The History of ThinkPad: From IBM’s Bento Box to Lenovo’s AI Workstations | Hacker News

A Hacker News thread looks back at ThinkPad’s evolution from IBM’s early laptop designs to Lenovo’s current AI-focused models.

The discussion highlights distinctive ThinkPad hardware, especially the TrackPoint, as a defining ergonomic innovation.

Commenters connect the line’s roots to IBM engineering, Ted Selker’s work, and input ideas influenced by systems like NeXTstep and OpenSTEP.

The post argues that ThinkPad’s design choices helped shape premium laptop usability and still matter in modern mobile computing.