Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by traverseda 873 days ago
Of course that's only a good thing if you're buying new. You can get a great deal on used thinkpads that have been treated very well and are in very good condition, as large organizations buy them and then they end up as cheap surplus.
2 comments
kkielhofner 873 days ago
> Of course that's only a good thing if you're buying new.

Not sure I follow, isn't this a good thing whether you're reselling or buying used? Macbooks like most of these things experience the largest drop for the new purchaser with even second-hand selling doing better on a percentage basis.

> You can get a great deal on used thinkpads that have been treated very well and are in very good condition, as large organizations buy them and then they end up as cheap surplus.

+1. When I buy x86_64 machines off-lease enterprise managed SFFs, laptops, servers, etc are IMO the way to go for this kind of hardware.

A great deal for the person buying used, abysmal resell value for the large orgs dumping these things in bulk to surplus resellers. Not that they care anyway, leasing depreciating hardware combined with the bulk discounts from HP, Lenovo, Dell, etc and often tax advantages make this a win-win-win for all involved.

link
MisterTea 873 days ago
If someone offered me a free Thinkpad or macbook I'd take the Thinkpad. Standard PC architecture so I can boot anything, cheap, work well, trackpoint, repairable, parts available. Oh and lets not forget the hacker community behind them is amazing: https://www.xyte.ch/t700-crowdfunding/
link
kkielhofner 873 days ago
Platform preference is totally fair but I'm at an age/stage where I shudder at having to deal with hardware at all. Maybe I've been lucky but I've never had Apple hardware fail with even my 2013 Intel Macbook Pro still going strong (and dual-booting Linux). I actually bought this Macbook Pro as an almost impulse purchase after dealing with yet another hardware issue with my $3500 Framework which I purchased as a kit. That was more-or-less the last time I dealt with hardware and it just ended up being extremely frustrating to the point of drastically impacting my productivity.

Builds, doing repairs, upgrades, etc used to be fun but my life and career has gotten so complex I just can't be bothered with it at this point.

Sadly it hasn't been fun for a while but I completely understand the advantages for people who aren't as tired and grumpy as I am.

link