this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A Thinkpad running windows is just disgraceful. Good hardware deserves good software

[–] [email protected] 5 points 21 hours ago

Exactly. Mine shipped w/ Windows, but it never ran Windows (at least I never did). Installed Linux day 1.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 20 hours ago

I wouldn't even call the left side a "tech" enthusiast. More like a fad or clout enthusiast...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

I ran over mine with my car (by accident, of course) and it survived, I'm still using it even though I had to take some acrews out to relieve the pressure from the fan because it was hitting the case and sometimes I have to fold it a bit to the other side so it doesn't make noises.

So I guess I'm the second one

[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 day ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

I would argue this is the just the second kind

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

I took a dremel to my $20 case to install a front fan to cool my NAS drives. Taped that sucker right to the front bit of the face, and ran it that way for years.

It's not quite as hardcore as this, so I'm not sure if I qualify for the second or third type.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

biblically accurate computer

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I am the second one.

Battle scars are customizations.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

My Thinkpad has survived drops from the countertop, kids standing on it, and the USB-C charge port is wearing out from years of kids fighting over it. It's still running fine, though there's certainly some surface damage.

It's going on 8 years now and still running fine. Sucker refuses to die, and I refuse to replace it until it does.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Tech is a tool to me and tools shouldn't be pristine and unused.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any time I get a new toy, I do try to keep it a shiny as possible for as long as I can, but yeah eventually the battle scars come through and then it's a different story.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same, but “as long as I can” generally means a few hours.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tools should be used for sure.

Still never a reason to carelessly step on cables, toss/shove the computer instead of set it down, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hey treat your stuff however you want. But generally tools are meant to wear out from their intended use. Ususlly, the better you treat your tools the more use you get out of them.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

That’s stupid, all my tools are in great condition. Just because it’s useful doesn’t mean it needs to be dirty and damaged and shitty.

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[–] Omega_Jimes 52 points 1 day ago (4 children)

So I started going to University recently, and the amount of people I've had actively chastise me for how I treat my laptop has been shocking.

This is a tool to get things done, it's not some precious gem, I bought a cheap laptop with the expectation that it's going to get gross and crusty and I'll have to hose it down once a year, I'm going to wing it around and drop it and clean the screen with my sleeve.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago

Treating a telescope like a jackhammer isn't going to work well.

They just haven't figured out your jackhammer just looks a lot like their telescope.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Craftspeople treat their tools with respect and consideration.

[–] Omega_Jimes 1 points 21 hours ago

My tap and die set sit on a shelf, my lathe is in the shop. I've dropped my hammer from 150 feet because the tether broke and the most upsetting part was climbing the ladder down and back up.

It depends on whether you view it as a lathe or a hammer. My nice computer is at home, my computer that I sit in the park under a tree and code on, then set it on the grass while it compiles is in my bag.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It may be news to you but generally people cannot tell apart semen from just crusty dirt.

It’s probably why your laptop has been such a hit around the campus.

I don’t think even the bioengineers are brave enough to take a sample

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Yeah man, have some self respect and wipe it down regularly.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

There's a reason my CS department had to ban food from the computer lab.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago

The scratches on my thinkpad aren't flaws. They're battle scars!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it better be getting ready to be linuxed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No I was planning on using it with Nvidia drivers and secure boot.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

Oh I know, and as of 2025 fedora even has it built in from what I read. We are truly living in the future.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

Only a little bit. Genuinely go grab a laptop and try to get everything up and running with Nvidia drivers, secure boot, full disk encryption, and tpm unlock (server application, no typing password allowed).

It's not particularly easy. (Except, somewhat ironically, with arch).

My experience was following the fedora instructions immediately broke the boot, following the opensuse instructions worked up until I had an unexpected power loss and then it wouldn't boot anymore (truly bizarre as the thing that lost power was the external zfs drives not the os drive). Only arch had a fully sane and functional set of instructions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago

I've done it with Suse more than once, but not with ZFS. Using ZFS with Linux still tends to be a crapshoot. I've given up on nvidia; if they want to be money grubbing assholes they can get other people money, but not mine.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My old MacBook was first too shiny and new to put stickers on, then it lived so long that I didn't want to waste stickers on a machine that I'd need to retire. It made it ten years before having weird bootloop issues.

To try to counteract my own neuroses I went sticker mad on its replacement immediately. It also helps with easily telling which way is up at a glance (I don't know how many times I had to rotate the old one when I went to open it).

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (6 children)

You know, aside from the i9 MacBook pros, these are really resilient machines that will last quite a while. They don’t deserve the hate they get. They easily outlast gamer laptops that bake themselves to death.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

I've actually ran a server for a few weeks with a heatsink just sitting on the CPU with a dab of thermal paste.

I was waiting for mounting hardware. Thankfully it was a PGA so mounting pressure didn't match much.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I am the left one until the first scratch appears, at that point i manage to do worse than the Right one.

Looks at hp stream that's been choking for 5 years in cnc shavings.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Y'all hatin on the first image, but that's me 🥺

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

I admire your conviction

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's me for about a week with any new device. Then I slowly get more and more lax, until eventually I'm the one on the right.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Buy used, best feature is that it comes with scratches so you don't have to be so careful

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

The one on the right needs a surge protector.

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