Corey Snipes 🌱Jan 13

🛠️ 💻 In the spirit of repairability and keeping good equipment alive, I've gathered up a few retired Thinkpads from local surplus auctions. I'm upgrading the RAM and drives and will be making them available in the next few weeks. These will be cozy little Solarpunk machines, older equipment preinstalled with a lightweight linux desktop and all the software you need for browsing, writing, docs, email, managing passwords, and videoconferencing.

I would like to find each one a good home with a nice person who will appreciate and take care of it. If you know of someone in the USA who would be a good fit, please put them in touch. I will be sending these for the cost of shipping (estimating about $40) with a completely optional tip jar to help cover the cost of upgraded parts.

When I have more details together I'll send out a link but for now ping me with any questions. Thanks! 🙏

Show threadCorey Snipes 🌱Feb 18

Shipped out the first two rehabilitated Thinkpads this morning. These have SSD drives, upgraded RAM and are running Linux Mint instead of the usual bloatware/spyware. Light and lean. Yay for repairability. 🛠️

If there's someone in your life that needs decent laptop for general use, let me know. I will refresh and ship one at no charge. (Donations are welcome, to cover the cost of shipping.)

More info at the top of this thread.

#SolarPunk #RightToRepair #Linux #EthicalTech #reuse #EthicalTech

Show threadForse (he/him)Feb 20

@coreysnipes Sorry for the tangential OT, but people here may know.
I'm in Sweden and I have two thinkpads in perfect condition, but I assume their motherboards have fried.
What's the best thing I can do with them?

#ThinkPad

Show threadCorey Snipes 🌱Feb 20
@forse No problem. I haven't gone as deep as motherboard replacement, myself. I gather it's possible though, and people do love them. I would edit your post to add a 'ThinkPad' hashtag and also check in over at ThinkPad reddit. I expect you could find someone local-ish to buy and ship them, and give them a new life. What are they doing (or not doing) that makes you suspect a motherboard problem?
Show threadForse (he/him)

@coreysnipes Haven't powered them up in years, but IIRC they completely fail to start.
The power LED is on, but then either they just beep very sadly, or nothing happens at all, no screen output whatsoever.

Anyway, thanks, I'll do as you say. =)

Feb 20 at 3:18pmWeb
Show threadCorey Snipes 🌱Feb 20
@forse You bet. It's great you're willing to find them a good home. Good luck!