HN

Comments (102)

• Menu

  ezst
  My ThinkPad (T480s) is turning 8 this year, and only got its first battery replacement last month. I've been carrying it with me everywhere, on every single trip (office or holidays alike), on all continents. In that same timespan, I used up 3 backpacks and 2 suitcases along the same routes. All I want for its replacement is not to cost an insane amount of money because of the made-up by AI components shortage, and maybe now that I'm older I would prefer a smaller form factor like the X1.
• Menu

  arianvanp
  I used my ThinkPad T430s for 12 years. I got it second hand from a developer I looked up to when I was in college and it carried me through a large part of my career. Loved that machine to death.When I finally replaced it with a Framework a few years back I've regretted every second of it.The ThinkPad still lives. I refurbished the batteries and slapped ChromeOS Flex on it and donated it to a Ukrainian refugee who needed a Chromebook for school. It'll probably live another 10 years.I loved that thing to death. And I'm just happy it is still being used.
• Menu

  WillAdams
  For the real background here see:_Thinkpad: A Different Shade of Blue_ by Deborah A. Dell and J. Gerry Purdyhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483933.ThinkPadI've always regretted not getting one of the tablet Thinkpads, and it kills me that the Lenovo Yogabook 9i is two technologies away from being perfect for me (needs to have a Wacom EMR stylus, and to have a Trackpoint)....
• Menu

  abdulhaq
  When she was 4 my daughter managed to shove one of those trackpad caps up her nose. At first she was going for the clown look but ended up in frantic tears and a visit to A&E at 2am
• roughly
  If this is spiking some nostalgia for anyone, there’s a bit of a cottage industry in modernized motherboards for old thinkpads - eg, https://www.tpart.net/about-x210ai/
• Menu

  Bridged7756
  I don't think there's a sexier laptop design than the Thinkpad'. I've tried other manufacturers, a M2 Mac, Dell, HP, yet something always pulls me back to ThinkPads, even if the recent versions aren't the powerhouse the 4xx versions were. The black and orange combination just has something so alluring. That and also the flexibility of the warranty/support if you buy used. I've probably owned over 7 ThinkPads so far, which is a lot to me, I'm not that old. Many of these were sold or died, but I still keep my old T530 which is now a media server and it's a plan replacing my Latitude with a T14.
• ost-ing
  I switched to a T480 from a crappy macbook pro 2017. I enjoyed the switch to use linux fulltime but ultimately I was let down by the Intel processor that would throttle very badly. Compiling code was a nightmare. Ive since switched back to the M1 macbook pro which I plan to keep as long as possible and probably switch to linux when macos inevitably decides my hardware is too old to support. I would love to have a non-apple future, though.
• faxmeyourcode
  I ran a T450s all through college. My late grandmother gifted me the money after high school graduation to buy my first laptop. I'd learned to code on the old gateway pentium 4 (Windows XP) machine with 512 MB of RAM from the factory. I'd resurrected it as a teenager and completely gutted it. I scoured the web endlessly looking for something that was _not_ touchscreen (hard to find at the time), linux-compatible, and rugged enough for the neglect of a college student's backpack.It was a linux user's dream. I swapped out the spinny HDD with an SSD. It had hotswappable batteries, a spill resistant keyboard with a drain system, and I ran every linux distribution I could get my hands on, eventually settling on the xfce flavor of Ubuntu.I still have that machine, and will keep it for my son when he's older. I plan to replace the battery and SSD with something more reliable. These days I use an m2 macbook air for portability... but that thinkpad is still something I will treasure for years.
• Menu

  worldsavior
  Kind of on topic, but how is Thinkpad with Linux compares to macOS? Battery life, driver support, performance, security, etc.
• binarygit
  I sold my camera to buy a used T750s for my first programming internship, I have it still and use it sometimes. I bought another one of those again used and use that as my homeserver.I can really tell the difference when I type on the mac and on my thinkpad. I think the thinkpad's keyboard is wayy better keytravel
• Menu

  bigpeopleareold
  I appreciate all the innovations that him and his team brought to the ThinkPad, since this is my main set of laptops.Lenovo, on the other hand, has been a hit or miss for awhile. I had a T570, which was horrible; one problem after the next. It's just a source of parts now. There are some design issues with the T480 (no center screw in the front/bottom). Also with the T480 is, what it seems to be, the slightly flaky USB-C connectors. The external keyboard (non-bluetooth), while very useful for 2 years, has always been a struggle with the flimsy micro-usb, leaving me to hack that. But now, I somehow now lost an important key on it, I just gave up and bought a nice Tex Shinobi. The only stable-ish one is the one I am on now, a T470p. It's not been perfect, but it's the best designed TP I had (my T430s is overall good, except for battery power, but the internals for those old machines are a chore to get through.) I have a P14s at work. It's OK, but nothing to write home about.If all these TPs die, and Framework has a trackpoint version + delivers to my country, I would like to get that instead.
• Menu

  agumonkey
  I used to be a thinkpad head, less so these days, but even good dell with trackpoint don't have the same feel. For people like me it does affect my use and joy. Also build quality is great, I don't think I threw out a single thinkpad in 20 years...If the thinkpad team and lenovo guys read this, keep it as long as possible
• Menu

  noufalibrahim
  I've been using Thinkpads exclusively from 2005 or so. My first was a T40 I got from work. Then I got a T42 of my own. I used it heavily till the fan gave out. After that, I got an X200 which I used for a long time. The keyboard got damaged because of a spill. I replaced it but somehow, the motherboard got shorted out and it died. I then bought a second hand X240 (roughly 2013) and used it as my primary machines. Replaced the battery (twice), fan, hand rest. And it's still running. My kids use it to play some simple games. My main machine right now is an X1 carbon (which I'm not really happy with compared to the others but it's okay for now).I used a Macbook for about 2.5 years in between. Didn't like it (hardware was decent. Software was terrible). I also bought a Dell latitude (which was okay and is being used now as headless machine at my workplace for tinkering).But my primary machine is a Thinkpad and I don't expect to see that changing in the near future.
• kev009
  He gives some interviews on this YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/LaptopRetrospective that are interesting to hear about the backstory on some iconic ThinkPads.I had no idea David did the swooping mid-1990s AS/400s, I have a couple of those in my system collection and they definitely have an aesthetic.
• Menu

  dgxyz
  I rather liked the T-series (had quite a few!). But Lenovo are really running out of good will as far as I am concerned. They're riding the brand to destruction. Had some serious problems recently including one brick and one out of warranty battery turning up completely dead. The latter was an absolute nightmare to sort out resulting in a chargeback in the end.I've taken to just buying multiple 2-3 year old "tested" units again (plenty of NOS ones out there) and keeping them alive via ebay which is what I was doing around the X201 era. Same with the desktops - mine is a 2019 M720T ThinkCentre that cost me $150 equiv a couple of months back (before the RAM pricing went mental)I had a brief affair with Apple, culminating in a fairly nice M4 MacBook Pro, but quite frankly it scares me carrying that around and I really do not like Tahoe (Sequoia was fine). Back to Debian stable on the T14 gen 3 it is...
• jasoneckert
  When it comes to laptops, I’ve primarily used MacBooks but really miss the excellent keyboard and TrackPoint on ThinkPads. Nothing seems to comes close.My solution was to buy a Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II and pair it with my MacBook over Bluetooth. An added benefit is that I can keep the MacBook on a stand, avoiding the wobble you get when typing directly on it.I also use an Apple Trackpad alongside this setup, since I find it hard to beat for certain tasks.
• Menu

  MrGilbert
  I have a x230 at hand, mainly to quickly diagnose my car. I bought it used some years ago, including the dock, and I still love it. Sure, resolution is limited, and so is the power. But it gets the job done, and also has this useful thinklight on top of the bezel, which helps reading printed stuff in the dark. I'll hold on to it as long as I can.
• vinc
  I went from a X200 to work on my hobby OS 5 years ago, to a T440p with 16 GB of RAM for my daily computing, then upgraded to a T480 that I could fit with 64GB of RAM, and I finally added a X270 for a more compact form when I'm outside.They were all very inexpensive due to their age (when RAM was still cheap) and I'm really happy about them, I work from a console and a browser, they are perfect for my usage. I wouldn't use any other kind of laptop.
• Menu

  fr3772
  I had 3 different Thinkpads... The first went down after 1 year with a headcrash. 1. HDD headcrash in my life. The second one was delivered with bad RAM. Support denied help because of wrong FRU Number. The whole thing went back to the dealer. The third one died in a loud bang of the power supply and died with it. About design: Placing the Ctrl key not on the outside drove me crazy. The trackcap was horribly to use - an example of bad design par excellence. The touchpad was bad in all 3 laptops.
• randoments
  I had a thinkpad x1 carbon. Amazing machine, i liked how sturdy and lightweight it was. Plus, i loved playing with the trackpad cap during boring meetings.Only downside was the cooling: the fan was constantly spinning and producing noise akin to a plane taking off.
• Menu

  michaelsshaw
  I don't think I'd consider getting any laptop that isn't a used thinkpad at this point. I use my old ones as servers, which I affectionately refer to as the ThinkStack.
• Menu

  flurb
  As much as I love the old thinkpads, the T540p was my last. The case being entirely plastic means it will eventually start warping, motherboard included, in short order turning your expensive device into a paper weight.
• Menu

  arendtio
  While I love the Laptops, I still wonder why the 'Precision Wireless Travel Mouse' has the attribute 'Precision' in its name.I never owned another mouse as laggy and imprecise. Its design is good, but its basic mouse functionality is just very bad.
• Menu

  captain_coffee
  Has any of the newer ThinkPad models been upgraded to use a metal case or they are still made out of plastic? Asking as that is the main deal-breaker for me
• egeozcan
  the site really needs something likeimg { max-height: 100vh !important; width: auto !important; object-fit: contain !important; }
• Menu

  hopelite
  What this brought to mind for me is that you are quite literally at the mercy of a different company when you do not control your OS as a computer/server company. All the wonderful design makes no difference when you’re at the mercy of the likes of Microsoft/Windows.Inversely, I am convinced that is largely what has made Apple so successfully at the core, controlling the OS did not limit them to all the technical reasons that, e.g., windows OS based scrolling and the track pads were/are so horrible, resolution limitations, and inconsistent design and styling of the OS that subordinated the value or beauty of any hardware design to the OS level that users interacted with… subordination to Microsoft.It’s essentially unconscionable that they likes of IBM, Dell, HP, etc did not get together and at the very least develop their own OS and also aggressively counter the de facto monopoly stranglehold of Windows on government, which then caused the domination among corporations.Similarly unconscionable is also the European failure and subordination to the USA/Microsoft by not fostering at least an alternative to Windows that its corporations and governments can operate on. There has been nothing but talk and tiny little forays into adopting open source, but absolutely nothing that could even rise to being a real alternative to Windows or even MacOS.
• Menu

  commandersaki
  Is this satire? A thinkpad light is somehow peak innovation?
• Menu

  7bit
  Lenovo is dead to me. I have nothing but issues and I'm not alone. We have a fleet of around 3000 X1E, X1C and T480s. The USB port regularly craps out not sending the display signal to the monitor so my co-workers regularly have to restart their Lenovo after they go to standby. This is super disruptive, especially for our developers. In some cases, connecting a display even causes blue screens. (All our monitors are Lenovo Think visions, too...)I reported this issue to Lenovo and was stuck in the typical service desk loop of hell. Once I escalated the issue with our Lenovo representative the issue got some traction, but there wasn't any real progress for months and the troubleshooting remained nothing but superficial. Not a single expert got in touch with us to get some real and in-depth hardware debugging logs or whatever you need to truly analyse the hardware faults.Ultimately, my employer decided to stop follow up on that with Lenovo and to just deal with it. We continue to buy these crappy laptops and monitors despite all the issues they cause us and shove the money down Lenovo throats, like any real company would. /s
• Haemm0r
  I like the Thinkpads design. it's just timeless. However the bright red Lenovo logo flashing up while booting is very unaesthetic.
• Menu

  jas39
  Had my lenovo thinkpad bricked by sleep mode in linux. Never again. Seriously overrated stuff. Get a laptop with 3:2 display instead.