I've been using a librebooted X200 for 3 years now. It's no overstatement to say that it delivers the most holistically amazing computing environment I've ever worked in.

If I'm to buy a new laptop, it must remain "superficially" identical/comparable. I want better performance, but what's ciritcal is getting as much battery life and improved thermals as I can. Even the screen is not as much of an issue to me as those 2.

Now I've been looking at some products offered by thinkpad modders, but knowledge of the non free bios weighs some on my mind.

Since acquiring this laptop, beside remaining abreast of news about Pine and others striving toward software/hardware freedom, I've totally cauterized myself from the greater consumer tech ecosystem.

With the context out of the way, what I want to know is whether it's possible to retrofit a Thinkpad X201 (When I'm casually using my X200, while laying down and watching a video for example, I miss the touchpad), with modern hardware capable of running mostly/all free software. I'm honestly not sure what projects are out there, and which ones are promising. Now although I do crave more performance, the thought of going from this beut to ANY of the machines I see on the market is appalling.

In parallel, why do consumers love sodomizing themselves with whatever garbage companies throw at them? What happened to voting with one's wallet?

Anyway... I don't even know how to make headway into a project like this. I'd love a little guidance specifically about retrofitting X201s, as well as about retrofitting any of the prime era thinkpad shells for my needs.