MY THINKPADS --- ALL OF THEM

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This is my collection of Thinkpads (starting from the oldest). I did not think I would become a collector when I bought my first X201 in 2016. But it is a perfect computer. Beautiful, easy to use, perfect for Linux.

I usually run Linux Mint on my Thinkpads and it works out of the box. On older models, or models with lesser processors (like the X100e) I use distros that need less resources. AntiX being one of my favorite low-spec distros. I use this timeline from ThinkWiki to determine release dates.




IBM Thinkpad A31p

I bought this Thinkpad in 2018 for around 150SEK from Tradera.se. The previous owner could not start it du to lack of a charger and claimed that it did not have a hard drive. It actually had one and did boot to it. Could not log in to the Windows XP but captured the content of the hard drive using Knoppix. On the hard drive were a variety of personal and work-related documents from around 2003. Among these hundreds of holiday photos (Menorca 2003 below). I wiped the hard drive and installed Debian Openbox using an old IBM Thinkpad-logo wallpaper. Also adding Conky. Never got the wifi to work but ethernet works perfectly. It is possible to surf on simple websites. The Keyboard is totally wonderful. One of the best.






IBM Thinkpad R40

Bought this in january 2020 for just 160SEK. Had to buy a new CMOS-battery, but something seems to be wrong anyway with date/time and such. It also has some kind of problem with the graphics card or the connection between graphic card and screen, because sometimes the screen gets blurred (even during boot so it does not seem to be a problem with drivers).

The hard drive is dead too (see below) so the only possibility has been to run an OS from CD. Legacy OS (based on Puppy Linux) worked running from CD and I even could play a Zaxxon Clone without problem.






Lenovo Thinkpad X61

Got this one by chance from the Swedish rather shabby second hand-dealer "Sellpy" in 2019. It was marked as "Laptop" in their inventory and they wanted 300SEK for it. This is rather cheap for a Thinkpad but it was not possible to see which model et cetera from the photos on the website. I saw that it was an X-series but not much more. But I took the risk anyway.

Really nice computer but I have not used it much. Brought it to a Information security conference to take notes once and it worked fine. I use Linux Mint with Xfce as desktop environment and everything works.This could be a really good computer to use for terminal access to servers, taking notes, writing while travelling and such.






Lenovo Thinkpad R61

I actually bought this computer for 1SEK + shipping. But it did not have battery, RAM, hard drive, hard drive cover or even a Trackpoint. I have managed to find all that was lost exept for the hard drive cover. I actually ordered one from Ebay but unfortunately it was the wrong size.

I use MXLinux as Operating System. MXLinux is, according to Distrowatch, the most popular Linux distribution to date. It is a low-spec distro with a lot of preinstalled utilities. Including one really good Arkanoid clone actually! It is developed by the same team as AntiX - which also is a very useful low-spec distro.








Lenovo Thinkpad T61

Seller told me the computer did not boot into Windows. Checked the hard drive and found a failed Ubuntu-installation. I have used several Linux distributions on this machine. Xubuntu worked quite well as I reckon. On the pictures it runs SLAX and EndeavourOS. But best of all was Unix! GhostBSD was really good in this machine. I used it a lot with GhostBSD when I needed the big screen to read scanned documents from archives. Also very cheap - believe I paid around 250SEK.

Release year: 2007
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.20GHz
Ram: 3Gb
Hard drive: 460Gb






Lenovo Thinkpad X100e

Bought in 2018 (360SEK). 2018 was the hottest summer in 250 years in Sweden and this laptop broke down with heatstroke during several attempts to install an OS. X100e is quite a lousy computer actually, prone to overheathing. I have managed to make mine workable by three tricks: 1) New Thermal paste, 2) A SSD, 3) a low-spec distro (AntiX). Now it works quite well actually. Perfect for travel because of the small size. But it really needs a low-spec distro. I have tried several distros on this computer and the only ones that really have worked is BunsenLabs and AntiX. Both are built from Debian and uses Window managers that are adapted to old or low-spec computers.






Lenovo Thinkpad T410

This is my most expensive Thinkpad, bought in 2016 for about 1500SEK. It was supposed to be my work/gaming PC but I noticed I prefer the X-series to the T-series (because of portability) so it is now used by my wife instead.


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I installed Linux Mint on it and it has worked out of the box as with most Thinkpads. The internal DVD and the DisplayPort (nice with HDMI converter) has made us use it a lot with DVD-films from regions that our usual DVD-player cannot play.






Lenovo Thinkpad T410 - 2

During the Corona pandemic I got kind of depressed and bought some computers to have something to do. Among those I bought was a T410 that were missing some parts (Battery, hard drive et cetera). Trying it I noticed a glitch in the graphics. Thought it had something to do with the drivers and worked with them a lot. After a while I figured it could be a hardware problem so I bought a new cable. After switching it every thing worked.


But the wifi did not work very well! Thought it was the drivers too, but figured after a while that I just had unplugged part of the card (you know the aux main cables). Klant! as we say in Sweden. Now I use this computer as my main workstation. I don't need to commute at the moment so it is nice to have a larger screen et cetera compared to the X-series.





Lenovo Thinkpad X201

The first Thinkpad I bought. During 2015 I was infected by Linux, abadoning my old Macintoshs and starting experimenting with Debian on an old ASUS EeePC. I needed a better computer and bought the best computer I ever owned (since the C-64 maybe) for about 1000SEK. It arrived in early 2016 and after some distrohopping I ended up using Linux Mint which works very well on this machine.


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This machine has travelled a lot. Bin to Botswana, Wales, Rhodes, Tjörn and other places. Working pretty well everywhere.








Lenovo Thinkpad X220i

This is my main machine right now. Mainly because it is very portable and works very well in general. I use Linux Mint on this one too. It is the usual distro for my work-machines because it usually works well together with paraphernalia like projectors et cetera. When you show up somewhere and quickly wants to start showing a powerpoint to an audience, you will want to have a distribution installed that is very compliant.

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One small irritating thing about this computer is its lack of webcam. I seldom use them, but when you need one you need one. Luckily I have other Thinkpads with cameras installed.






Lenovo Thinkpad X131e

Quite nice computer although I dont care much for the rounded shape. This is the version with a black lid (it also exist a version with a red lid). I have mostly used this computer for music-making and during a period I used the distro Ubuntu Studio. Among other I used the wonderful music program "Sonic Pi".

Release year: 2012
Processor: Intel Core i5 M520 2.4GHZ
Ram: 8Gb
Hard drive: 120Gb

Unfortunately this machine has the strangest fault. Sometimes it boots into a split-by-six-screen-mode that nobody ever seen or heard of. I have to remove the CMOS-battery and the screen cord to make it work again.






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