Re: best labtop for debian
on 15:23 Tue 08 Feb, Celejar (celejar@gmail.com) wrote:
> I'm curious - everyone has always seemed to love ThinkPads, but I've
> never understood what exactly makes them so popular. I'm not
> disagreeing or challenging - I've never used one, and I just want to
> understand why everyone swears by them.
Generally: solid construction, good hardware support for Linux,
excellent online product information (I don't know if the *1991* 486
ThinkPad I'd aquired (originally supporting OS/2) is still listed, but
it certainly was well into the 2000s).
The keyboards are full-featured and full-sized.
For those who like it (and I do), the Trackpoint has no substitutes. I
had for a time a work-issued Dell system, with its own variant of the
Trackpoint. Dell's implementation used a hard, abrasive rubber which
quickly rubbed your fingers raw. IBM's got an attention to detail here
(an unfortunately, ThinkPad nibs didn't fit the Dell device).
Under warrantee, support service is excellent. I had my current display
swapped with 3 days downtime.
One key point to remember is that ThinkPad is no longer an IBM product
(though there stills eems to be a strong brand relationship between the
two, including a lot of current info on IBM's website). Under Lenovo's
guidance, I've seen some warts, and my current T410s has some issues:
wireless, suspend/hibernate, and display, largely. All work pretty
reliably much of the time, but with some warts:
- I can't switch from X after starting a GUI session -- console won't
display.
- After suspending by closing the lid, display won't reactivate.
- Suspend/hibernate periodically doesn't restore.
I'm also not entirely happy with the 1440x900 screen resolution (a
comperable 17" MacBook Pro offers 1680x1050).
That said, given alternatives, it's the least bad solution, if not one
that leaves me smiling all the time.
--
Dr. Ed Morbius
Chief Scientist / Robot Wrangler When you seek unlimited power
Krell Power Systems Unlimited Go to Krell!
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