6 ms·

While not even close to what this guy does,I do run my IBM thinkpad every now and then,which is probably about 20 years old.I reinstalled Linux recently and it

While not even close to what this guy does,I do run my IBM thinkpad every now and then,which is probably about 20 years old.I reinstalled Linux recently and it just works..The keyboard is still lightyears better than most of that crap one could find in most of today's laptops.. What the guy does with the computer is amazing and I'm really glad the management allow him to carry on with it.

xelxebar 7y ago
Speaking of, I'm trying to get my hands on a T400s Thinkpad, but not having much luck finding these units. I plan on flashing it with libreboot and want to give guixsd a try as a daily driver.
Aperocky 7y ago
It's a lot easier to have better keyboard when space and weight is not a concern.
- CamperBob2 7y ago
  Oh, those were concerns back then, too. They just weren't the only concerns, as they are now.
- cosmodisk 7y ago
  Can only agree to certain extent.Lenovo ThinkPads retain exceptionally good keyboard design despite being wafer thin.I have a bulky Toshiba made in 2015 and the keyboard is just very so so. At work I've got XPS 13 and the keyboard is really nice,so ultimately its down to the industrial designers.
  - caymanjim 7y ago
    I have a late-2018 ThinkPad X1 Extreme, and while I love the feel of the keyboard, the keys around the mouse nub (GHBN) started becoming increasingly unresponsive after only a few months. Last week, the whole machine died horribly (unrelated), so I'm hoping to get the keyboard replaced as well when I send it in. I love the machine, and overall it's well-built, but I'm going to be wary of the keyboard. One of the main reasons I bought the ThinkPad was because I'd gotten fed up with MacBook keyboard failures.
    - cosmodisk 7y ago
      The reason I ended up with XPS 13 instead of ThinkPad was appalling service levels from Lenovo.They are on the same level at least in the UK,as an average run down kebab kiosk. I don't think I've seen any other company that'd have 0.8 rate on trustpilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lenovo.co.uk https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lenovo.co.uk Not sure how they remain the largest computer manufacturer on earth..
      - caymanjim 7y ago
        I called customer support on a Sunday evening, and quickly got connected to a US-based support person. They sent me a return box overnight. So far I'm happy with the quality of service. The real test will be what happens after I ship it in for repairs. No complaints yet, though.
    - freedomben 7y ago
      Thanks to the self-serviceability of Thinkpads, replacing the keyboard is pretty easy. My Thinkpad gets a lot of use so I replace the keyboard about every 12 months. I do wish it were easier to order parts directly from Lenovo, but you can find them on Amazon and many other e-retailers.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  It's not like the parts have become bigger over the decades. With today's tech, you could easily make a laptop with a quality keyboard, with a form factor reminiscent of those old ones, packed full with modern hardware at fraction of the weight... that is, if manufacturers weren't optimizing for vanity metrics at the expense of utility.
  - baroffoos 7y ago
    Because people care less about how nice the keyboard is and more about how light it is which is a valid concern when you carry the thing around with you everywhere. The keyboard I have plugged in to my laptop weighs as much as the laptop itself.
- xur17 7y ago
  I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1, and I'm really happy with the keyboard. Had a Macbook for several years, and almost always used it with an external keyboard because of the horrible built in one.
- raxxorrax 7y ago
  On the other hand I think the focus on convertibles is a complete failure. We order a surface here and there but it isn't really something you would want to work with very long compared to a classic design. I also like exchangeable batteries without having to lose warranty. These are service parts ffs. The market for laptops did shrink significantly due to phones, but I know a lot of people that still prefer to use a classic laptop for home use. So while the market did shrink, the rest was almost entirely destroyed by bad design decisions. I still don't know why people use devices like iPads, it is a complete mystery for me. They are as useful as tramp stamps. I couldn't care less about weight or dimensions if that means I could get high quality parts. Not I don't get them and some models are still beyond 1000$...
TrackerFF 7y ago
My first employer still has a Win 95 machine running for some very specific EE CAD software, for no other reason that it still does the job, the company that made it closed shop years ago, and he's very productive with it. I suspect it's gonna be there 'til the day he closes shop, or he runs out of parts for the computer.
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  Would a VM not work for this?
  - wiremaus 7y ago
    It would, with setup to replicate the environment. It might well be a miserable buggy experience compared to just using the original hardware.
  - enobrev 7y ago
    I fire up VMs for windows-only [mostly graphical] applications from time to time and the experience is never very good. No matter how beefy my host system is, the experience is awful and I end up giving up out of frustration. I have an old used Toshiba laptop with Windows that I fire up on those rare occasions now.
    - grawprog 7y ago
      I used virtual box running xp a few years ago for a vba project I did for a contract. I never ran into any issues.
      - mehrdadn 7y ago
        XP is NT-based, so it's not surprising. They're saying for non-NT systems it's an issue.
        grawprog 7y ago
        Ah ok fair enough. I have to admit i haven't tried running windows 8 or 10 in a vm since the preview builds. I assumed any instability was from the lack of polish on the OS itself in its state at the time.
amiga_500 7y ago
I have a working amiga 500. Must be over 25 years old now, nearer 30.
rxhernandez 7y ago
Same; except it's a Dell Inspiron that's about 16-18 years old. It's outlasted a couple of my thinkpads but that's probably because I've taken those thinkpads places I would have never taken the Inspiron.
mrslave 7y ago
Reminds me of "A Commodore 64 Is Still Being Used to Run an Auto Shop in Poland (gizmodo.com)"[1] though I was not able to afford such a luxury when I was young. Every decade or so I boot an old DEC Alpha. Last time I dist-upgraded Debian (woody to etch?) and everything worked - if a tad slow. The power of nostalgia. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12604414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12604414

xelxebar 7y ago

Speaking of, I'm trying to get my hands on a T400s Thinkpad, but not having much luck finding these units. I plan on flashing it with libreboot and want to give guixsd a try as a daily driver.

Aperocky 7y ago

It's a lot easier to have better keyboard when space and weight is not a concern.

CamperBob2 7y ago
Oh, those were concerns back then, too. They just weren't the only concerns, as they are now.
cosmodisk 7y ago
Can only agree to certain extent.Lenovo ThinkPads retain exceptionally good keyboard design despite being wafer thin.I have a bulky Toshiba made in 2015 and the keyboard is just very so so. At work I've got XPS 13 and the keyboard is really nice,so ultimately its down to the industrial designers.
- caymanjim 7y ago
  I have a late-2018 ThinkPad X1 Extreme, and while I love the feel of the keyboard, the keys around the mouse nub (GHBN) started becoming increasingly unresponsive after only a few months. Last week, the whole machine died horribly (unrelated), so I'm hoping to get the keyboard replaced as well when I send it in. I love the machine, and overall it's well-built, but I'm going to be wary of the keyboard. One of the main reasons I bought the ThinkPad was because I'd gotten fed up with MacBook keyboard failures.
  - cosmodisk 7y ago
    The reason I ended up with XPS 13 instead of ThinkPad was appalling service levels from Lenovo.They are on the same level at least in the UK,as an average run down kebab kiosk. I don't think I've seen any other company that'd have 0.8 rate on trustpilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lenovo.co.uk https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lenovo.co.uk Not sure how they remain the largest computer manufacturer on earth..
    - caymanjim 7y ago
      I called customer support on a Sunday evening, and quickly got connected to a US-based support person. They sent me a return box overnight. So far I'm happy with the quality of service. The real test will be what happens after I ship it in for repairs. No complaints yet, though.
  - freedomben 7y ago
    Thanks to the self-serviceability of Thinkpads, replacing the keyboard is pretty easy. My Thinkpad gets a lot of use so I replace the keyboard about every 12 months. I do wish it were easier to order parts directly from Lenovo, but you can find them on Amazon and many other e-retailers.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
It's not like the parts have become bigger over the decades. With today's tech, you could easily make a laptop with a quality keyboard, with a form factor reminiscent of those old ones, packed full with modern hardware at fraction of the weight... that is, if manufacturers weren't optimizing for vanity metrics at the expense of utility.
- baroffoos 7y ago
  Because people care less about how nice the keyboard is and more about how light it is which is a valid concern when you carry the thing around with you everywhere. The keyboard I have plugged in to my laptop weighs as much as the laptop itself.
xur17 7y ago
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1, and I'm really happy with the keyboard. Had a Macbook for several years, and almost always used it with an external keyboard because of the horrible built in one.
raxxorrax 7y ago
On the other hand I think the focus on convertibles is a complete failure. We order a surface here and there but it isn't really something you would want to work with very long compared to a classic design. I also like exchangeable batteries without having to lose warranty. These are service parts ffs. The market for laptops did shrink significantly due to phones, but I know a lot of people that still prefer to use a classic laptop for home use. So while the market did shrink, the rest was almost entirely destroyed by bad design decisions. I still don't know why people use devices like iPads, it is a complete mystery for me. They are as useful as tramp stamps. I couldn't care less about weight or dimensions if that means I could get high quality parts. Not I don't get them and some models are still beyond 1000$...

TrackerFF 7y ago

My first employer still has a Win 95 machine running for some very specific EE CAD software, for no other reason that it still does the job, the company that made it closed shop years ago, and he's very productive with it. I suspect it's gonna be there 'til the day he closes shop, or he runs out of parts for the computer.

mehrdadn 7y ago
Would a VM not work for this?
- wiremaus 7y ago
  It would, with setup to replicate the environment. It might well be a miserable buggy experience compared to just using the original hardware.
- enobrev 7y ago
  I fire up VMs for windows-only [mostly graphical] applications from time to time and the experience is never very good. No matter how beefy my host system is, the experience is awful and I end up giving up out of frustration. I have an old used Toshiba laptop with Windows that I fire up on those rare occasions now.
  - grawprog 7y ago
    I used virtual box running xp a few years ago for a vba project I did for a contract. I never ran into any issues.
    - mehrdadn 7y ago
      XP is NT-based, so it's not surprising. They're saying for non-NT systems it's an issue.
      - grawprog 7y ago
        Ah ok fair enough. I have to admit i haven't tried running windows 8 or 10 in a vm since the preview builds. I assumed any instability was from the lack of polish on the OS itself in its state at the time.

amiga_500 7y ago

I have a working amiga 500. Must be over 25 years old now, nearer 30.

rxhernandez 7y ago

Same; except it's a Dell Inspiron that's about 16-18 years old. It's outlasted a couple of my thinkpads but that's probably because I've taken those thinkpads places I would have never taken the Inspiron.

mrslave 7y ago

Reminds me of "A Commodore 64 Is Still Being Used to Run an Auto Shop in Poland (gizmodo.com)"[1] though I was not able to afford such a luxury when I was young. Every decade or so I boot an old DEC Alpha. Last time I dist-upgraded Debian (woody to etch?) and everything worked - if a tad slow. The power of nostalgia. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12604414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12604414