> Sounds like IBM's strategy is going all in on buzzwords.
It has been for some time, which is sad because their flagship hardware still stands the test of time--I'm writing this on an old 10+ year old thinkpad.
When I worked there it was just that, buzzword laden marketing to entice their legacy customers try a tech which they could onboard on to their cloud product(s). It was disheartening as their Food Safety program had so much early-stage penetration from Multi-nationals that it could have done amazing things.
Sadly, it was entirely predictable but the thinkpad fan boy in me thought it could have prevailed.
Your thinkpad probably isn't even an IBM product. Lenovo bought them in 2005 and they've done a much better job than IBM would have--IBM sold the division in the first place because they had no vision for it at all. They've been riding inertia since the 80s.
I know my models; I was staring at the massive IBM logo when I wrote that.
I swap between models throughout the day, and at the time I was on my X31, which was the last X series to be made by IBM and has the best keyboard of them all. I'm currently on an X61, and will move over to my 3rd gen X1 Carbon in a bit to get to work.
As I said, I'm a fan boy; I have another 20-something X series' stored away for parts and as backups, many of them X61s I thought I would update to X62/63s and resell, but never got around to it and now it may be too late.
I'm not saying Lenovo hasn't done an amazing job, I keep buying these things over anything else. But if I'm honest, those new Pinebooks are looking like my new daily drivers, I always wanted Open Hardware to be a thing, so I think I might join in.
Quite a collection! Did you get them from a corporate selloff or something? You might already know this, but Lenovo had the rights to use the IBM logo on their ThinkPads for several years after the purchase, so there are a few models that have the big IBM lettering but are really Lenovo machines.
I'm also intrigued by Pinebooks and their open philosophy, but my tolerance for slow computers is low. I haven't used one yet, but System76 laptops seem like a good compromise between open hardware and modern performance.
I bought most before, I made a standalone POS/encrypted communications device using upcycled X series thinkpads for my fintech startup. I bought the newer stuff when I got there using my employee discount, which wasn't as much as I would have liked, but was what made me buy new instead of used.
As you can see, YC has a lot of other Thinkpad nerds, you also see them a lot at CCC conferences as well, they're like the AK47 of hardware:
I can forgive less than optimal performance for ergonomics for specific tasks, long writing sessions on Libre Office doesn't require much performance so I like writing on that old machine because my fingers can type so effortlessly and require less spelling corrections--this is the model I used during my undergrad. I'm willing to give the Pine a shot and I'm keeping an eye on the new pre-order.
I have machines with specific OS' and hardware to keep me on task.
It has been for some time, which is sad because their flagship hardware still stands the test of time--I'm writing this on an old 10+ year old thinkpad.
When I worked there it was just that, buzzword laden marketing to entice their legacy customers try a tech which they could onboard on to their cloud product(s). It was disheartening as their Food Safety program had so much early-stage penetration from Multi-nationals that it could have done amazing things.
Sadly, it was entirely predictable but the thinkpad fan boy in me thought it could have prevailed.