Lenovo is undertaking an Olympic-size effort to establish itself as a consumer PC brand. The Chinese PC maker has found great success with the iconic ThinkPad brand of commercial laptops, a business it purchased from IBM. And now it's taking the world stage with a new line of consumer-focused notebooks called IdeaPad. There will also be a desktop line called IdeaCentre.
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Member since:2006-01-03
I use thinkpad (X40/FreeBSD) as a NIX console too. Are there any other brands/models that come close in robustness, battery life, driver availability, silence, absence of crap like optical media and special keys etc?
I might switch if I couldn't get X6x without crammed keyboard and vista.
Member since:2007-09-06
If Lenovo would build such a machine, let's say, with no "idiot keys", with a trackpoint with three mouse buttons, that is ready to run, hmmm... FreeBSD... then I would be happy to order one of these.
I think they call that machine the "Thinkpad" ;D and it seems to work great with any Linux I've thrown at it and the FreeBSD that some regulars on other sites select Thinkpads for specifically.
I do hope they keep up the high standards though. IBM has always been known for good keyboards and the Think* machines as good business boxes. It would be sad to see the brand used up with budget components then discarded once all it's value had been erroded.
non-Windows preinstalls would be nice too. I hear they do it for business but offering a choice of OS for the consumer market would be great to see also.
Actually, this T60 is the first notebook that has convinced me there is something worth looking at outside of the toughbook series for my personal needs. It's not ruggedised but the chassis doesn't feel cheap, the insides are not budget hardware and it's closer to my affordable price range these days.
Member since:2006-10-08
"I think they call that machine the "Thinkpad" ;D and it seems to work great with any Linux I've thrown at it and the FreeBSD that some regulars on other sites select Thinkpads for specifically."
Yes, I know, I know. :-) I've still got a very old Thinkpad (built by IBM) which I usually use to program Motorola mobile radios. Great technology, high quality. If I'm ever going to buy a new notebook (I usually get outdated or mininmal defective ones as presents and refurbish them so they are better than before), such a Thinkpad would surely be an option.
"I do hope they keep up the high standards though. IBM has always been known for good keyboards and the Think* machines as good business boxes."
That's correct, but as you see when you're looking at keyboards, no matter if they are in a notebook or to be placed on the table: The quality goes down and down, the devices are cheap, of course, but for typists they usually are a pain to use.
"non-Windows preinstalls would be nice too."
No installs at all would be an option, too, maybe it would make the product a bit cheaper without loosing hardware quality. And if the quality is good, you can install anything you like, be it Linux, BSD or even Solaris.
Member since:
2006-10-08
The keyboard is still one of the weakes parts of notebooks. Their mechanical quality usually is bad, their layout sometimes stupid, and space in line 1 is occupied by "idiot keys" that nobody (except very few advanced users) really use, causing the space bar to shrink. But still, the keyboard is very important because it is the undoubted most important means of data entry, so it's important for the dialog with the machine.
Another point is the integrated mouse implementation. I always liked the concept of the trackpoint, when three (and not only lousy two) mouse buttons were available.
IBM impressed me with their concepts how they handled both of them ("idiot keys" small and up to the top, trackpoint and glidepad present), and I would like to see Lenovo building notebooks that are a joy to use with Linux and UNIX OSes, but this requires certain features, for example good hardware that is supported by standard drivers or that is documented properly (best solution: release open specifications and drivers). Devides that are present should work the way they are intended to (e. g. SD card reader should be standard DA compatible, hibernation / sleep mode and awakening should work correctly). And it should be silent, of course. :-)
If Lenovo would build such a machine, let's say, with no "idiot keys", with a trackpoint with three mouse buttons, that is ready to run, hmmm... FreeBSD... then I would be happy to order one of these.