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Durable, repairable, and upgradable black slabs. What's not to like?
IMO, the best ones are 2011-2013 models because they are fast enough to run my preferred software and it's easy to find spare parts for cheap.
They also have the so-called "classic" 7-row keyboard (or will accept one with minimal modification).
I've got a bunch of ThinkPads:
Mika and Pupok are my daily-drivers, if I can say that I have such a thing. (Though Andre and Freddie are used 24/7, being responsible for the home network and home automation system.)
Disassembly is very straightforward (and well-documented in the downloadable, official SERVICE MANUAL).
ThinkPad X220 Hardware Maintenance Manual
Data point: Using a small phillips head screwdriver, I recently disassembled one of my X220s in roughly 5 minutes. (I needed to apply new thermal paste to the CPU.)
Some of these modifications require installing a custom BIOS image. The most aggressive way to do this is to replace it with Coreboot, which involves using a Raspberry Pi and a special connector to rewrite the BIOS chips on the motherboard.
Skulls pre-built coreboot images
These ThinkPads have a primary drive bay that you can access with a phillips head screwdriver.
That is, I can hibernate whatever OS is running, power off, swap in a different drive, and be running a different OS in about 60 seconds. I can then shutdown, swap the original drive back in, and pick up exactly where I left off.
However, unplugging and replugging a drive into the SATA bay is a good way to wear out the connector. They weren't designed for that.
A better solution is to have two physical drives. But, how do you do that with a laptop?
Luickly, the larger ones (the T-series) have removable optical drives. I bought some "drive caddies" for $10 that let me use hard drives (SSDs) in place of the optical drive.
And each of my X-series ThinkPads are outfitted with a second hard drive in the mSATA slot (originally designated for a WWAN card).
For the server ThinkPads, the second drive is used for long-term storage that needs to survive a wipe-and-reinstall.
Here are some of the additional OSes I've toyed with:
On Linux (and Windows, I'm sure) you can set custom charging thresholds on ThinkPads.
For example, you can set it to:
- stop charging at 80%
- start charging if the battery level is below 60%
- do nothing between 60% and 80%
Supposedly this is good for the overall health of a battery, especially if you leave a laptop plugged in most of the time.
My X220s and X230 each have a pretty healthy 9-cell battery (which expands the footprint of the laptop). I expect to get about 6 hours on a (nearly) full charge, though I'm never really far away from an outlet.
I know that's nothing compared to newer laptops, but it's more than good enough for my needs.
Unfortunately, there's no way to set charging thresholds on OpenBSD. My workaround has been to boot Ubuntu from a USB stick and set the thresholds using TLP. Rebooting into OpenBSD retains the thresholds because they're set in the BIOS. (Or maybe in the battery firmware?)
I have since disabled (on OpenBSD) charging thresholds altogether. I've seen sudden dropoffs (from 50% down to 5% in a matter of minutes) because of a known bug.
While i do own a several mechanical and topre-clone keyboards, the 7 row keyboard on pre-2013 ThinkPads is the stuff of legend.
I probably have a spare one that I can swap into an X220 or X230 in case I wear one out.
(PS: they're highly interchangeable. In late January 2022, I swapped a nearly-new keyboard from a T520 that I use as my firewall/router into my X220.)
I have grown to appreciate the trackpoint (aka the pointing stick, the nub, the nipple).
Using it along with the three physical buttons makes using the laptop a tactile joy.
For the more curious, here are good sources for finding out about ThinkPads