by protocolture | 2026-01-16 06:07:41+00:00
This is weird and I cant believe it was written in the year of our lord two thousand twenty six.

>Lenovo does not care about you.
>IBM did not care about you.

No shit.

>that IBM and Lenovo are the most kind, gracious corporations in the universe

I have never encountered this line of thought in the thinkpad enthusiast space. People like the design, not the company.

>when most of the laptops they worship were made less than ten years ago

The gold high standard in the Thinkpad enthusiast community was still the T60 last I checked. Released like 2006. I have a T61p at home for my own amusement. And you can still get bootleg parts like batteries.

>Simply put, because they have not thought for one second about a Thinkpad in any other context than their home, let alone about the general functioning of computers in a business setting…

No of course not. Because they like the design. If I could get myself a Cray 1 I would. I dont care about the business context.

>old laptops are disposed of, and treated basically as garbage.

No, what happens is that the finance/leasing company contracts someone to assess the current state of the hardware. Anything that's missing or severely damaged is billable to the lessor. Then what was turned over to the recyclers is sold on with a cut going back to the finance firm.

Some basic research here would have actually strengthened your core premise, because they get a small tasty bite of the secondary market.

>Thinkpads are Repairable because every minute of a field technician’s labor costs money for IBM/Lenovo, and cuts into the profit made on a service contract

Yes exactly. But this isnt the only business model available. Some businesses make laptops that are less repairable, or dont last as long. Nobody thinks the company wants to marry them. But in a marketplace you choose the product that closely aligns with your parameters. It doesnt matter why the company used those parameters.

>Notice, that nowhere in this explanation did I say “used to”, “once were” or “back then”. Because this cycle is continuous.

Oh no, you are telling me that they are continuing to make repairable laptops? Thats terrible. How will the thinkpad community ever recover.

>These are not magical virtues of a bygone age. These things aren’t even really “virtuous” at least in terms of motivation. Lenovo doesn’t care about “Right to Repair” any more than Apple, they just sell to a different market, and make their money in a different way.

I honestly see people clamoring for computers from specifically before Intel Management Engine\TPM\Secure Boot more than a vague mysterious bygone age.

>They’re typical companies, who just happen to have some good designers and engineers.

No shit. But this is true about every piece of hardware that has a fandom. Its no different in a Porsche group. Or people going on about old Cisco switches. Theres nothing new here. I dont think that JVC wanted to make beautiful love to me because I enjoy the design of the Videosphere.

>But Thinkpads didn’t materialize out of the virtuous ether

And no one claims they did.

>But don’t treat these things like they’re magic

No one does.