Thinkpad Alternatives

A lot of us use Thinkpads but they won't last forever and the new ones are terrible. What are some other laptops that fit lains needs? Are there any newer laptops that are easy to repair, durable, are cheap (you can get them for less than $500), support Coreboot/Libreboot, and either don't support Intel ME/AMD PSP or it can be disabled or neutralized. Purism and System76 laptops look okay but they are too expensive. They may be good for rich people but not for everyone else.

>>59187 I was having the same dilema a while back as well. you can check out the framework laptops, you can buy new parts there for fairly cheap if you break something specific, and I'm sure you can install coreboot/ libreboot on them. https://frame.work You can also check out the pre-installed libreboot thinkpads at https://minifree.org/

you can also just buy several of the same laptop, and keep them around for parts and replacements. How many years does it take you to go through one ? probably not so long that you can't relatively cheaply get set for life.

There are tons of cheap T430s around and they can be corebooted. Same goes for earlier models. Though I must admit I bought a spare keyboard for my T420s when the originals were still around (instead of china refurbs/mockoffs). I also have a mint X200 I never use waiting for the inevitable day....

I got an old surface go. Installed linux on it and connected it to a monitor and keyboard.

Maybe look into toughbooks and pinebooks. If CSME is a problem use ME-Cleaner

>>59212 Got Pinebook Pro, but it didn't last for long. Started to get false presses on tab key after 6 months of occasional use, shipping costs for replacement keyboard was pretty expensive so I got unoriginal one from some chinese parts eshop. Changing keyboard was big pain in the ass. After I tried to install official Debian, emmc memory got corrupted somehow and couldn't boot from it anymore, so I just throwed that junk away.

>the new ones are terrible Why? If I had to get a new laptop, I'd go for a T14. It's under a 1000, has an ethernet port among others, and is more easily upgraded than a lot of other brands.

had the same concern as you op, looked into all the options: >framework laptop currently has issues with open firmware, afaik you cant coreboot/libreboot, and uses some prop taiwan bios. framework looks promising, but it needs more time, the firmware and ecosystem still needs to be developed. >Purism im one of the few that has one of these machines. disables IME and uses coreboot/seabios. also has physical kill switches for audio/video and wifi/bluetooth. the feel is not great, keyboard is meh, creeky plastic shell, if youre used to thinkpad build quality and feel youll probably be disappointed. also very expensive, feels somewhat like a beta product, no GPUs, and takes a while to ship. but it is modular and you can replace/upgrade some of the parts, they have teardown videos uploaded. despite all these problems i dont regret the purchase, its hard to find a machine like this and i hope for a future where purism can make higher quality products at a cheaper price and continue developing open firmware but its probably a pipe dream >System76 used to disable IME, doesnt anymore because of some battery issue last i checked. over time they have started to impress me less and less, they seem to be moving more towards linux gamer machines. without IME disabled, there are too many decent substitutes >Pinebook a bit too low end. youre better off with an older thinkpad. >>59191 >>59204 its getting increasingly difficult to use older hardware. corps are deprecating older hardware through evil software mechanism (see W11 and TPM 2.0 requirements). google forces the web to "evolve" at a rapid pace, a new framework could have a dependency on a new chrome feature that may use a lib that wont work on older hardware for some bullshit reason (like a DRM soykaf or something). you think cloudflare is bad? imagine hardware keys needed to access a website or youre blocked otherwise. >>59223 >more easily upgraded than a lot of other brands. still about half of it is soldered, is like kicking dead whales down the beach that this is the world we live in now

>>59229 >(see W11 and TPM 2.0 requirements) no idea what either of these are. W11 seems too generic, TPM2.0 looks like windows. About 4% of lainchanners use windows on their personal machines, just behind Openbsd. Therefore this is mostly irrelevant. That being said, yes it seems like there's a continual expectation that computers have more ram, fancier cores, yadda yadda. I'm not sure what OP's use case it but it does sound mostly like he just wants to keep using his X40 for ever.

Nobody has mentioned Starlabs yet. Any opinion on them?

>>59229 >>59230 >see W11 and TPM 2.0 requirements). "Who should your computer take its orders from? Most people think their computers should obey them, not obey someone else. With a plan they call “trusted computing,” large media corporations (including the movie companies and record companies), together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you. " https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html

>>59187 the new (last ~5 years) Dell Latitude laptops are very cheap, sometimes ~$150 for an 8th gen i5 without a charger. These do not support coreboot yet but there has been support for older latitudes so maybe a matter of time? Either way once my t430 can't keep up I might switch to a latitude. Newer thinkpads are trash.

>>59242 In what way is a new Dell Latitude better than a new T series Thinkpad?

>>59243 >In what way is a new Dell Latitude better than a new T series Thinkpad? I do not know if they are better but used latitudes are at least cheaper than used thinkpads for the same specs. If newer thinkpads were built like the pre t430 ones then at least you're getting a much more substantial machine, but if you're not then why pay the premium? Also not using a laptop by a chinese brand (which you may or not care about) is a plus for some, even if Dell's parts and manufacturing may be involved in china.

I have a doomsday stockpile of dekiked T60s. Newer thinkpads are atrocious. I have a hackintosh carbon x1. If every computer is going to be trash then just get whatever is cheapest. My next big move is Huaweis because they replicate Macbooks. YMMV

>>59244 >why pay the premium? Sure. If someone isn't buying used, it's not really a consideration. For a device you use for 5+ years, 700-1000$ seems like a reasonable investment. OP did say under $500, so you have a good point.

It depends what you want the system for. If you want to know what the future of a libre system is, that development is going towards very niche and hard to develop ARM, PPC and RISC-V boards. If you want something of decent build quality, you're still stuck with Latitudes and Chinkpads for a lappy. >newer that are easy to repair Getacs and some toughbooks I think. At least they're upgradeable. Issue is with many of these things, that competition to save on margins has moved former fru things to being non-fru, and I can't think of anything outside of an office workstation computer that isn't a soykafshow of plastic latches and glue to open up.

This might be the place to ask. Does anything fit this criteria? >at least ddr3 with 2 ram slots I really want to use 8gb ram, anything less than 6gb is unusable since 2012 >has sata or m.2 Kinda hate how they're pushing this embedded storage + cloud(tm) >is at least 10-12" lcd I don't want large screen, and preferrably for portability and powersaving purposes If I wanted something without SMM/ME I'd probably just look for a VIA netbook but other than that I kinda wish there was something like this but they just keep on making useless notebooks with proprietary battery and uninstallable with linux (chrome native)

>>59187 Toughbook CF-19 user reporting in. Replacement parts can be fairly expensive[1], but pretty much everything is replaceable (you can even buy a new main board if you're into that sort of thing), and the parts are all (well, mostly) very high quality. I chipped a couple keys (newer chiclet model) though, so I'm thinking of replacing it with either the rubber model (less comfortable, more durable, backlit), or the older chiclet model (more comfortable, less durable). Unfortunately I don't think it can be (core|libre)booted, but that may be more due to a lack of interest than technological infeasibility. Perhaps the most surprisingly useful feature is that taking out the hard drive is very convenient. I got a couple of extra hard drive caddies so that I can hot swap hard drives quickly. They're relatively cheap on ebay. I got mine refurbished (grade A) for ~$200. I get around 8 hours battery life on GNOME. I've heard that some of the other Toughbooks are good too, but I needed a touch screen, which is why I went with the CF-19 (worst touch screen I've ever used, but it works for what I need). I could go into all the things I hate about it, but regardless of its flaws it's the best laptop I've ever had (it also looks really cool), and most likely I'll be using it for years to come. 1 - https://www.bobjohnson.com/toughbook-cf-19-parts/

>>59285 Thinkpad X220 fits all that and can be had for under $100