The IBM ThinkPad T43 + Fiber Internet

A 2005 laptop on 1Gb Fiber internet. The tech equivalent of a dog with its head out the window of a speeding car

Problem:

There was a void in my life somewhere between my pocket calculator, and my laptop. I wanted a device that I knew was unable to talk to the internet unless I plugged it in with a wire. For bonus tinfoil-hat points, whatever filled that gap should be pre-2008 (when Intel ME came along).

Proposed Void Filler:

Old laptop, with the WiFi card taken out. A quick eBay search and decision made.

Solution:

The ThinkPad T43 (made in 2005) was the last ThinkPad that IBM made before Lenovo took the reigns, and it is built like a tank. Total Unit. I got this one for 30 Euros - No WiFi, no battery.

The last thing to do was to replace the Operating System. I installed Linux Mint on it, thinking it might be a little too bloated for the processor/ RAM (2GHz/1.5 GB respectively). So far, I was wrong and it has ran smoothly without any performance issues.

Moral:

Computers are like people - they age. A computer goes from being a young thruster to an old stroker. You shouldn’t ask this thing to render a 4K video, in the same way that you shouldn’t ask your grandma to come to CrossFit.

If you have the time and the inclination, buy an old laptop, put Linux on it and bore your friends by telling them that their latest computer by Tim Apple is horrendously over-specified for their use-case.