IBM's hardware was built to a very high standard - computer enthusiasts still speak highly of the steel-backed Model M keyboard - and the company retained a substantial share of the market right up until it decided to exit the business in 2002, but it never found a way to transform that market share into profit. IBM owned some of the PC's fundamental operating routines, but the competition quickly found a way to emulate them without infringing on IBM's patents.Īs a consequence cheap, IBM-compatible machines made by other companies quickly became more popular than IBM's own computers. This left Microsoft free to sell their operating system to other manufacturers - who were in turn free to assemble their own PC-compatible machines. Their original PC, the Model 5150 of 1981, had been built with off-the-shelf components that IBM did not control, and DOS was licensed from Microsoft rather than bought outright. The combination of IBM's PC Microsoft's DOS operating system dominated the PC industry for years, but IBM made two key errors. IBM began the 1980s by inventing the modern PC, and the story of how IBM built a future it could not keep is familiar to one and all. First, the laptops.īefore the ThinkPad: I Want to See the Sun Blotted out From the Sky The very first ThinkPad was actually a tablet computer, and although IBM quickly gave up on the idea of tablet computing the form factor was resurrected by Lenovo, initially to no effect and then later to some effect, but still not much. The range divides into three loosely-defined eras, and to complicate things there are two different types of ThinkPad. That situation could not, and did not last in the PC laptop market, although Apple has shown that it is still possible to sell posh, expensive laptops. In IBM's time they were expensive but sold well, because the laptop market was small and prepared to pay top dollar. The ThinkPad range dates back to the early 1990s. And that if IBM still made them, they would be no more robust. Legend has it that the IBM models were better-made than the Lenovo models, and having since bought a 1999 ThinkPad 600X I can attest to this, but I am of the opinion that modern ThinkPads are more a consequence of the times than Lenovo. Old ThinkPad batteries and accessories are still widely available, although nowadays they're generic components that no longer have the Lenovo name on them. This was a fairly simple matter of opening up the case and propping up the motherboard. Indeed, a year or so after writing this post I did just that in order to blow dust out of the fan and reapply thermal paste to the CPU and graphics chip. My X60's hard drive easily swaps out via a port in the side, and the entire machine can be stripped to the chassis with the aid of a screwdriver and a service guide that Lenovo publishes online (pdf). Six years later they're still useful as general-purpose machines, albeit that they're useless for 3D games on account of the ropey Intel 965 graphics card. The X60 was very popular and there are lots of them on the used market. I was inspired to write this article after buying a used ThinkPad X60, a Core Duo machine from 2006. They are like World War Two fighter planes, tough and easy to strip down. Not just their physical strength, but the ease with which they can be repaired. ![]() Some laptops are built more solidly than others, and ThinkPads have always been notable for their robustness. Stripped of their hard drives and anything that might be worth something. eBay has a lot of rubbishy tat with missing keys, cracked screens, broken hinges, failing fans, port covers missing. I say good working order and hairs etc inside the case. ![]() During the early 2000s telephone modems gave way to wi-fi, infra-red IRDA ports were replaced with Bluetooth, 6gb hard drives were replaced with 250gb models, a single USB 1 port became three USB 2 sockets, and mobile Pentium IIIs gave way to fast, efficient Core Duo chips, which have aged very gracefully. Assuming it's in working order and doesn't have hairs etc inside the case. But the pace of laptop technology advanced in a series a great leaps and bounds during the 2000s until it reached a level of general competence, and nowadays almost any second-hand laptop from the last six years or so is at the very least decent for surfing the internet and writing stuff. ![]() There was a time when second-hand laptops were invariably naff, broken lumps of obsolete plastic that nobody wanted.
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