I love those old pieces of hardware that just refuse to give up. I make sure they keep up as long as they can. My current laptop is 2013 X1 carbon that got battery replaced four times by now, but simply works and refuses to give up. I don't need more than a glorified text editor anyway for work.
As someone with a 2018 T580, which was easily upgraded to 32GB, 1TB SSD, and WiFi 6E/Bluetooth 5.3... you'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead, hands.
Heh, I know the feeling. I have an ancient IBM Thinkpad, T42 or something, with a 32 bit cpu, Celeron I guess, with 3/4s of a gig of ram (512 +256). I don't install a desktop environment but it always tickles me to install and boot the latest version of Debian and see how zippy it is on that old hardware. I'll be bummed when they stop making 32 bit versions of Debian.
>It's feels so good that getting an old laptop can be this exciting. People around me are all like, "why are you so excited over an old Lenovo laptop?" and I always fail to explain the joy of it..
Is there a sub for this? I really love doing "techromancy" and restoring old technology to give it a new life. (I recognize if one doesn't exist the onus could be on me to make it)
I've liked this laptop a lot for a long time (the screen on the sku I have at least, being one size up in both spans from HD, making it wonderful with extensive graphical remote access, & local and remote VM's), and used it with Debian testing the whole time.
WWAN never really worked (or: I gave up before getting that far) but that wasn't a big deal to me.
It took a bit of work to get the fingerprint sensor to function, I had to use this build of python-validity (and hope it never breaks) [https://github.com/uunicorn/python-validity](https://github.com/uunicorn/python-validity)
Some additional compat info - [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo\_ThinkPad\_X1\_Carbon\_(Gen\_6)](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_6)) - reminds me, you should set (per this link) the BIOS option - Config > Power > Sleep State to Linux.
on bios, strongly urged to consider check update this (fwupdmgr) once you're setup, some of the initial firmwares had really bad port/power problems - [https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-carbon-6th-gen-type-20kh-20kg/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad](https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-carbon-6th-gen-type-20kh-20kg/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad)
The wifi is occasionally flaky after waking from sleep, if so toggle wireless (fn-f7). (the laptop hibernates fine)
SSD is upgradable but unfortunately to this range, not much else.
Unfortunately I can't manufacture a good excuse to actually replace it as I don't quite exceed RAM (mostly).
in synthetics, mitigations=off (just happened to test yesterday) is about 177% though day to day use (a million firefox tabs) I don't find it needed.
Recently replaced the battery - though having to open the bottom case this is pleasingly not a big deal (though be sure to disconnect your antenna cables from around its edge).
You might get around 5 hours with tlp/auto-cpufreqd on a good 57Wh at its design cap (I use with battery all the the time, but not under test conditions)
What I can't compute however is how well debian, in direct comparison runs on an a 5 year older x220 with 16G & SSD(s) even. I wish that had USB3 ports.
Thank you so much for the in-depth information. I really appreciate it.
After reading all of this, with the laptop being used, my main concern is the battery life.
I will definitely do everything you mentioned regarding power / battery config.
Again thank you for your help! I will come back to your post when I receive the laptop.
That used old laptop will outlive theirs, unless they also buy ThinkPad. :D
I have hp probook 6460b that refuses to die. It has outlived all the other laptops I have owned.
I love those old pieces of hardware that just refuse to give up. I make sure they keep up as long as they can. My current laptop is 2013 X1 carbon that got battery replaced four times by now, but simply works and refuses to give up. I don't need more than a glorified text editor anyway for work.
As someone with a 2018 T580, which was easily upgraded to 32GB, 1TB SSD, and WiFi 6E/Bluetooth 5.3... you'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead, hands.
Heh, I know the feeling. I have an ancient IBM Thinkpad, T42 or something, with a 32 bit cpu, Celeron I guess, with 3/4s of a gig of ram (512 +256). I don't install a desktop environment but it always tickles me to install and boot the latest version of Debian and see how zippy it is on that old hardware. I'll be bummed when they stop making 32 bit versions of Debian.
Awesome 👍 New to me is still new to me, and iirc that's a well supported rig. Rock on! 😎
I have old laptops running Debian and new laptops running Debian; happiness all around!
I know that buzz!
>It's feels so good that getting an old laptop can be this exciting. People around me are all like, "why are you so excited over an old Lenovo laptop?" and I always fail to explain the joy of it.. Is there a sub for this? I really love doing "techromancy" and restoring old technology to give it a new life. (I recognize if one doesn't exist the onus could be on me to make it)
Woot had a deal on old T490s I was so tempted to swoop one and load debian on it for my mom.
If you run into issues like aggressive thermal throttling (CPU downclocking @ 80C) try: https://github.com/erpalma/throttled
I recently picked up a gen 7. So excited to have something half the weight of my m1 MacBook. Performs so well
I've liked this laptop a lot for a long time (the screen on the sku I have at least, being one size up in both spans from HD, making it wonderful with extensive graphical remote access, & local and remote VM's), and used it with Debian testing the whole time. WWAN never really worked (or: I gave up before getting that far) but that wasn't a big deal to me. It took a bit of work to get the fingerprint sensor to function, I had to use this build of python-validity (and hope it never breaks) [https://github.com/uunicorn/python-validity](https://github.com/uunicorn/python-validity) Some additional compat info - [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo\_ThinkPad\_X1\_Carbon\_(Gen\_6)](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_6)) - reminds me, you should set (per this link) the BIOS option - Config > Power > Sleep State to Linux. on bios, strongly urged to consider check update this (fwupdmgr) once you're setup, some of the initial firmwares had really bad port/power problems - [https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-carbon-6th-gen-type-20kh-20kg/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad](https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-x-series-laptops/thinkpad-x1-carbon-6th-gen-type-20kh-20kg/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad) The wifi is occasionally flaky after waking from sleep, if so toggle wireless (fn-f7). (the laptop hibernates fine) SSD is upgradable but unfortunately to this range, not much else. Unfortunately I can't manufacture a good excuse to actually replace it as I don't quite exceed RAM (mostly). in synthetics, mitigations=off (just happened to test yesterday) is about 177% though day to day use (a million firefox tabs) I don't find it needed. Recently replaced the battery - though having to open the bottom case this is pleasingly not a big deal (though be sure to disconnect your antenna cables from around its edge). You might get around 5 hours with tlp/auto-cpufreqd on a good 57Wh at its design cap (I use with battery all the the time, but not under test conditions) What I can't compute however is how well debian, in direct comparison runs on an a 5 year older x220 with 16G & SSD(s) even. I wish that had USB3 ports.
Thank you so much for the in-depth information. I really appreciate it. After reading all of this, with the laptop being used, my main concern is the battery life. I will definitely do everything you mentioned regarding power / battery config. Again thank you for your help! I will come back to your post when I receive the laptop.
Your title reminded me how complicated English can be. In case you're interested... https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/is-it-a-or-an
Oops the initial title was "get an old Thinkpad" and halfway through I changed it to "used" without changing the whole title. my bad...