I was around in the heyday of the ThinkPad, and this is (mostly) backward. It was always the standard kit of the stereotypical scruffy Linux hacker, but it was

I was around in the heyday of the ThinkPad, and this is (mostly) backward. It was always the standard kit of the stereotypical scruffy Linux hacker, but it was mostly just a really good laptop. The connoisseur's choice, reliable, repairable, and IBM would come to you and fix it on the desk if you paid them. A lot of that demographic have switched to MacBooks or one of the many ultrabook-type laptops of a similar design language, and what's left is the crew who valued the ability to hack on the machine. They were always there, but they're most of what's left.