Sometimes, old machines are survivors. Beware of confirmation bias when trash/thrift-picking cheap systems though. IMO, Thinkpads can be tough as a coffin nail. Including work systems, I’m on number 8 at this point with no hardware failures in sight.
That said, I have a very lightweight Acer that’s about a decade old with the worst keyboard and trackpad ever manufactured. It also performs like a slug, even with Linux on it. Still, it refuses to break so I can get rid of it.
Elitebooks also hold up, I Frankenstein’d one together from old broken work laptops 10+ years ago for my brother, I had to replace the wifi chip and HDD that finally died in it the other week and threw Mint onto it with an SSD and that thing still handles like a dream. Boots in less than 10 seconds.
Oooh, rocking an HP? I too like to live dangerously.
But seriously, that’s good to know. Those are probably easier to come by out in the wild. It really looks like Thinkpads go from office deployments straight to refurb companies these days. I never see them at thrift stores, and I’m not brave enough to dumpster-dive at e-waste.
Sometimes, old machines are survivors. Beware of confirmation bias when trash/thrift-picking cheap systems though. IMO, Thinkpads can be tough as a coffin nail. Including work systems, I’m on number 8 at this point with no hardware failures in sight.
That said, I have a very lightweight Acer that’s about a decade old with the worst keyboard and trackpad ever manufactured. It also performs like a slug, even with Linux on it. Still, it refuses to break so I can get rid of it.
Elitebooks also hold up, I Frankenstein’d one together from old broken work laptops 10+ years ago for my brother, I had to replace the wifi chip and HDD that finally died in it the other week and threw Mint onto it with an SSD and that thing still handles like a dream. Boots in less than 10 seconds.
Oooh, rocking an HP? I too like to live dangerously.
But seriously, that’s good to know. Those are probably easier to come by out in the wild. It really looks like Thinkpads go from office deployments straight to refurb companies these days. I never see them at thrift stores, and I’m not brave enough to dumpster-dive at e-waste.