I have a Thinkpad T60. An IBM Thinkpad T60. Retrofitted with a 2048x1536 LCD from an even older R60, a 512MB SSD, a 64 bit processor, and maxed out to 3GB of RAM. It's running Linux. I'd love to swap that thing out for something modern. My requirements:
* Same resolution or higher
* Trackpoint
* Same battery life or better
* Runs Linux without headaches
* Reliable
There are no laptops on the market which are anywhere close to this profile. With the exception of the Retina MacBook, no high res laptops have sensible battery life. No high res laptops whatsoever have a trackpoint. All of the high res laptops, when I last looked, either had headaches for Linux support, or no information.
That's not even to talk about the nice-to-haves (quiet, drives external 4k display, swappable battery, and reasonably maintainable). On most of those, you can't even get information.
I'd love to upgrade my desktop too, which is almost as old, but figuring our processor speeds and graphics card compatibility makes it more hassle than it's worth.
> Today whatever was built 5 years ago can reasonably run most programs of today, hence less need to buy new PCs.
You're right that things built 5 years ago can reasonably run most programs of today. That's exactly why the PC industry is dying, and it is exactly a measure of stagnation and lack of progress. Today's programs and computers ought to make us more productive by having e.g. quad 4k monitors. If you sold computers like this, and they had even a 5% boost to productivity, businesses would easily drop $5k each on them. My business would buy a hundred of them, no question. Sadly, neither software nor hardware has kept up with high-res multi-monitors. These aren't hard problems to solve. My 2048x1536 15" panel is nearly a decade old. Heck, cell phones now hit 2560x1600. Microsoft wouldn't move without the hardware vendors, and vica-versa. Everyone was waiting for someone else to move, no one did, and now, they're all dying.
* Same resolution or higher * Trackpoint * Same battery life or better * Runs Linux without headaches * Reliable
There are no laptops on the market which are anywhere close to this profile. With the exception of the Retina MacBook, no high res laptops have sensible battery life. No high res laptops whatsoever have a trackpoint. All of the high res laptops, when I last looked, either had headaches for Linux support, or no information.
That's not even to talk about the nice-to-haves (quiet, drives external 4k display, swappable battery, and reasonably maintainable). On most of those, you can't even get information.
I'd love to upgrade my desktop too, which is almost as old, but figuring our processor speeds and graphics card compatibility makes it more hassle than it's worth.
> Today whatever was built 5 years ago can reasonably run most programs of today, hence less need to buy new PCs.
You're right that things built 5 years ago can reasonably run most programs of today. That's exactly why the PC industry is dying, and it is exactly a measure of stagnation and lack of progress. Today's programs and computers ought to make us more productive by having e.g. quad 4k monitors. If you sold computers like this, and they had even a 5% boost to productivity, businesses would easily drop $5k each on them. My business would buy a hundred of them, no question. Sadly, neither software nor hardware has kept up with high-res multi-monitors. These aren't hard problems to solve. My 2048x1536 15" panel is nearly a decade old. Heck, cell phones now hit 2560x1600. Microsoft wouldn't move without the hardware vendors, and vica-versa. Everyone was waiting for someone else to move, no one did, and now, they're all dying.