Anything beyond the 32-bit version of the T60 is bourgeois decadence!
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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I used a 64-bit version ๐
time to hand in my gommunism card
The T60 is great for being 4:3 and you can libreboot it without specialized hardware, just software!
The 32-bit architecture is just the funky little cherry on top.
Only problem is the wifi. Some of them come with an Intel that needs iwlwifi.
libreboot has no wifi whitelist, so you can easily get yourself an ath9k compatible card for pennies and have it working. And since flashing it is so easy on the T60 and X60, it's stupid not to have it.
The best resource for finding compatible models I've found is OpenBSD's athn(4) manpage as compared to Linux wireless wiki entry for ath9k. It has a column for what kind of interface a chipset uses, making it quicker to filter out what you don't want.
Hell and if you don't care for libreboot or an internal wifi card you can always get yourself a USB one, you can check out h-node.org or this github guide: https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi
Just get one with dedicated graphics. I love the P series workstations. You can get a tank for a few hundred bucks that will do everything you'd ever want forever. As long as you don't want to do gaming.
I heard that in the newer ones the quality went down, especially the keyboard. Though Lenovo said they aim for their whole lineup to be repairable by 2025, which is a plus. The old ones are repairable and easily upgradeable
Newer ThinkPads are not really comparable to classic ones in terms of durability, serviceability and the price to what you get ratio.
Case in point, look up T480 hinges.
I'm a weirdo so I'm doing pretty fine with Core 2 Duo ThinkPads, but I now mainly use an L421 and it suits me pretty well and the speed increase that an i5 gives really was noticable xdd
So I'd suggest you sticking to classic Thinkpads. Even an X61 is doing pretty well for me, the only problem being that my fan is a goddamn jet engine.
I found the new ones to be overpriced for the hardware.
Got given a ThinkPad P15v (upgraded to 64GB RAM) as my work development machine. It's heavy, it runs absurdly hot, and it chews up the battery - an hour with IntellliJ open is very optimistic. Got a ThinkBook 14-IIL (16GB) as my own personal machine - hugely prefer it even for development work, much easier to carry about, battery lasts for hours, doesn't seem any slower in practice.
They both seem pretty robust and they both run Linux perfectly, but unless you absolutely need need need a discrete graphics card or loads of ram I couldn't recommend the Pad, and they are damn expensive for what they are. Book on the other hand - great machine. Crap for games, but excellent in every other regard.
It always depends on what you're going to use it for.