david_adams•14d agoProlific Poster

My old ThinkPad still runs circles around my new laptop

I had to choose between using my old ThinkPad T420 from 2011 or a brand new Dell XPS for my freelance writing work. I stuck with the ThinkPad because the keyboard is just that much better for long typing sessions. The new Dell sits in my closet collecting dust while I crank out articles on this clunker running Linux. Has anyone else gone back to an older machine and found it actually works better for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseywest14d ago

Oh man I gotta hard disagree on this one lol. That old T420 with its 1366x768 screen and chunky bezels feels like a dinosaur compared to any modern laptop. I bet the new Dell boots in 10 seconds while you're waiting 2 minutes for Linux to load on that thing.

patricia_rodriguez14d ago

Honestly, lol, you're acting like boot times are the only thing that matters. I had a T420 once and it took like 3 minutes to even show the BIOS screen, but you know what, it still ran circles around my friend's brand new Dell when we were trying to run three different VMs at once. That clunky old thing was built like a tank, too, while that shiny new plastic Dell started feeling like a toy after six months. And don't even get me started on the keyboard, that old ThinkPad's keyboard was so much better than any modern chiclet garbage. So yeah, maybe you're done booting in 10 seconds, but you're also done doing any real work after that.