Re: Anyone happy with Dell-Ubuntu PC's?
Steve Witt wrote:
> I was under the impression that Thinkpads were considered to be some of
> the best laptops and I've always wanted to try one. From your comment it
> seems that there was a significant drop in quality/reliability when IBM
> sold the line to Lenovo.
I have personal experience with the T42 and T43 but not with the T60.
The T42 and T43 machines have been great and have been very compatible.
As far as I can see I don't think the T60 is significantly lower in
quality but I think there has been a small incremental drop in it.
For example the T60 keyboard I think is incrementally not as good as
the previous ones. All of the keys are now the same color whereas
before they had highlights on some keys. The same with the mouse
buttons which are all monotone and smaller in the T60 whereas before
they were larger and highlighted. That little bit of color here and
there grabs you and makes it easier to use and is a very small thing
and has an positive impact on usability in my opinion. They are all
monotone in the T60. Also the volume, mute, power, plus the special
"thinkpad" buttons have been changed to what seems to me to be a
cheaper key. I am sure they are fine but they just don't seem to be
the high quality keys that were used previously.
All of those things are things that can be gotten used to but to me
indicate a cost driven emphasis over a usability emphasis. This seems
to only be happening not all at once but as the design is changed.
Since little has changed yet overall the machine is probably just
fine. But it is possibly a trend that over time the newer machines
will be even more cost driven and have lower quality as compared to
the previous machines.
Just my opinion...
Bob
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