I Tried Using This 14-Year-Old Lenovo ThinkPad in 2024-It Still Kicks S

[@AndersonPEM]

Meanwhile a brand new HP gives you headache

[@ashish_prajapati_tr]

Absolutely right. My client's pc got i9 with windows11 and it's struggling to run😂😂

[@164BiloKytes]

Hp needs to really get everything together. A friend has a small hp from 2022 and it was a pretty nice computer but it blue screened on Microsoft solitare and then bootlooped while bluescreenng

[@hadeseh6808]

​@@164BiloKytesi got my 10th gen i5 hp from when it launched in 2019 still running like a champ i do some big laravel projects with only 8gb ram and a normal m.2 no problems at all. But i guess after this generation hp turned into making garbage because everyone seems to hate it.

[@164BiloKytes]

@@hadeseh6808 yeah, good luck with your hinge though. Lather up those mounting points and it should be fine

[@alpzepta]

Dell is just as bad XPS is the worst laptop I have ever seen

[@shafiq_ramli]

The nipple is definitely for developers because we don't want to move our hand far away from the keyboard

[@christianbaer2897]

This! I still miss having this kind of thing, when sitting on my work machine.

[@javierRC82857]

My T23 had one, was nice to use.

[@TheSulross]

@@shafiq_ramli when viming away can still mix in a little GUI action

[@LarrysUniqueHandle]

The laptop isn't even age of consent yet, you can't touch its nipple yet.

[@TheBcoolGuy]

Devs get lonely too!

[@fengyingzhao160]

0:26 Wait, even a 14 years old laptop has more RAM than the 2024 MacBook Pro base models

[@canadiannomad4088]

I find it insane... Why do base model laptops still have so little ram?

[@fengyingzhao160]

@@canadiannomad4088 "Only Apple can do"

[@LydiaOfTheNorth]

@@fengyingzhao160 come on guys, this is not "an apple thing". In 2024, base model Thinkpads have 8 gigs of RAM. So do Latitudes, ProBooks, ... And for good reason, for Office use (if you don't have 1 million row excel-sheets or chrome with 150 tabs) this is still absolutely cromulent. Also, you're comparing a $3000+ laptop with a base model MacBook. Even 14 year old MacBooks could be configured with 16 gigs of RAM back then.

[@aviaspotter32]

double, even

[@fshtank]

Not Thunderbolt port. FireWire. Oh the number of times I connected a Video Camera with tape to capture video to a video editor through FireWire!

[@AZisk]

yep - good call.

[@RaduTek]

You could say that Thunderbolt was the spiritual successor of FireWire, as it did inherit some of it's characteristics, like daisy chaining, and also being half-designed by Apple.

[@ranjitmandal1612]

😲

[@necruo7724]

Got a W520 that i still regularly use for reformatting drives and browsing/light gaming on the go, the great thing about theese old laptops is that nobody will steal them :)

[@foss_sound]

Is CS2 light gaming? Or more like ... Brotato?

[@Br1cht]

@@foss_sound I play Close Combat on mine.

[@lancheloth]

I got one..

[@JenuelDev]

In other words, this ThinkPad was one of the best in its class 14 years ago. I used to love ThinkPads; they looked so modern at the time.

[@christianbaer2897]

It is from the W line up. These were (and still are) power houses. More portable work station than laptop.

[@JhanOjan]

and boxy at the same time

[@JenuelDev]

@@christianbaer2897 yup agree, I use to see laptop with multiple buttons more modern many years ago. It seams that simple design now a days are looked as modern.

[@JenuelDev]

@@JhanOjan haha yup yup, those boxy laptops heha

[@ejojart]

I recall being able to lift this laptop by the hinge without worrying that it would break, something I never attempted with other laptops.

[@AZisk]

i couldn’t do that ever since I replaced the battery. Now when I want to hold that part, the battery pops out, haha

[@mdzaid5925]

1:21 Bro you don't even know how useful that trackpoint is. Just hold the middle button and a little pressure on the trackpoint and you can scroll long endless articles/code smoothly & easily.

[@sihamhamda47]

Perfect for someone who can't use the trackpad, such as the healthcare workers or laboratory researcher who has to follow a rule to always wear hand gloves all the time

[@LydiaOfTheNorth]

@@youp1tralala agreed. why do people not know every hardware spec for any machine they bought 1.5 decades ago by heart, it's ridiculous.

[@jamesdietsch7868]

If you want to run Windows 11 on the Thinkpad have you tried Rufus? It can bypass the TPM checks etc

[@robhunt8378]

Yup. Rufus can even download the ISO for you.

[@lus-lb7ps]

Or install Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 24h2

[@JohnFekoloid]

I do this all the time. Have 12 year old PC running windows 11 fine. Installed with rufus.

[@filecore]

Yeh this will run W11 via rufus no problem.

[@mikelreborn3254]

I used Rufus to put Ubuntu on mine.

[@TechGameDev]

0:29 dude it has double the ram of macbook air M1, M2 and M3 for a 14 years old pc

[@turek737]

Ram isn't everything. I can work in silence (no fan) on macbook air for at least 15h on a single battery charge without sweating my 🥚 🥚 Try to do this with old intels with dedicated graphics.

[@Duraputer]

Also the W510 can be upgraded to 32gb of ram with 4 ram slots.

[@Gadtkaz]

@@turek737 means a lot for developing/compiling or apps that hit the igpu hard...

[@MarcinKralka]

@@turek737 There's still no reason for new Mac's to not ship with at least 16 GB of RAM on cheapest models, especially given how expensive they are, when compared to other laptops. And more RAM won't decrease your battery life.

[@gentuxable]

11:48 it's more a built-in UPS than a battery now. :D

[@KemalDARA]

😂😂😂😂

[@e.n85784]

6:14 The middle button is for scrolling with the TrackPoint.

[@maynnemillares]

Funny thing Apple sells M3 Macbook Pro today with just 8gb Ram

[@johnboko7110]

For the price you are paying 8gb ram is unacceptable.

[@kode4food]

I was using a T430 (2012) as my Linux laptop up until about two weeks ago. They hold up really well, and were still somewhat upgradeable

[@LydiaOfTheNorth]

Why did you retire it? Still rocking mine :D

[@kode4food]

@@LydiaOfTheNorth Replaced it with an X1 Carbon (Gen 6). I'm moving around a lot more and needed something lighter, with better battery life.

[@LydiaOfTheNorth]

@@kode4food nice! I have yet to get a "carbon" model. How's that treating you? :o

[@kode4food]

@@LydiaOfTheNorth ​ If I'm being entirely honest, it doesn't feel much faster than the T430, but that's ok since I never had any complaints about the T430's performance. Because of the form factor, I feel like it struggles a little more with thermal management, but not at all a deal breaker. The screen is quite nice. The keyboard is a Thinkpad keyboard, so it's awesome. The trackpad is better by far. The webcam is 'meh', but slightly better. I still can't get fingerprint reader drivers to work under LMDE, but I haven't put that much work into it. Overall, because it's easier to lug around and I didn't pay very much for it, it was a worthwhile upgrade (for me).

[@himanshuboora]

6:28 that's not technology form past but just a middle mouse button, you can do it on any device.

[@AZisk]

my current laptop doesn’t have a middle mouse button

[@BeastViper007]

@@AZisk Triple tap on trackpad should work the same way as well as every other mouse that has a scroll wheel.

[@St0rMsk]

So I bought refurbrished x240 like 4-5 years ago, with docking station, used it till january this year (archlinux ofc). Now it's my server. Best purchase ever

[@robertedelmann0711]

1394 was Firewire, you've got the small version. It was used for digital video or storage. To fix your problems with different installation medias, you could create a ventoy thumbdrive (or use a external hdd/ssd) and just copy the .iso images to that drive, upon boot you could choose which file to start from. makes life easier. In your case, you need rufus to flash the media and remove the limitations of the installer (and enable local accounts...). And If you run your windows on the mac inside of parallels you have to make sure that the emulator routes the usb-device to your windows-machine, else windows can't see it.

[@pratibhamaurya5763]

The Thinkvantage button opens an app where you can get all the information of your laptop and the battery health like the app is majestic

[@astrokari9567]

I’ve been in love with ThinkPads for a couple of decades now. They’re built to last, and I’ve seen my fair share of them in use for 8+ years. If I didn’t love my MacBook Pro so much, I’d be rocking a ThinkPad X1 Carbon all day, every day.

[@Gabeyre]

Red button most useful when the touch pad stops working

[@skysuperblock2204]

For people Who does not have Windows, instead of downloading the media creation tool download the Disk Image instead and Flash It onto a usb

[@christianbaer2897]

I have a X220 (actually two...) and the HDD is a massive bottleneck. Throw in a SATA SSD and you will see a massive increase in boot, install and file opening speeds. It gets really usable at this point. Especially with your 720QM inside ;-)

[@JunYamog]

@@christianbaer2897 I had a X220 to compliment my T520 way back. But the X220 died and Lenovo couldn’t replace or fix it. With some shipping issues, etc. I ended up with 2 X230, both had a hard life with my son and mom. 1 X230 is still running, my T520 is running recently updated Ubuntu and deleted windows 10 partition.

[@christianbaer2897]

@@JunYamog I started out with the X220 with an i3 processor and 4GB RAM. Upgrading RAM to 8GB and giving it an SSD was a game changer. For fun I bought an X220 with an i7 and upgraded to 16GB RAM. That machine is now serving my sister well enough and she doesn't want a replacement. The i3 version gets booted up from time to time. To see how a current Linux is running and sometimes for some benchmarks. If it works reasonably well enough on that 2nd gen i3, it works fine ;-)

[@theodoregary3219]

I regularly use W10 in a T530 and a T400 for professional audio at concert venues. They're heavy, but reliable. Each has an SSD boot drive, and a SSD in the DVD caddy position. Dante and USB multi-track capture works great along with Waves Tracks Live. The age of these machines is a nice thief repellent, so I'm (slightly) less worried about that. The T400 even has a 3-port USB 3.0 ExpressCard should I need to copy stuff to another drive before leaving the venue.

[@c1p0]

Had the T500. It was one year before this one I think. I dropped it a bunch of times, spilled water on it, one of the hinges finally gave up and broke after a big drop but I used it for at least 1 more year with just the other hinge. Changed the cooling on it because one fan gave up at one point. Somehow even after I retired it it still survived about 4 more years as an HTPC. This one looks pristine. I remember the dock for it was hella cool. Edit: What people do is put some Linux distro on these machines, rice it up and still use them for daily light work.

[@mehmetariftasl8277]

The middle button is basically the same as the middle button on any mouse. They allow you to scroll like that, how do you not even know this.

[@ayush.2986]

6:24 the button acts the middle click button which is present on all the mouses in form of scroll wheel click. That usually allows us to close tab, open links in new tab and enable auto scroll which works in the direction we move the pointer after the click. A quick tip always set three finger click on laptop trackpads to middle mouse click trust me it is very handy once you get used to it.

[@wilsonaala9395]

love that the schwarz is still there to ensure consistent laptop fingering XD

[@lee-annewalker3430]

A few points. you can stand on that chasis and it wont bend. Seen Lenovo staff demo a few times (disclaimer if it breaks dont come after me) The middle button can be set to be a middle click - awesome for opening pages in a new window The nipple is loved by many. I used to switch the touch pad off and use an external mouse. If I was needing to do something quick, I could get away with using the nipple. You can switch the touchpad on/off with a function key. Probably best to upgrade the bios - at least from security The Meltdown and Specter patch is what broke performance on Intel procs, my Thinkpads was a wizz until the patch, so older OS's and Linux that perform quicker often dont have those patches. Security is a choice. Win11 can be installed with an ISO and editing some ini files to bypass the detection, many creation tools "auto" patch this for you like Rufus. I had an old Thinkpad running as my "NAS" for a good while. They suck power and warm a room up....

[@ownzuall]

I remember, as a child, my parents left home for a few hours. I wanted so eagerly to try their new laptop computer, I think it was late 90's or beginning of 2000's. With my luck, computer froze. I did not know then that I can reset the power. I tried to wait for the battery to deplete. I do not remember if my parents caught me when they returned.

[@immersion7110]

Nice story!

[@halycano]

I still have my Asus K42F laptop I had in 2012 during my college days (it might be older as it was a hand-me-down from my dad). After upgrading to an SSD and maxing the RAM to 8 GB, it’s fast and serviceable. I keep its Windows 7-Ubuntu dual boot setup from back then for nostalgia reasons, and still keep access to my pirated Matlab and other programs I got from a college friend.

[@jothain]

That's a nice beast of its era. Btw I'm one of the people who miss trackpoint. It's insanely ergonomic and accurate to use. Imo every single laptop should have it.

[@nickvolt2816]

1. Windows 11 can run this after Rufus patch. 2. Windows 10 would be much faster after using AtlasOS mod/patch/app. 3. Linux would be flying on this. Best use with Arch or any clone. 4. If I don't have a mouse this nipple is way better for me then a touchpad.

[@WyvernDotRed]

On point 3, since the hardware is older thus probably well-supported, I would recommend TuxedoOS or Linux Mint instead. These versioned distro's will just work more, which seems to be what Alex prefers here. And after the Plasma 6.1 update I recommend KDE Plasma almost universally, as it's really good even stock and sets itself apart from Windows in a playful way. But if the video driver does not support Vulkan, Linux will be sub-optimal for anything graphically involved. That said, I'm on Arch btw and prefer the system greatly myself.

[@aliyuabba4575]

​@@WyvernDotRedI See what you did there😅

[@davidsonayuwoki]

0. You can download the Windows 11 ISO file instead of the Windows Media Creation Tool

[@Get_yotted]

Or you unpack the ISO, replace the boot.wim with the Windows 10 boot.wim, then repackit as an ISO.

[@Get_yotted]

@@davidsonayuwokiit’s kinda tricky to do it on windows machine, it will force you to get the media installation tool. But if you go to dev options on your we browser and spoof your OS to be anything but Windows it will give you the option to download the ISO.

[@cheaptek5065]

Still BadAss!! greeting from W540 owner ...

[@christopherhood9241]

Just aquired a thinkpad t480 for Daugherty & school. It’s soooo upgradable - love it.

[@alexeyborysevych5460]

I have a Dell Latitude E6410 also from 2010. The exact manufacture date is Dec-09-2010. However, it has a Core i5 with 2 cores and 4 threads, only 6 Gb of RAM, and no USB 3 at all. I replaced a HDD to SSD, and bought an original rack for additional hard drive instead of DVD-RW drive, as author of video did. Also a battery was changed to new one, but now it also doesn't work))). Now this laptop runs on Win 10 and I also tried to do something in VS code but time isn't on laptop's side, it feel's very laggy nowadays.

[@andreypanin3096]

My first was Lenovo 3000 N100, served me for over 10 years and was sold still in a functional state. My second was Lenovo B590, same story: lives in the closet now, but is fully functional. Proper care can greatly extend Lenovo laptops' life.

[@robhunt8378]

4710HQ in the home at the moment so not as old but quite old. I don't personally use it anymore but my family does and for the typical office-like tasks, it gets the job done incredibly well. I feel it's only a segment of users that really need the power in modern chips. I'm willing to say the key for decent performance for a lot of people especially in laptops was the advent of the SSD. Game-changer.

[@RomPereira]

Darn, Alex keeps the stickers on his computers... You gotta love the lenovos. They are great!

[@ivanocj]

No way!!! You were always part of the club. Welcome back!

[@Speedwagon97]

6:14 That button functions same with scroll button. You can do the same thing by pressing your scroll wheel, like a button.

[@scara1701]

The most fun thing about older Thinkpads was the light on top of the screen shining down onto the keyboard :D

[@JavadTaghia]

it is handy I use it time to time

[@walpoleandworcester]

Nice blast from the past! I even had a ThinkPad as well for a while. I might pick one up again in the future. It’s awesome how even this older ThinkPad was able to run Windows 10 pretty well.

[@debarkak]

nice first laptop!

[@AZisk]

I used to hate the idea of laptops because they are less powerful and more expensive than desktops. Until I HAD to have one for work when traveling. So this was a painful initial expense, but I'm glad I got it.

[@debarkak]

​@@AZisk i am more of a laptop user and prefer laptops over desktop cuz i can use it anywhere, my first PC was actually a laptop, it was a Dell Inspiron 14R N4110 (which i still have it), then i got a new one which is Dell Vostro 3590, which i still use it as my main machine to this day and the difference between these 2 laptops is very much different, in terms of portability, performance and so on.

[@debarkak]

​​@@AZiskalso you can bypass that windows 11 installation requirement issue by using rufus to create the installer media but you shouldnt be using win11 in this old pc tbh lol

[@whophd]

@@AZiskof course the real solution I had was “why not both?” since already I had 2 monitors by then, and by 10 years ago I was already up to 3 monitors, so a second computer is no big deal Naturally Mac Continuity makes this silky smooth

[@DavideDavini]

I have an 2015 MBP with Linux on it. I recently opened it to change the battery and changing the thermal paste. It is pretty usable for everyday tasks , maybe some very light gaming as well.

[@BilisNegra]

2:18 USB 3.0 on a first gen Core ix machine! That is a rare sight. It was only taken for granted from the third generation onwards with the odd 2nd gen having that. I wonder what exotic chipset is inside that computer.

[@jierenzheng7670]

I started with a T43, changed brands to even the Framework and went back to a X280. Small and light enough with a decent touchscreen for times I needed it. The keyboard is decent too. The software support and BIOS is so much better than even the Framework.

[@lefosg]

t410 was my first laptop and I'm still using it to connect a firewire audio interface. Changed thermal paste in this and a 2018 HP. The HP's paste was like a brick, overheating at 90+ degrees but the t410's was still in very good condition.

[@boris---]

Watching this from my refurbished ThinkPad for $150 make me smile :)

[@boris---]

btw.. just saying.. installing win10/11 on that old lenovo should be war crime... edit: middle button on top of touchpad working like mouse scroll.. if you press it over a link it will open it new window, or close existing tab.. etc.. just as middle scroll button on mouse

[@astrokari9567]

Refurbished ThinkPads are one of the best deals going in computing. Every time someone I know needs a computer on a very tight budget, I go this route. Folks are always thrilled with how much computer they can get for

[@dgillies5420]

ThinkVantage is that crazy LED light at the top of the lid which not only shows the keyboard in dark airplanes (no keyboard backlight) it can also be used to read an ancient output device on airplanes called "paper" (made of wood). But, i think you must be joking about not knowing this ...

[@miriamsmith7135]

I used the red thing in the middle. Got pretty good at using it. I also have a 1999 IBM ThinkPad That still works. Husband uses it for his Microsoft Train Simulator. The only thing wrong wiith it is, the battery doesn't work anymore.

[@immersion7110]

I coincidentally ordered a T480 yesterday, as I needed a laptop for a couple months. I’m waiting for the new MacBook Pro release, but it will be in only a couple of months, so at least I will have something I could work with for a while.

[@muhammad-bin-american]

Excellent laptop. The last great Thinkpad in terms of upgradability.

[@immersion7110]

​@@muhammad-bin-american Yep, agreed! I actually refrained myself from getting a T480s or T490 for this specific reason. I’m also thinking about installing a Linux distribution on it, as Windows feels a little bit slow.

[@muhammad-bin-american]

@@immersion7110 Yes Linux is the way to go with these machines. My T440s runs Manjaro XFCE. My favorite distro right now. The good thing if say Microsoft decides to stop their nonsense and improve Win 11 you can always go back.

[@silys5253]

You don’t need to use the trackpad buttons at all. You can activate tapping in the settings and tap the trackpad instead. Ive done it for more than a decade - way before I knew what a MacBook was

[@Sonyboj]

Not surprising, my main CPU is still a i74790k from 2014. Just NOW its getting slow. Still 100% fine for web browsing, etc.

[@hkaya]

Loved the thinkpads, my first laptop was also a thinkpad (T22) loved it

[@fteoOpty64]

Red Nipple! Is the TrackPoint!. It is my precise goto pointing device!. Very accurate. I use much more than the trackpad. For me, Trackpint to move mouse, Trackpad for two fingerscroll. Only a ThinkPad has it. And tuned right.

[@scooter4196]

You didn't mention the Smart Card slot! I rolled my own smart card certificates with my card to log into my laptops. Synced with FreeIPA. No passwords, just cryptographic keys :)

[@ChristySajiPaul]

When I'm watching this video, I remembered about my Toshiba Satellite L755-168 which was sitting beside my Desk setup which is from 2011 (13 years young😅) has a NVIDIA GT 525m and 8gigs of ram it's a bit loud sometimes. It's battery is already dead I don't know why it's battery is like that. It still edit some 4k videos and it's my daily drive. I'm still proud about that.

[@lashachivadze1344]

I got a 2021 asus vivobook laptop and after countless hours of working to fix that and many weeks of waiting for tech service group to fix that it is finally running windows 11 normally and you got that 14 year old machine working on first try and its running. that's why i love old tech. That lenovo is very good

[@FunFoxHD]

I have several old machines here, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 Era (actually this Laptop came out 2015 and has a Windows 10 Sticker on it but there is Windows 7 on it lol) I love old tech :D

[@xperiafan5370]

5:12 That should be common knowledge by now. Windows 11 requires a PC with intel 8th gen+ and TPM support to be able to install, unless you use certain workarounds.

[@ZENECKADMER]

IT guys know nothing ;D

[@kevinurben6005]

Max performance just locks the CPU at max clock (afaik) and will drain the battery. The next setting down enables speed step - it will ramp up performance when needed but will give much less heat and longer battery life.

[@PG-yx9re]

Got the ever-popular T 480 refurbished, with the i5, 16 gb ram and the 2560x1440 screen (approx. 300 nits). Runs win 11 hassle free and great for general office work, browsing, and I suppose some light coding - and even do it silent/quietly (with TPFancontrol installed).

[@hannes.p]

I got a W500 from 2009 still running every day. Although the Radeon Card and battery aren't working any more it's still good for browsing and youtube 😀 And I got Windows 10 installed only with a hack (which I don't remember...) Carried it through university and later for work.... Even have the docking station 🥰

[@shawnparker2692]

Very nice : I am naming my next virtual server - Sprinting Bunny 😂

[@WyvernDotRed]

In the household here I keep too many old machines that still work around. Two old HP EliteBooks (their ThinkPad equivalent), one of which recently had it's screen fail but both have been in use for well over a decade. My own laptop is one of the first ThinkPads with an AMD chip, clocking in at over 6 years at this point, which is showing it's age more from first-gen problems. And my desktop has an old 3200G and Vega 64, the former I bought for cheap when the pandemic hit, the latter was a later upgrade but both parts are rather old. But if it works well enough for me, I'll keep using it. I see keeping old things going as a source of pride. My brothers recently needed new laptops, so I helped them select a ThinkPad and Legion laptop, suiting their different approach to using their machines. While new now, both are long term purchases with the plan to get used for over a decade, with the needed maintenance to keep them going.

[@tetsuoshima6100]

in regards to the Crucial, it needs to be a flash drive for the MBR... those cases don't always pass that sort of info through :)

[@Warren_NK]

I have a W540 and still runs great. Decent 5hr+ battery life. Plus the Samsung SATA ssd evo 870 I put in it really makes it feel snappy

[@andaro.77]

I want to get myself another ThinkPad, an older one once I have the money. They're amazing, might even get one from the IBM-Lenovo era like the T60, or a later model like the T430/T420.

[@abhiansh]

I still have this one with Ubuntu on it for my 6 yo to use for his school typing practice. Still love it and its keyboard and that red fidget toy was my primary mouse (have never been able to get used to touch pads till date even on latest laptops)

[@Whfkl14927]

use driverpack to install drivers before testing, do not rely on windows for updating drivers, and yes you need to install drivers manually, its not like macos. You can install windows with rufus or something similar and are not tied up to windows installer..

[@michael1unknown]

Watching this on my first T61 with middleton bios, 3 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Core2Duo T9300, new WIFI-card and Linux mint. Still loving it for easy things.

[@muhammad-bin-american]

Yep! Among my best Thinkpads. Why not get 8 GB RAM? Pricey but worth it.

[@michael1unknown]

@@muhammad-bin-american Indeed an option!

[@gentuxable]

8:01 Ok but I work in a lit room: On a macbook I see all objects reflected and distracting from the content. On a matte display I just need to avoid direct light from behind.

[@tibbydudeza]

I got a company Lenovo P16 laptop - it is classified as a mobile workstation like the W520 - heavy as hell but a stellar desktop replacement.

[@nicktheneko]

Try using Ventoy(let's you write multiple ISO files and use them, basically a Multi-boot drive) on a USB

[@Multrakiller]

I still have an old N73SV Asus. Bang n Oloufsen audio speakers is the reason why I got it. All other laptops have been Thinkpads :)

[@mikailulum2540]

That red thing in the middle of the keyboard is a TrackPoint™. Its a joystick for a cursor but its tiny - instead swiping the fingers on the touchpad.

[@TheSulross]

Got the spouse a used 2011 Mac Mini that has 16GB ram and 512GB ssd - the CPU is Intel dual core running around 2.8GHz. The performance on anything was being used for was entirely adequate. The OS version was still getting at least security updates, but not much of any apps in the App Store could be installed. But installed apps like Brave browser and LibreOffice from web sites anyhow. But the power supply went out after couple of years. So bought a new Mac Mini (which has new identical same case as that 2011). Eventually I’ll mess around with getting the power supply dealt with, and if resurrect it, will put Linux on it and it will be good for plenty of more years. 2011 was the end of history for personal computing as computers were then powerful enough for majority of users.

[@notsoluckycharm]

Wild. That’s the exact laptop I first bought for myself. Was always towers before that.

[@loodwich]

In my first laptop, Toshiba Satellite 2100, I used the nipple, a good mouse. I had never used an external mouse on that machine. On that machine, I install win98, also "Windows Me" and Linux. But I changed it to a PowerBook G4 12.1" in 2005.

[@gamecuber6]

5:17 you can actually run it even on that laptop if you bypass that screen by creating the bootable flash drive with Rufus i've got windows 11 to run (more like walk) on a pc with an AMD Sempron! also, i recommend replacing the thermal paste on that thinkpad, as it'll make it run way better and a lot more quieter! (edit: actually, don't as it's still got as you pointed out) by the way, make sure the latest nvidia drivers are installed on there, as the one windows update automatically installs are often from many years ago or don't have the nvidia control panel also, quick question: which keyboard do you like more? the one on the thinkpad or the one on the mac?

[@dgillies5420]

Your battery is probably toast but you can spot weld 16550 batteries (9 of them, cost : $45) together to make a new battery and the life on my T420 9-cell with extra CD-battery was 8hrs+ in efficiency mode with low screen brightness ...

[@RoddyPerry]

You lost me when you said "...the red nipple. I don't know who uses that". I DO!!! It's amaaaazing. Cool video anyway 👍

[@cooktask]

Wish I still had my first laptop. Actually it was the first computer I ever owned. Thinkpad purchased in 1999. I forget which model. Had it lying around till 2012 when it got destroyed in Hurricane Sandy. (Basement flooded)

[@jordan.ellis.hunter]

I have a few of these old workstation thinkpads, but I don't use them for productivity. They make great Win XP gaming computers for when both a modern windows with workarounds and linux with wine fails to run something.

[@Vadkon07]

On my laptop with Linux to run VS Code I have to wait at least 20 seconds, but your laptop did it in 6 seconds. I think that he really worth his high price

[@comfdespl5347]

You can install windows 11 if you use rufus to install. Rufus gives you the option to bypass the tpm 2.0 requirement.

[@pcxtrm4469]

3:54 solution: 128gb or more flash drive with ventory

[@static369]

The typing experience must be great!

[@rbus]

LOL, been using a W520 running CachyOS (arch-based) quite a lot and it's a great laptop, super color saturated display. Nothing compared to the laptops I had like the Toshiba Qosmio who's display lid alone is probably bigger than this laptop. Also have two Dell monster laptops from the early 2000s that are in need of some repair but maybe someday I'll be able to stick an Orange Pi 5 or something else to modernize it a bit. One thing I hate about the W520 is the mouse buttons on the very front which make working on the lap a bit of an annoyance.

[@JavadTaghia]

I have the same generation but 13" 430S, still works but it has got some graphics issue, it works but trottles a lot on graphic demanding tasks. Overall workable. However, it's now serving me with Ubuntu instead of Windows. The other issue I have with it is the display port that does not work but VGA still works but with low aspect ratio. I can say I still love the laptop if my tasks were not CPU and graphic demanding.

[@masterphoenixpraha]

I have Asus EEE Box 1501 with Intel Atom inside... that was slow even during it's times, but as home PC for MS Office and web browsing it was good... memory upgrade and later HDD to SSD swap helped a bit, but still not great... Windows 10 is it's last OS, so will see what happens when the support ends... but we always loved that it is only slightly bigger than a pack of CDs 🙂

[@janoo85]

i have a similar old Dell and i just tried again a mont ago and i just surpriced it is still perfect for an average user so my mom useing now :)

[@Sonyboj]

My parents are still using my old gaming PC with AMD Phenom 2 X4 from 2010. Windows 10 runs fine and works for paying the bills online. :D

[@official.sirhaxalot]

My daily driver is a x201 with 8 gigs of ram, i5 and an ssd. Does what I need to fine. Plus I think they look badass compared to modern laptops.

[@vasudevmenon2496]

That W series. Always wanted to get one but too much pricy in India shipping with coreboot applied

[@kevinnguyen163]

My first laptop back in 2013 was the HP 8540w with i7 720QM.

[@y4lnux]

I love Lenovo's Thinkpads I'm thinking on buying a refurbished for some development :)

[@nadtz]

I loved my old T4xx that had an IPS screen which was rare at the time. It took me a long time to get used to a laptop without trackpoint after owning a few thinkpads, with trackpoint I never used the touchpad and you didn't have to move your hands from the kb to use it (I used to disable the touchscreen in the bios to prevent it activating if I hit it by accident). I still have an x220 (running Linux) but unfortunately it gave up the ghost recently, I've been thinking about picking up a cheap x1 carbon or something to replace it but the new kb's just are not as good as kb's on the older ones so who knows.

[@traustitj]

I had this machine once when I was younger. Mostly ran Linux on it. You had to disable the cpu frequenzy change. But I liked it, and I also had a very fun project so that could be it.

[@agentotten]

I have an old HP Star Wars laptop running Gentoo with Distcc connected to my desktop computer, because software compilation on that machine takes ages.