Everyone has their own unique experience. I bought an IdeaPad in 2012 and to this day it is working well enough that I haven't replaced it (though when I'm home I have a modern tower I built 2 years ago). I could not be happier with the build quality and longevity. I must have 10 000 hours absolute minimum on that device, I really wish there was a counter in the BIOS I could check.
I have a ThinkPad R61 from 2007 that still works. It's a core2duo 1.83ghz with 4gb of DDR2 and GMA950 graphics so even with a really lightweight Linux install it's basically useless-- but it boots right up and the battery still works.
