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IBM Thinkpad t43p was my first heavy duty laptop. In 2005 IBM made a mistake that someone in their management must regret to date, selling Thinkpad laptop line

IBM Thinkpad t43p was my first heavy duty laptop. In 2005 IBM made a mistake that someone in their management must regret to date, selling Thinkpad laptop line to Lenovo. Things went downhill for Thinkpads and I lasted 3-4 more generations before finally giving up. Thinkpad had a shot at being the world's most loved laptop, by developers and businessman on the go. Passion for great products and great user experience is clearly not what drives the thinkpad product line today, and that is regretful. It is one of those business that I would love to run.

tjr225 8y ago
To this day I want an older 16:10 thinkpad to run xubuntu on. Happy with my 2013 mbpr, however.
- isostatic 8y ago
  I have a 2010 t410s which runs fine, could do with a new battery though.
- opencl 8y ago
  They are dirt cheap on ebay, you can get an X200 for ~$60 and a new battery for around $20.
int_19h 8y ago
Thing is, Thinkpads are still the best productivity laptops on the market. Which isn't to say that your observations aren't true, but more of a comment on the general state of that market...
- a_imho 8y ago
  Agree for some definition of best, however I'm very tempted to pick up a Xiaomi next, they seem to be very reasonably priced.
simonh 8y ago
Thinkpads were actually manufactured by Lenovo right from the start, they were only badged by IBM. But even then, why should anyone at IBM care what happened to the brand after they sold it? I know some creators love their product lines and such and care about posterity, but, IBM!
- jmiserez 8y ago
  Did Lenovo really manufacture them back in 1992? From what I gather they only started in 2005? Even then it's like saying iPhones manufactured by Foxconn are only badged by Apple. The original IBM Thinkpads all the way up to the T43 were developed by IBM and built/designed significantly better than the ones today. Also a large selling point of the old models was the software (!), which made some things easier.
  - simonh 8y ago
    Good points, I think you're right.
richjdsmith 8y ago
What did you switch to?

tjr225 8y ago

To this day I want an older 16:10 thinkpad to run xubuntu on. Happy with my 2013 mbpr, however.

isostatic 8y ago
I have a 2010 t410s which runs fine, could do with a new battery though.
opencl 8y ago
They are dirt cheap on ebay, you can get an X200 for ~$60 and a new battery for around $20.

int_19h 8y ago

Thing is, Thinkpads are still the best productivity laptops on the market. Which isn't to say that your observations aren't true, but more of a comment on the general state of that market...

a_imho 8y ago
Agree for some definition of best, however I'm very tempted to pick up a Xiaomi next, they seem to be very reasonably priced.

simonh 8y ago

Thinkpads were actually manufactured by Lenovo right from the start, they were only badged by IBM. But even then, why should anyone at IBM care what happened to the brand after they sold it? I know some creators love their product lines and such and care about posterity, but, IBM!

jmiserez 8y ago
Did Lenovo really manufacture them back in 1992? From what I gather they only started in 2005? Even then it's like saying iPhones manufactured by Foxconn are only badged by Apple. The original IBM Thinkpads all the way up to the T43 were developed by IBM and built/designed significantly better than the ones today. Also a large selling point of the old models was the software (!), which made some things easier.
- simonh 8y ago
  Good points, I think you're right.

richjdsmith 8y ago

What did you switch to?