Low hanging fruit, but whatever. It is what it is.
I have got so many used ThinkPads. Everyone in my house has one.
Can I have one IBM ThinkPad 701 it’s old and it’s not like you’re using it anyways.
Old ThinkPads, the poor man’s Framework.
I tried to buy a system 76 pangolin but they don’t ship to Australia (yet?)
Sad
System76 and Framework are mostly North America and Western Europe. Pine64 might sell in Australia.
Framework have been shipping to Australia for ages. I ordered in December 2022 and it drop shipped from Taiwan to rural Australia in about a week. It was faster than ordering parts from pccasegear though that isn’t saying much.
I have been a fan of System76 since I saw some stickers at a conference nearly two decades ago. I think they have good intentions but unfortunately a badge engineering company for most of their existence. The quality hasn’t always been there from their ODMs and foreign RMA bothers me. You can buy a clevo or tong fang from local resellers and cover it in linux stickers.
The used market in Australia is bad for most things unfortunately.
I got unbuntu on my xiaomi notebook with a nice oled screen. It worked almost immediately. Easier install then windows. I chose Ubuntu as my first linux because of lots of support.
As far as I heard, their designs are similar to macbooks, are the keyboards as terrible?
I think its a preference, I prefer the keyboard over mac. But the build quality and hardware is just really good for the price.
Refurbished ThinkPads are available in countries where Framework, System76, and Pine64 do not ship.
Besides, ThinkPads are really well-built machines that perform well for everyday tasks at a fraction of their (or the aforementioned competition’s) original price.
I love my two machines, which are from before Lenovo took over completely. Their keyboards, port selection, and repairability are almost unparalleled compared to today’s competition.
