A rant about the state of the laptop market in 2020, centered on the argument that the ThinkPad X200 from 2008 remains the best laptop ever made due to its repairability, broad OS compatibility (Linux, FreeBSD, Plan 9, etc.), and durable build quality. Modern alternatives — Dell XPS, System76, Purism, Pine64, Huawei, and MacBooks — are criticized for firmware issues, poor value, supply problems, or compromised keyboards. The author concludes the laptop market has regressed in nearly every dimension except battery life and video decoding.
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