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The ThinkPad At 25 (fastcodesign.com)
harrymcc writes: On October 5 1992, IBM released a laptop called the ThinkPad 700C. It sported an unusually good color screen, a pointing device called the TrackPoint II, and a distinctive black case. It was an immediate hit. And remarkably, many of the things that made that ThinkPad a ThinkPad remain true of today's models. I talked to some of the people responsible for the line -- which IBM sold to Lenovo in 2005 -- about why it's one of the few consistent brands of technology's last quarter century.
I am a Thinkpad junkie. My personal laptop is a Thinkpad, and I use the trackpoint exclusively. I have the trackpad turned off. Annoys anyone else who tries to use it.
I see the big "IBM" logo on the story, but (at TFA notes) this has been Lenovo's baby for about half of those 25 years.
Neat laptop? Meh. I still have one and it still works. (It's a durable prop for small-audience "retro computing" talks.)
Did it keep up with the times? Well, like most of IBM, that's a big fat "no". And does anyone care? Prolly not.
Early thinkpads were durable, yes, but their drivers for the audio (MWave) were terrible!
The ThinkPad is still my favorite laptop brand, even with the changes Lenovo has done to it in the past. I liked them even when they were ridiculously expensive IBM machines and I couldn't get employers to buy them for me. Yes, it's boxy and boring compared to a MacBook Pro or other consumer laptops, but having that extra build quality helps when you're travelling. Lenovo did cheapen it a little bit in the name of margin, but it's not nearly as flimsy as other laptops in its class. When they were IBM laptops, you really got what you paid for in terms of rugged design (along with all the extra weight that entailed.)
The eternal problem with a classic design is knowing when to modernize it, what people like about it and what should/shouldn't change. A few years ago, they moved to a more industry-standard keyboard layout and people lost their minds. Getting rid of the older IBM keyboard turned a lot of people off, but I adjusted. What I hated was when they got rid of the physical trackpoint buttons in favor of this huge clickable trackpad button. That took only one generation for Lenovo to say "oops" and put them back...you had people swearing they would never give Lenovo another cent if they didn't address it.
Product designers should take note of the ThinkPad. Instead of trying to cater to hipsters at the expense of everyone else, there should at least be some consultation when deciding what features to add or drop. Some people don't care that their machine weighs and extra pound if it means that someone sitting on it won't totally destroy it. Lenovo makes a lot of money off ThinkPad customers compared to their incredibly low margin consumer models, so I'm sure that's the only reason they keep the classic design...but I know I'll be buying them until they're no longer useful for me.
I am still looking forward to taking possession of my fathers old IBM Thinkpad. He passed away early this year and his Thinkpad is still on his desk, I suspect. I am four states away so I will need to wait until Christmas to get it. It's one of the Pentium 1 generation, which I don't know if that makes it first generation or not. He bought it with the IBM Employees Discount, though. I have had the fear for some months now that my mother will listen to some 'security moron' and have the hard drive on it wiped before I can take possession of it. Dad did use it for all his financial records, as he prefered Lotus. He was old IBM, when he first started working at Big Blue he programmed the IBM 650. He's never needed more than that Thinkpad for home computing; my mom is the one who always gets the new machine.
but these puppies are my go to wintel machines. You can pound nails with them, they keep up with features, and hit a sweet spot.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Even the old ones are still pretty great.
That was my first computer.
I got it used shortly after the original Pentium came out. I loved it. Real mechanical keyboard with slightly smaller than normal keys, it was actually EASIER to type on than a normal keyboard. First IBM compatible PC with 3.5" floppies if I'm not mistaken. The half-height LCD screen made Battle Chess hilarious to play with all the little short-fat chess pieces. Using the function key was exceedingly easy and made far more sense than it does on a modern Think Pad, not to mention it wasn't where the Control Key is today, or in the way at all.
Mine is now literally in a museum in Tempe if I'm not mistaken. I sort of miss it, I would like to have it back. If I had it back I would use it for writing, real writing, I've started novels before - had everything stolen, long story. Put MS Works 1.05 for DOS on this thing and you can't ask for a much better word processor without the distraction of a modern PC.
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How in the heck do you accidentally delete command.com? I was a heavy DOS user in the 90s and am boggling at that.
Funny, I'm thinking of buying a new Thinkpad to get a webcam and so I don't have a DVD drive.
I have bought several for myself and family. The one feature that keeps me a customer is that the things are repairable! Unlike any other laptop I have owned, these things can be taken apart and serviced with minimal issues. And the service documentation is superb. I have replaced power connectors, hinges, cooling fans and keyboards in addition to the usual memory and hard drive changes. Glad Lenovo hasn't changed that!
You could try
del c:\command.com /F
or
del c:\command.com /A:HS
Add /S for more fun, though having 2 command.com files is indeed a old trick for those who got derfed regularly - finding the right command.com can be more trouble than worth, and hiding one is a nuisance.
There are more devious ways to munge the command executable...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I'm posting this from a four year old W530. My previous T61 lasted seven years. I had a few problems with the T61, most importantly a melted NVIDIA coprocessor, which Lenovo fixed quickly and for free. I used to use Dell Latitudes, but Thinkpads have a far better build. They're not sexy, just rock solid. I don't know how long my current machine will last, but I have a strong suspicion that the next one will be another Thinkpad. FWIW.
My brand new thinkpad does not have a glossy screen....
Yes they are widescreen... just like everybody else...
The keyboard is still decent. It feels as nice despite being a chiclet. The shallower keys leave my screen looking nicer when opened, and if you *did* care about the sort of thing, keyboard backlight is nicer than thinklight was, but I never use that either way.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I don't remember the Thinkpad model, something from the late 90's. Had a power cord where the cord to the wall was just a few inches long, and had a long cord from the block to the laptop. The long cord was designed to wrap around the block, then the plug snapped on to hold it in place. There was even grooves in the block to keep the cord neat. Made a very tidy package you could then slip into your bag. I wish they keep making those.
I have two T40s. They're that old they have non-PAE processors, I had to use live-build to make a respin of Kali for them when XP support ended. One doesn't boot at all and the other has an intermittent backlight. They're scheduled for surgery next week.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I'm not a fan of my Thinkpad T430. It has a noisy fan (not a manufacturing defect, but a common issue — have to use TPFanControl) and is not particularly fast. Heavy too, but that's totally expectable. It has a nice screen and is very serviceable though.
I've had a few laptops with trackpoints, and I kept bumping into them while typing. This would inevitably select the last few lines I'd written, then the next keystroke would overwrite the selection.
After the first few such errors, every laptop I had had its trackpoint disabled within 5 minutes of the first boot. Placing a joystick in the middle of the keyboard has to be one of the dumbest decisions ever made.
Even BETTER would be a Thinkpad with 12.9" 4:3 2732x2048 display (like Apple's largest iPad Pro).
Or maybe a 17-18" high-ppi widescreen that can be configured to pretend it's a side-by-side 3:4 portrait & 4:3 landscape display (aspect ratios approximate). Why "pretend"? Because Windows puts two smaller monitors to better, more-efficient use than a single widescreen having identical total resolution.
Well, Mac laptops usually have a 16:10 ratio not the letterbox 16:9 seen on most PC laptops. Google's Pixelbook is 3:2, as is Microsoft's Surface Book. So it is possible (at the high end of the market) to have a screen shape designed for work rather than watching videos. You'd think Lenovo would come up with something similar to preserve the price premium Thinkpads have usually had over other laptop brands.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I always liked the red "racing stripes" on the mouse buttons on my first two Thinkpads. Unfortunately IBM/Lenovo left them off my X60S (which is what I am using right now). If they've been restored, however, I will probably consider a Thinkpad again in the future after this machine gets too old.
I really liked the design of the IBM thinkpads, they really paid attention to details which agreed with me. Admittedly, I'm not a typical laptop user, and that's why current thinkpads are dead to me. They have pretty much dropped all the unique features that made the devices more convenient for engineers and programmers.
The main thing now is, why pay a premium for a device which is marginally different to the entry level stuff in terms of function, or at least, imperceptibly different from the mid range?
I participated in the retro thinkpad surveys (looks like that has gone nowhere), because I'd really like to see some of the old features come back, namely a 7 row keyboard, by far the best compromise of a compact keyboard, yet still having the function of a full desktop one. A lot of other classic features, people also generally wanted to see come back, like the keyboard light (really useful when you have documents to look at in the dark, can't be done with backlit keys), lid latches and abandoning the awful 16:9 aspect ratio and go to something taller like 16:10 or 3:2.
I recall a memo from lenovo, regarding their concern about losing a lot of business sales to macbooks. Well my sentiment is when you start dropping features to make your product more like a macbook, as a customer why should I go for some wannabe, might as well just go for the real thing. Similarly, if they're going to make the product rather indistinguishable in function from entry level to mid range devices, why bother spending premium dollars?
My first thinkpad was the last generation with IBM branding. Then I read on slashdot that Lenovo had been producing them long before the sale, and thus my longtime streak of Lenovo laptops. I've never had a hardware failure on any of them (original IBM or Lenovo). Software is another story *cough* superfish *cough*
Glossy screens!
What? Our entire company uses Thinkpads, ranging from T420s to T470s and the equivalent X-series. Not a single one of them has a glossy screen.
Widescreen!
Yes, like literally every single other laptop on the market. I'll let you in on a secret: Unless you select the absolute bargain basement 1366x768 shit screen option that literally only exists to hit a marketing price point, the available screens have the same vertical resolution as your beloved 4:3 screens, PLUS additional horizontal space.
Not even a decent keyboard any longer!
The chiclet keyboard is great.
Eat the rich.
Ratio doesn't matter. Vertical resolution matters. As long as you get the same or better vertical resolution, having extra horizontal space is quite nice.
Eat the rich.
Well the X1 tablet is 3:2, but despite being very good for a tablet keyboard, it's still not as care free as a real hard attached keyboard in terms of opening it up on your lap.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
My first Thinkpad was a 750Cs. I've owned a bunch along the way, upgrading every three years or so. My most recent Thinkpad is a T500. All of them still run. The T500 has an annoyingly loose charging cable socket and for which I returned it twice and which went bad again shortly after return. That was my first inkling that quality and support had slipped. My most recent Lenovo is a Y50 which I'm using to type this. The screen was crap (and which I replaced with an IPS panel.) The case is cracked near the hinges. The touchpad is horrible under Linux and surprisingly, even worse under Windows. (Maybe I need to install Lenovo drivers, but after the Superfish debacle I'm reluctant to install anything from the Lenovo site.) I have a small portable speaker plugged into the audio jack because something has gone bad with built in audio. It continues to go down hill. As almost an aside, I had to replace my wife's Lenovo laptop because the plastic around the hinges busted to the point where it is nearly impossible to open/close the lid w/out the case springing open.
I hope people buying Thinkpads today are getting better build quality and service from them. Based on my other Lenovo experiences I won't buy another.
Ten years ago I had a laptop with a 1600x1200 screen. (And IBM had a 2048x1536 Thinkpad). It's hard to get that amount of vertical space now. I guess in the count of pixels it's beaten by a 'retina' or 4k display, but that's still not quite as useful as a taller screen.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
There are certainly laptops available with higher resolution displays, but you have to pay for them.
All of the T470 models can be had with a 2560x1440 display, and the P51 can be had with a 4K (3840x2160) display.
Eat the rich.
You're quite right -- what I mean is that a squarer shape would be more useful than a letterbox one. In terms of raw pixels, the top-end displays today beat those of a decade ago (though it has taken a long time). In a device that you can rotate to portrait or landscape, it's kinda useful to make it wider, since then you are also making it taller if used in portrait mode. But a laptop screen can't be rotated, it has to be one shape all the time, so for a "work" device taller is better. Still I have to admit that the market has tended not to agree with those who want a squarer shape, whether in desktop monitors, laptops, tablets, or phones. Blackberry's Passport (with its square screen at 1440x1440, I believe) was a flop. Though that might be for reasons other than the screen...
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com