It's the age to use a Thinkpad

I owned three laptops, and used more than that.

My workplace has provided two to me:

Crappy HP A better Lenovo Thinkbook But my first personal laptop was a 2012 Macbook Pro. My mum brought that to me, it was a fortune for my family. I am grateful to have my mum.

A Macbook really changed my workflow, I can use a more fancy Keynote to make presentations in the university. It was good. Having a Macbook was a status at that time.

That Macbook was really durable, I knew many classmates that owned cheaper Windows laptops, they were all broken long before my Macbook Pro. (That Macbook is still working.)

I adored that keyboard, it was a good typing experience.

The biggest problem of that machine was the weight, it weighted a lot. It was quite a burden for me to carry it to school every day. I decided to use more paper and pen, only carried my partner to the school when I wanted to stay in the library and wrote assignments.

So after I got into workplace, I needed a new laptop, then I was determined to get another Macbook. That was 2018. Well, those fancy Macbook Pro - with butterfly keyboards.

That typing experience was a terrible, but I was lucky, the keyboard lasted for about 8 years. I mostly used external keyboard and mouse, that could be the reason why that keyboard lasted for some time. Still, I was able to make quite a few impressive presentations, documents. I still love that Macbook Pro.

I changed some jobs, I no longer need to make good looking documents to impress others. And that Macbook Pro's keyboard is dying. Double-clicking has become a terrible issue, and the battery is almost at its end of life.

I tried to use Chromebook as replacement, as ads say Chromebooks were secure, fast and cheap. I owned a Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 (2018), it was secure, but slow, and not that cheap if you think deeply.

I have spent a lot of time to discuss the problems of Chromebooks. I want to get rid of that closed ecosystem. I want to de-google.

Then I need to get another laptop, a cheaper used laptop.

I am being attracted by Thinkpads. Repairability, durability, usability, able to run Linux properly, and most importantly, cheap and available in second hand market.

I brought a T480, often praised to be the most repairable Thinkpads. But the shop sent me a T14 Gen1. Well, It was good enough for me. I decided not to force them to get me a T480.

Life is full of surprise, why not keeping a 2020 T14? It can be better than a 2018 T480? I want to move on from 2018. 2020 is the way.

And it is good.

I can get my Fedora Linux running on it smoothly, the typing experience is good.

More importantly, I realize it is not the technology that force me the change, but my own age.

Age has changed my aesthetic, my preference, my priority.

I need something cheaper (a nicer word is economical), durable, and low-key. I am no longer a fancy guy.

I don't need the machine to make something to surprise someone, but just to meet my need.

Am I happy with my Thinkpad T14? Yes. I am happy with my choice.