The Myth of the ThinkPad

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Trust and Lenovo’s Reputation

  • Some refuse to buy Lenovo at all due to Superfish, Lenovo Service Engine, and later security/backdoor incidents, saying they’ll never trust the brand again.
  • Others counter that ThinkPads remain robust and that reimaging with Linux or clean Windows mitigates bundled-software concerns.

Repairability, Durability, and Business Logic

  • Many agree with the article that repairability is driven by service-contract economics: faster, cheaper field repairs lower support costs.
  • ThinkPads are praised for captive screws, modular parts, and decent longevity; contrasted with more fragile lines (including non‑ThinkPad Lenovos and many Dells/HPs).
  • Several describe profitable Dell service models that monetized frequent failures versus Lenovo’s approach of reducing failures.

Input Devices: Trackpoint vs Trackpad

  • Strong love for TrackPoint + three physical buttons: accuracy, no hand movement from home row, great scrolling (middle‑button + nub), better in moving vehicles.
  • Others strongly prefer modern clickpads/haptic pads, especially on MacBooks, citing gestures and palm rejection.
  • Some see clickpads as cost-cutting with poor raw sensor quality hidden by acceleration.

Linux Support and “Underdog” Culture

  • ThinkPads are widely seen as the “safe” Linux choice: fewer weird chipsets, predictable behavior, good driver support.
  • Discussion broadens to “tech hipsterism” and underdog fandom (ThinkPad vs MacBook, AMD vs Nvidia, Chinese phone brands vs iPhone/Pixel), with disagreement over which side is actually “inferior.”

Old vs New ThinkPads and Used Market

  • Nostalgia for “golden era” IBM/early Lenovo models (T60/T61, T400/T500, X200) with modular designs and classic keyboards; some think later T4xx/T480+ are merely “ThinkPad‑colored” successors.
  • Others happily buy new T/X/E/X1 models and report solid build and long-lived machines.
  • Many buy used ThinkPads as “boring, dad‑option” laptops: predictable keyboards, thermals, Linux compatibility, and low hassle.

Reactions to the Article’s “Myth” Framing

  • Multiple commenters think the article knocks down a strawman: nobody serious believes Lenovo is altruistic or ThinkPads are “magical.”
  • They see the “myth” as overstated; to them, ThinkPads are simply good, design‑driven tools whose incentives happen to align with repairability and durability.