How ThinkPads Became The Internet's Favorite Laptop

a the matte black exterior the tasteful thickness and is that a nipple they just don't make laptops like this anymore the ThinkPad one of the most iconic laptops of all time but on the Internet it's gained a cold following like no other laptop there's memes about thinkpads there's forums dedicated to talking about thinkpads there's collectors of thinkpads you've probably seen your favorite tech YouTuber raving about how much they love thinkpads the online community around thinkpads is huge but how did thinkpads become so popular online what's all the hype about and are they really that good in this video we're going to go over how thinkpads went from a simple business laptop to an online cult now we can't talk about the current users of thinkpads without talking about the original market for them thinkpads were originally manufactured by IBM the company that popularized the entire idea of having a personal computer the laptops they made were high quality innovative and their designs won award after award even before thinkpads developed their legendary status on the internet they already had a cult following in the business world for a long time if you were serious about using your laptop for business you used a ThinkPad it was just part of the business uniform along with the Blackberry of course yep it's business in time and it wasn't for no reason that thinkpads were popular with businesses first off they were practically indestructible they could really take a beating now if you use a Mac book you might want to avert your eyes from the screen but you could drop these things think bads would have roll cages protecting the important components inside you could spill a glass of water on the keyboard there's a tray under the keyboard with drain holes going out the bottom whereas other computers would just have the motherboard underneath with little to no protection they're dust resistant they're heat resistant they're space resistant that's right they've even been to space basically they're pretty sturdy they were designed to withstand the rigors of business travel and it needed to be able to take some bumps along the way and they succeeded that's not the only part of the design that business customers liked they were also just great to work on the keyboard was better than anything else at the time and then there's the iconic design that hasn't changed for decades with other companies the laptop design usually goes through major changes every few years and if you like your old laptop you might not be able to get the same laptop again when it's time to upgrade in a few years but the ThinkPad has made a deliberate effort to keep the design the same David Hill who served as the design chief for thinkpads for over 20 years was told in 1995 that it was time to change the design up after 3 years of the same thing but he was not changing the design he said of all the problems we have this isn't one of them and he said if the design ain't broke don't fix it and it looks like he got his wish all the way up until present day that's why you still have the same black brick that you did 30 years ago you still have the little nub in the middle of the keyboard it's been there for decades some might think it's unnecessary when we now have much better trackpads but that's part of what makes a ThinkPad a ThinkPad yep people loved it so thinkpads have always been popular in the corporate world and they're still popular to this day but how did they cross over to be the preferred laptop of computer nerds everywhere so thinkpads were always meant to be business class laptops and they were never really marketed to Consumers these business class laptops at the time were not cheap but after their leases up companies were replacing them with something else and selling them on the used market for cheap that's when Savvy consumers started to notice how good these laptops were as well even laptops that were 5 years old or even older were still in good condition now in the 2010s consumer grade laptops were starting to slim down the thick bulky Windows laptops were no longer in slim stylish MacBooks were now Paving the way for laptops everywhere Apple of course made massive profits by making laptops look sexy and with the internet really becoming part of mainstream life computers weren't just for businesses or nerds anymore they were for everyone but computer enthusiasts were getting fed up with Apple's design decisions sure the MacBooks looked great but design is about more than Aesthetics Apple started removing ports on their laptops they started soldering all of the components onto the motherboard before if you wanted to upgrade the RAM or the CPU or the storage space you could just open up your computer and replace it just like you would a desktop computer but now other companies were starting to follow in Apple's footsteps and laptops were getting less upgradeable and repairable now if your laptop slowed down instead of adding more RAM you just threw it away and bought a new one now laptop manufacturers can make more money than ever so old thinkpads started to be used in a way to fight back against the direction that laptops were headed in sure they were old but they were still upgradeable if you like to Tinker with computers you would love using a ThinkPad and people would replace everything on these laptops here's one example of someone who replaced the CPU the ram the storage the battery the heat sink and fan and the Wi-Fi card that's how extensible these things were they were used as a big middle finger to companies like apple that didn't allow you any control over your own device you weren't supposed to open up your Apple device yourself you were supposed to take it to the Genius Bar where they would tell you to purchase a new $2,000 machine the best part is old think pads are dirt cheap to this day you can still get a decent ThinkPad for as little as $150 and if you want to spend more money just buy more parts and install them yourself it'll still end up being cheaper than a new laptop Now laptops that are years old start slow down especially if they're running Windows after 5 years of use a Windows laptop is usually on death store but if you know how to install Linux that's just the beginning Linux is known for being much less bloated than Windows especially modern Windows like Windows 11 it loves to eat your RAM but you can install a minimal distribution of Linux on your laptop with only 4 GB of RAM and still have it work fine thinkpads have always had excellent Linux compatibility a lot of laptops are difficult to run Linux on with some features is not being compatible you might have issues with the Wi-Fi card or the audio but running Linux on thinkpads is almost always a painless process so it was basically a perfect storm for power users around the world old thinkpads were essentially the counterculture to everything that was wrong with modern laptops and of course people started to notice I don't really know where the meme started but if you were on 4 chance technology board in the 2010s and even now you can't avoid thinkpads thinkpads started to be the laptop if you wanted to be cool in Tech Enthusiast spaces like how Apple products are a status symbol ThinkPad started to become their own sort of status symbol online if you bought a ThinkPad you didn't just use it you would show it off on forchan or Reddit or the Enthusiast Forum on thinkpads.com and the coolest people didn't just own one ThinkPad you own several you upgraded your old ones and you even bought the thick pad docking station to make it even more powerful and don't forget the Neo fetch so you can show everyone how cool you are for installing Arch Linux you would show it off online get recommendations on how to upgrade yours and post buying guides so other people could get their own ThinkPad thanks to the meme people started purchasing thinkpads having no idea about the history of thinkpads they were just a cool tool that people used online you was hard to hear about people who fell for the meme or bought a ThinkPad after seeing so many posts about it online it became almost a counterculture status symbol the anti- MacBook compared to the other laptops at the time it looked like a brick and weighed double what modern laptops weighed you could take a to a Starbucks to work and make females everywhere drop their soy milk lattes what is that it's so unshowy it's become a way for nerds to show off since the brand gained such a legendary status for making business laptops it still carries over some of its identity for being a real man's laptop for getting real work done it's not a Facebook machine for middle-aged white woman it's not a Macbook that soy boy developers and designers would use it's a tool for getting things done when they see you sat down the think pad in the cafe everyone knows you're about to blow their minds with your amazing programming skills but the fun can't last forever ever since the ThinkPad brand was sold from IBM to Lenovo in 2007 people have been complaining about the declining quality of the brand now a lot of this is just the standard complaining you hear anytime any change is made but let's face it modern thinkpads aren't quite what they used to be first off they've become much more similar to other modern laptops thinkpads these days are thin sleek and are often built with soldered in CPUs and RAM so they're not as upgradeable as they used to be with them being thinner and more lightweight they're now more fragile than they used to be there's just no more room for the metal roll cage around the insides the keyboard isn't as good as it used to be and they're just not making any of the thick completely upgradable laptops that made computer enthusiasts fall in love with them what a lot of ThinkPad Geeks considered to be the last great ThinkPad the t480 it was released all the way back in 2018 now of course modern thinkpads are still great laptops I use a modern ThinkPad and it's the best laptop I've ever used and yes I fell for the meme too but the RAM is soldered in if I want to upgrade the RAM I have to buy a completely new laptop so thinkpads have lost some of their magic sure they're probably still among the best laptops you can buy and the laptop Market has changed and think bads have to change with the times but modern thinkpads are much more comparable to other brands these days they just don't stand out as much for being special as much as they used to with all that said the ThinkPad Community is still very much alive and well today you'll still see people using ancient thinkpads today just because there's nothing else like them years old computers are still being recommended to everyone from compiz students to Professionals for their value they're some of the best budget laptops and their modern laptops are still very good so the next time you're in the market for a new laptop and you think about getting a ThinkPad there's a good chance you've been brainwashed by The Cult of the ThinkPad join us

If you've ever spent any time on the internet, there's a good chance you've heard of how amazing Lenovo ThinkPad laptops are. They're the GOAT laptop brand, and if you're a *real* power user, you know how much better they are than the lowly MacBook. But how did they gain their legendary status and cult-like fanbase online? Are they really all that special, and do they live up to the hype? Find out in this video... 💸 Support the Channel: https://ericmurphy.xyz/donate 🌐 My website: https://ericmurphy.xyz 🎥 Watch my videos on Odysee: https://odysee.com/@ericnmurphy 0:00: Intro 0:45 Corporate heaven 3:03 The Macbook-ification of the laptop 6:18 The meme, the myth, the legend 8:03 The downfall of the ThinkPad 9:32 ThinkPad society and its future