Trackpoint, so leaving touchpad out may have something to do with the case dimensions. Maybe there were no space left for it or it would have been awkwardly positioned when using keyboard or Trackpoint, and on a more "special" model leaving it out has been a valid option. After all, T61 was available for customers absolutely requiring the touchpad.

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#24

Post by initself » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:06 PM UTC

Anarch157a wrote: post #20

sverige wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has the TrackPoint, which is sort of a famous love/hate feature. (I love it.) The ThinkPad is my favorite all-time laptop design. No surprise to me that the author is still using it after getting his MacBook back from the shop.

I used to love it, back when Thinkpads still had real buttons to go with it. Then they replaced them with trackpad clicking, which makes using it a pain, because it'd usually register movements besides the click, completely defeating the best feature of the TrackPoint, it's pixel-perfect precision. It was never as quick to use as a mouse, of course, but I could always position the cursor exactly where I wanted before…

There's no such thing as a Thinkpad without a Trackpoint and proper buttons.

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#25

Post by initself » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #17

I SSH into VMs and write email all day. I could get by with a text web browser at a slight loss of productivity during the steep part of the learning curve. I could do my job on a laptop from the 90s if I really wanted to. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Welcome to my world.

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#26

Post by jomar » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

ianwalter wrote: post #10

larrik wrote: post #7

I'm genuinely surprised it doesn't have a touchpad. I don't think I've ever seen a laptop without one, and I used laptops back in the early/mid 90's.

Yea same. The thinkpad I had from 2004 had a trackpad. Maybe the trackpad was optional?

Probably an over-summary but basically correct: the X series optimised portability and only had a trackpoint, while the T series optimised fully-featuredness and had both trackpoint and trackpad.

I still fire up my T61 from time to time -- it's the only computer in the house that still has a DVD drive.

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#27

Post by phamilton » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #3

I have a very old Thinkpad X40 convertible which I use occasionally as pretty much a dumb terminal. It runs the latest i386 version of xubuntu. CPU is a single core Pentium M something, 1.5GB of RAM, 40GB hard drive. https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X40 It works totally fine for SSH sessions and a web browser interface to not-very-complicated intranet tools accessed via a VPN, such as ticketing system, network…

I wonder how a $150 chromebook would compare.

$150 is in the territory of "Drive to store and buy in an emergency".

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#28

Post by jasonvorhe » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

Last year during Christmas I visited my mother for a day and she still uses my MacBook Pro from early 2008. It doesn't hold much of a charge anymore (it's on it's 2nd replacement battery) but it works delightfully for web browsing, terminal use and I'm sure that I could do most of my daily SRE work on it.

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#29

Post by initself » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #3

I have a very old Thinkpad X40 convertible which I use occasionally as pretty much a dumb terminal. It runs the latest i386 version of xubuntu. CPU is a single core Pentium M something, 1.5GB of RAM, 40GB hard drive. https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X40 It works totally fine for SSH sessions and a web browser interface to not-very-complicated intranet tools accessed via a VPN, such as ticketing system, network…

X40s are great for journaling. :)

Re: Oldest Viable Laptop (2017)

#30

Post by phamilton » Mon, Feb 25, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

Battery life is necessary to do my job, and is pretty much the only reason I get new hardware now.