7 ms·

While some companies, like Ricoh, DeWalt, Caterpillar and Lenovo have made repair and remanufacturing a staple of their business model, This is why I con

While some companies, like Ricoh, DeWalt, Caterpillar and Lenovo have made repair and remanufacturing a staple of their business model, This is why I continue to buy Lenovo, even though it can be argued that overall quality and durability of a Thinkpad isn't what it used to be when IBM still owned the brand. When I buy a Thinkpad (like the T440s I bought last year), I am reasonably assured that if something breaks, I can take it apart by myself and replace or repair the individual broken component, rather than having to throw out the whole laptop and buy a new one. Lenovo publishes the bill-of-materials for its laptops online, as well as the repair manual, which makes things a lot easier when trying to match parts. Just this weekend, I "repaired" my laptop's inability to receive 5Ghz wifi signals by replacing the stock 802.11 b/g/n wireless card with a 802.11 ac part. If this had been a Mac or an ultrabook, I would have just had to deal with the limitations of the hardware as it was.

pessimizer 11y ago
On a T430 at this moment, and availability of replacement parts was the only reason I bought it over a few other models.
pjc50 11y ago
You're unconcerned about Superfish etc?
- arnehormann 11y ago
  Superfish is a root certificate installed by crapware in the preinstalled windows version. It can be uninstalled or removed by a fresh OS install. I guess someone replacing hardware components in a notebook doesn't keep the preinstalled OS for long.
- darkr 11y ago
  Yeah, that whole debacle does concern me, but I don't think I've ever used the stock OS that came with a machine. Even if Lenovo did have a Debian option, I would still wipe it and replace with my own trusted setup.
- yourijiu 11y ago
  Disregard the other Superfish comments. All 5 Lenovo Laptops we had (replaced since then) had a BIOS Rootkit by Lenovo. NO clean Os, no fancy AV will be of any use. If your not in the mood to rewrite your bios Lenovo will (has proven to)use this backdoor to secretly install malware again and again as they have done again since superfish. Furthermore it'll leave a big backdoor for everyone right to the core since they abused one of Microsofts Bios features. Contrary to Lenovos statement: "(ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, Lenovo Desktop, ThinkStation, ThinkServer and System x products are not impacted.) " The ARE infected, just not every single one. The lesson they took from Superfish was to secretly install more spy/ad/crapware a couple months later. I think it's safe to say that no Lenovo product can be trusted.
  - stefantalpalaru 11y ago
    > NO clean Os There are other operating systems besides Windows, you know? And if you insist on running Windows, Dell snooping on you is your last concern - Microsoft is already doing a much more thorough job.
    - yourijiu 11y ago
      You're probably talking about GodOS http://templeos.org/ http://templeos.org/ It's true i haven't tested it yet on my DELLs, but these machines sit in a separated Vlan behind a big black blinking box and cannot communicate with anything outside. But these HP machines could as well run DOS or TempleOS, since the culprit is in the BIOS - you don't even have to boot a kernel to have access your Fujitsu machine from the outside. Dell, Windows and Abit snooping my habbits is still different than a shady third-party from NewPanama phishing my bank logins, reloading new malware.
      - stefantalpalaru 11y ago
        Run Linux. The BIOS malware needs to be loaded and executed by the OS, and Windows is the only OS that does that.
  - raverbashing 11y ago
- quanticle 11y ago
  The first thing I do on any laptop is wipe the OS and reinstall Windows from scratch. I didn't know about Superfish at the time, but I've been burned enough by bundled crapware in the past that I always include the price of a fresh copy of Windows in the price of the laptop I'm buying.
  - pmoriarty 11y ago
    I would do that, but I don't want to pay Microsoft twice: once for the Windows that came installed on the laptop and once again for another copy of Windows that's actually installable. I miss the days when computers came with OS installation disks. it's like you actually owned the software.
    - quanticle 11y ago
      That's a fair point, but there's nothing stopping you from wiping the OS and installing Linux, either. I'm limited to Windows for work reasons, otherwise I'd have gone that route myself.
      - pmoriarty 11y ago
        I'm a huge Linux fan, and have happily used it for quite a long time. Sadly, however, not all the programs I need to use are available for Linux. Tax programs, for example. There are various other niches as well, where Linux hasn't really caught up yet.
        wyldfire 11y ago
        I've used TaxACT [1] since ~2005 with great results. I'll admit that there's still usually one or two other niche programs that don't work on linux, though. [1] https://www.taxact.com/ https://www.taxact.com/
- sliverstorm 11y ago
  Where do your priorities lie? If there is no suitable laptop which is both completely secure and exceedingly user-servicable & repairable for many years to come, you may be forced to choose.
jerf 11y ago
This is also why I buy higher-end Dell laptops. In fact I'd suggest to anyone inclined to see what life they can get out of their hardware, before buying a laptop, see if you can find the service manual online. My current laptop is at least 5 years old now and going strong. Battery life sucks, of course, but that's just a constant for the age of the laptop. I've had to replace hard drives (easy), get a total air-flow-blocking dust bunny out of the fan (service manual was quite helpful, that involved near total disassembly unfortunately), and replace the keyboard. While I could theoretically blunder my way through the latter two, it's nice to have a manual telling you exactly what to do, so you do only and exactly what you need to do. (Every laptop I've had has been different in terms of what you access from the top and the bottom.)

pessimizer 11y ago

On a T430 at this moment, and availability of replacement parts was the only reason I bought it over a few other models.

pjc50 11y ago

You're unconcerned about Superfish etc?

arnehormann 11y ago
Superfish is a root certificate installed by crapware in the preinstalled windows version. It can be uninstalled or removed by a fresh OS install. I guess someone replacing hardware components in a notebook doesn't keep the preinstalled OS for long.
darkr 11y ago
Yeah, that whole debacle does concern me, but I don't think I've ever used the stock OS that came with a machine. Even if Lenovo did have a Debian option, I would still wipe it and replace with my own trusted setup.
yourijiu 11y ago
Disregard the other Superfish comments. All 5 Lenovo Laptops we had (replaced since then) had a BIOS Rootkit by Lenovo. NO clean Os, no fancy AV will be of any use. If your not in the mood to rewrite your bios Lenovo will (has proven to)use this backdoor to secretly install malware again and again as they have done again since superfish. Furthermore it'll leave a big backdoor for everyone right to the core since they abused one of Microsofts Bios features. Contrary to Lenovos statement: "(ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, Lenovo Desktop, ThinkStation, ThinkServer and System x products are not impacted.) " The ARE infected, just not every single one. The lesson they took from Superfish was to secretly install more spy/ad/crapware a couple months later. I think it's safe to say that no Lenovo product can be trusted.
- stefantalpalaru 11y ago
  > NO clean Os There are other operating systems besides Windows, you know? And if you insist on running Windows, Dell snooping on you is your last concern - Microsoft is already doing a much more thorough job.
  - yourijiu 11y ago
    You're probably talking about GodOS http://templeos.org/ http://templeos.org/ It's true i haven't tested it yet on my DELLs, but these machines sit in a separated Vlan behind a big black blinking box and cannot communicate with anything outside. But these HP machines could as well run DOS or TempleOS, since the culprit is in the BIOS - you don't even have to boot a kernel to have access your Fujitsu machine from the outside. Dell, Windows and Abit snooping my habbits is still different than a shady third-party from NewPanama phishing my bank logins, reloading new malware.
    - stefantalpalaru 11y ago
      Run Linux. The BIOS malware needs to be loaded and executed by the OS, and Windows is the only OS that does that.
- raverbashing 11y ago
quanticle 11y ago
The first thing I do on any laptop is wipe the OS and reinstall Windows from scratch. I didn't know about Superfish at the time, but I've been burned enough by bundled crapware in the past that I always include the price of a fresh copy of Windows in the price of the laptop I'm buying.
- pmoriarty 11y ago
  I would do that, but I don't want to pay Microsoft twice: once for the Windows that came installed on the laptop and once again for another copy of Windows that's actually installable. I miss the days when computers came with OS installation disks. it's like you actually owned the software.
  - quanticle 11y ago
    That's a fair point, but there's nothing stopping you from wiping the OS and installing Linux, either. I'm limited to Windows for work reasons, otherwise I'd have gone that route myself.
    - pmoriarty 11y ago
      I'm a huge Linux fan, and have happily used it for quite a long time. Sadly, however, not all the programs I need to use are available for Linux. Tax programs, for example. There are various other niches as well, where Linux hasn't really caught up yet.
      - wyldfire 11y ago
        I've used TaxACT [1] since ~2005 with great results. I'll admit that there's still usually one or two other niche programs that don't work on linux, though. [1] https://www.taxact.com/ https://www.taxact.com/
sliverstorm 11y ago
Where do your priorities lie? If there is no suitable laptop which is both completely secure and exceedingly user-servicable & repairable for many years to come, you may be forced to choose.

jerf 11y ago

This is also why I buy higher-end Dell laptops. In fact I'd suggest to anyone inclined to see what life they can get out of their hardware, before buying a laptop, see if you can find the service manual online. My current laptop is at least 5 years old now and going strong. Battery life sucks, of course, but that's just a constant for the age of the laptop. I've had to replace hard drives (easy), get a total air-flow-blocking dust bunny out of the fan (service manual was quite helpful, that involved near total disassembly unfortunately), and replace the keyboard. While I could theoretically blunder my way through the latter two, it's nice to have a manual telling you exactly what to do, so you do only and exactly what you need to do. (Every laptop I've had has been different in terms of what you access from the top and the bottom.)