Mastodawn

Where are the Thinkpad people on the fediverse? I’m becoming slightly open to the idea of having a computer that isn’t a MacBook, for the first time in, well, since Macs. Apparently the Thinkpad is the one to go for but I now discover they have a whole load of numbers and letters.

Looking at the specifications on YouTube for ‘greatest Thinkpad ever’ or ‘Thinkpad to install Linux on’ type of videos it looks to me that they’re fine for boring office stuff but I’m using Macs for art and design, and the thinkpads they all mention seem to have basic non-retina screens.

I should point out that I’ve never ever used the ‘windows’ OS, so have never used non Mac computers, but I’ve slightly used Linux as a user (not an expert) since the turn of the century but not on a serious level for art, not while I’ve got Macs sitting around.

Is there an ideal Thinkpad for Linux for art and design? That doesn’t cost too much? That’s still maintainable and repairable? #Thinkpad #Thinkpads

Deborah Pickett Mar 9

@u0421793 I’ve sent the catgirl signal*; now we wait.

* Boosted your post

@u0421793 I follow the Thinkpad tag and there don't seem to be tons of posts. I'm a recent Windows to Linux convert and looking at them myself too. Mostly from a development / light gaming point of view. They've just announced an extremely repairable T14 Gen7 which appeal conceptually, but I suspect its going to be horridly expensive.

⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️Mar 9

@dozigden @u0421793 any hardware is gonna be stupid expensive this year, because of the AI bubble. Lenovo / Thinkpad were my goto Linux hardware for ages tho

@falken @dozigden @u0421793
Not just this year, though. I read that it'll probably get even worse the next couple of years

Simon Greenwood Mar 9

@u0421793 I use refurbished ones and have a 2020 T14 and a 2022 P14s incoming. The T14 is currently my music laptop but struggles with some modern plugins, which is why I'm getting the P14s, which has an AMD processor as modern ones tend to work better with processor and graphic intensive workloads. So I'd say top end machine, AMD processor, refurbished for price.

Simon Greenwood Mar 10

@u0421793 Actually, one warning, Lenovo build quality isn't great these days. The T14 needed a USB-C port replacing and the P14s I've just got has a transient problem with its USB-C port out of the box. I found a post from Reddit from last year where an IT tech from a large office was saying that their fail rate was something like 40% and usually involved a replacement motherboard. My Framework is a good machine but that depends on how you feel about your money going to projects driven by right-wingers.

Ian K Tindale Mar 10

@simon 40%, down to the soldered-on USB-C socket? That's bad.

My attention has come away from Thinkpads upon learning that the screens will never match a good MacBook Pro, and that'll just irk me forever, so I won't do that. I’m now wondering what the most fixable and prolongable MacBook ever was, and I’m suspecting it might be something in the range of the A1402 I already have. I've already replaced the MagSafe port, which burned out, levered up the adhered battery set, changed the top plate for another with another battery on and another keyboard and trackpad, changed the trackpad ribbon (none of which fixed the trackpad, so I now suspect the muthaboard might have been damaged from the first puffy battery, whenever I press on the built-in keyboard it misses keystrokes, as it did on the original keyboard on the original top-plate.

I don’t know.

Simon Greenwood Mar 10

@u0421793
It's true, Mac hardware is part of what you pay for. I've been idly wondering whether late model Intel Macs would be worth putting Linux on when they finally fall out of support, more for longevity than anything. I think that what you're saying has happened to yours would be the thing that kills them, basically age.

Zygmunt Krynicki Mar 9

@u0421793 Hey there. I've been using thinkpads for decades, by now. I'm currently typing this on a T14s Gen6 (snapdragon) running Windows.

I need to, at some point, put Linux on it but I absolutely adore the form factor, the way it fits into every bag I have, the great keyboard and the the trackpoint.

I read that upcoming T14 gen7 (or was it T16) is extremely repairable but it's not out yet.

My first W510 is still working just fine, apart from being 100% obsolete.

@u0421793
Why not install Linux on an old Mac?

Ian K Tindale Mar 9

@davva23 I have, an old A1402 MacBookPro11,1 but it had a knackered keyboard and non-working trackpad and puffed up battery and dead MagSafe port, so I changed the top section of it for another A1402 casing with keyboard trackpad and dead but not puffy battery (the battery has actually come back to life since I bought the top plate cheap) but is still exhibiting dodgy keyboardness, non-working trackpad. I think it might be the original battery puffing up so much it has damaged the main board, and that's the problem, not the keyboard or trackpad itself. It's a good spec, 16GB i7, so I wanted to hang on to it.

My main MacBook Pro isn't going to be so lucky, it's a 2019 16 i9 MacBookPro16,1 (1181) which I have to brush out the dust from the fans from every year (it's due another fan de-dusting any time now), but apparently Linux on it is fraught with fright, there’s so many things about it that make it almost impossible to get a normally working Linux on it, so really I will never even attempt it on that one.

Hence the looking at whatever the “golden age” of repairable cheap secondhand other laptops was, which are also suitable for proper art.

Marcus Bointon Mar 9

@u0421793 pick up a decent old intel MacBook Pro and run Linux on it

Ian K Tindale Mar 9

@Synchro

RE: toot.pikopublish.ing/notes/ajmiancdb5ry4b9f

Julien Goodwin Mar 9

@u0421793 while I'm deeply attached to my ThinkPads (I've settled on the T14s AMD line, plus X1's for work) they've always had terrible screens. I personally don't get anything from the retina resolution, but they also tend to have terrible colour by comparison to the MacBook line, that's a non-trivial part of why I have an M4 MacBook Pro for my photography stuff.

The new T14 (non-s) models that are about to come out should be a step above for repairability again.

Ian K Tindale Mar 9

@LapTop006 actually that's tremendously useful advice, thanks. And in one swell foop, I now have lost interest in the folly of a Thinkpad. If the screens are not up to a retina Mac, I’ll forever be irked by it.

This has saved me some money, ta.

mirabilos Mar 9

@u0421793 great Thinkpads are all 14+ years old by now, I’m sorry to say.

If I had to buy a new laptop, I’d be seriously pissed. Stockpiling my favourite X series models until then, so I have ready backups.

@u0421793 The newest Thinkpad models got very high ratings for repairability.

https://www.ifixit.com/News/115827/new-thinkpads-score-perfect-10-repairability

I can’t make any suggestions about using them for art, though.

Lenovo’s New T-Series ThinkPads Score 10/10 for Repairability

Repair goes mega mainstream with the launch of Lenovo’s new T-series business laptops, which earned our highest honor with a 10/10 repairability score.

iFixit

@u0421793 I’ve been running BSDs on Thinkpads since IBM, and they’ve always been pretty good. I switched to Mac for commercial compatibility, and a familiar unixlike for a decade or so, and am now abandoning Apple due to AI.

Unfortunately my choice of platform (Framework) turned out to be unable to reject fascism, so whilst I am looking, I’m torn between repairable and restart.

That said, ifixit are saying some good things about the T14 Gen 7 and T16 Gen5, and there may be others that suit you on their list. It’s probably where I’d start today.

https://www.ifixit.com/repairability/laptop-repairability-scores#Laptop-Scores

I’d probably look for something refurbished to start with, though.

As an aside, I’ve been quite frustrated by all of the unix/linux side resolution management solutions for desktops, even with the more modern integrated systems. You probably already have preferences, though.

Laptop Repairability Scores | Most Repairable Laptops

Our engineers tear down the latest laptops and score their repairability from 0 to 10. What are the most repairable laptops? Let’s find out.

iFixit

@u0421793 Thinkpads with higher-than-1080p screens are available, though not very common.

Wouldn't 4K screens make more sense on an external display though?

T-series are the flagship Thinkpads. A bit chunky, all business. T with an -s is slimmer, with slightly fewer ports.

X-series are thin-and-light ultrabooks for senior execs in the boardroom :p

P-series are all-in workstations with GPU options.

Yeah, can't recommend buying new in this economy, unless you have the moneybags perk.

@u0421793 ThinkPad is just one product line of the Lenovo company.

Thinkpad X1 Yoga or Thinkpad X13 Yoga might be what you are looking for...

There are also separarate product lines Lenovo Yoga 7 and 9...

Some of these should also sell with Linux preinstalled (or, at least, without Windows...). 😉

thedæmon (Clay Ayers) [he / him]Mar 9

Retina displays are for rendering text nicer, not graphics, they actually makes things worse for that. Thinkpads have always had a tablet version, some using Wacom technologies. I would highly recommend looking for a Thinkpad Tablet which is a laptop with a tablet screen. I love my old one, but you might want a newer one!