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posted by Fnord666 on Friday June 30 2017, @04:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the rethinkpad dept.

Just days after Lenovo Group Chief Yang Yuanqing hinted that Lenovo may be pulling out of the PC and Server markets in favor of focusing on datacenters and mobile devices, long-time Thinkpad designer and Retro Thinkpad Project Manager David Hill has announced his resignation from the company. Mr. Hill, who had been in charge of the original ThinkPad design in the early 90's and rose to the rank of Vice President of Design at Lenovo, states:

"I want to broaden my view and create the opportunity to do more in the field of design, not less."

The 25th Anniversary "Retro ThinkPad" project, which was in development for over two years and received over 13,000 responses from long-time ThinkPad fans, is still, for the time being, scheduled for an October 5th announcement. Could internal pressures to minimize costs have resulted in Mr. Hill deciding to take his name off the Retro ThinkPad project which he spearheaded for two and a half years?


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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 30 2017, @08:50PM (7 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Friday June 30 2017, @08:50PM (#533685) Journal

    Louis Rossmann has some really tough thoughts on laptop keyboard design:

    Classic Thinkpad vs. modern Lenovo Thinkpad redesign - thoughts. [youtube.com] (2014-06-15)
    Thinkpad classic vs Thinkpad new vs Apple laptop - here he really aims some serious critique towards the Lenovo design decisions.

    Lenovo's new keyboard & trackpoint are awful and you're never getting your old one back! [youtube.com] (2014-06-29)

    Trackpoint buttons return to the Thinkpad - Lenovo listened! [youtube.com] (2015-01-10)

    Lenovo Thinkpad redesign; good is **NOT** retro! [youtube.com] (2015-06-26)
    Here he's chopping the Thinkpad design team to very small pieces. ;^)

    To the Lenovo Thinkpad design team: Stop that f-cking flawed Apple imitation thing and keep what has worked SO good and do some serious design studies, WITH user input.

    I like Louis idea of a laptop where the fan won't suck in all the dust and make it stay inside. Keyboard that can be spilled over and the fluid just exit through some other hole. That will withstand being dropped and just get a slight scratch but keep on working.

    How far are we from making our own modular laptops using 3D printed shell, modded mini keyboard, touchpad, Raspberry-Pi computer and some standard video panel? (or something along those lines) Previously the interior were filled to the brink because technology used all the space. Now it's so small that there's room to spare and COTS can possibly work as a core laptop part.

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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 30 2017, @09:02PM (4 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday June 30 2017, @09:02PM (#533695)

    How far are we from making our own modular laptops using 3D printed shell, modded mini keyboard, touchpad, Raspberry-Pi computer and some standard video panel? (or something along those lines) Previously the interior were filled to the brink because technology used all the space. Now it's so small that there's room to spare and COTS can possibly work as a core laptop part.

    We're really far from that I think. I've seen 3D printers in action (I have some at work) and they can't print anything that doesn't look 3D-printed out of a soft plastic. For a serious laptop, you can't 3D-print the chassis because it needs to be made of magnesium, not plastic. It also needs to have an aluminum lid on top IMO. The other big problem is the keyboard; how are you going to get that? That has to be made by some company with significant resources in a factory, just like the classic Thinkpad keyboards were. It's not something a hobbyist can make. But the problem is that no one wants to make high-quality laptop keyboards. Honestly, the video panel is probably the easiest part. Also, an RPi, which impressive, still doesn't compare to a modern laptop in performance. We're a little ways from that, but it's getting closer.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 01 2017, @04:21AM (1 child)

      by kaszz (4211) on Saturday July 01 2017, @04:21AM (#533813) Journal

      The plastic case could perhaps be outsourced to some plastic-mould-as-you-order the same way you can order circuit boards online these days. The keyboard could either some existing [eaccessibilitywales.org.uk] model where the case is made to fit around it. Or something that maybe.. could be ordered in the same way the case is. Another approach is simply to use some common laptop keyboard replacement part if continuous delivery can be ensured, ie will it be around one year later and still fit the case. And the same procedure for the touchpad.

      The RPi seems to be fast enough, not the racer competitor. But many times this isn't needed. And with a small computer there's room for batteries. Power and charging are available with pretty standard chips and boards.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @09:35AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @09:35AM (#533867)

      If we can just gut older larger laptops and us their shells we're not far from our own modular laptops.

      * The existing keyboard we like can be read using a microcrontroller http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-ThinkPad-keyboard-USB-adapter-with-Arduino/ [instructables.com] Use something like an nrf51888 and make it detachable bluetooth BLE.
      * A 15.6 4k eDP screen (mostly shiny unfortunately and non-touch) can be had for $90 delivered LTN156FL02 to retrofit the original. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/15-6-inch-3840-2160-UHD-4K-LTN156FL02-LTN156FL01-LCD-Module-Panel-Repair-Diy-Kit-LED/32802234108.html/ [aliexpress.com]
      * RK3399 based board (http://en.t-firefly.com/en/firenow/Firefly_RK3399/Specifications/ [t-firefly.com]) 4GB ddr (a bit low) 32GB eMMC has eDP ribbon for the internal panel, displayport and hdmi for external monitors 4k@60, usb3 that could be used for internal drives.
      * plenty of space for a fixed tablet type flat battery to combine with the removable one for extra battery life and so you can swap batteries without needing to search for a power outlet.

      We've been waiting for replacements for old 1920x1200 laptops for something like 10 years and when they finally get round to giving us more dots they remove half the keys, move others (and never to the place we've been remapping them for years) and go for thin over extreme battery life. I think they purposefully ship 'broken by design' products because if they actually gave us what we want we wouldn't have to by another for a decade and that's not a viable market in their eyes.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @06:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 01 2017, @06:46PM (#533960)

    manufacturers are the stupidest of fucks. fuck you, lenovo, you dumb ass bastards. you and the rest of your manufacturer ilk. you common street hookers! all of you think you're so fucking smart but you can't hardly do anything right. smug fucks with no common sense. people wonder why the economy under performs. stupid fucks, that's why.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 02 2017, @08:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 02 2017, @08:11AM (#534116)

    There are a couple of DIY/3d printable laptops

    * https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena [crowdsupply.com]

    * https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop [crowdsupply.com]

    * https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=3707 [pine64.org]