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Sure, it's cheap, but not exactly an ultraportable. A better comparison would be to a Thinkpad X-series. Or maybe a Toshiba Portege or a Fujitsu Lifebook. Heck, the Asus eee is closer to this than that HP. (And unlike the Apple, it has three USB ports, a swappable battery, and an ethernet port.)

You want this.

A trackpoint is infinitely better than a touch pad (but it still has one if you want it). I wish they made a full size keyboard (with numkeys) with this style of keys and mouse input, but you can always add a 10 key to the right of it via usb.

1. Where's the link to a current press release from Lenovo or from Novell/SuSE? The article doesn't share any links, and when I looked on both companies' sites all I could find were old press releases.

2. Why SuSE? Did Lenovo somehow broker an unbeatable deal on support contracts, or... ?

While googling for more news on the current development, I found an old Lenovo blog entry from September of 2007 asking "What Linux distribution would you most like to see supported on a ThinkPad?". Now I'm sure that every kind of online poll has some amount of ballot-stuffing, but out of the 64572 responses, 37% chose Ubuntu, 17% chose Mandrivia, and (much farther down the list) a mere 5% chose SuSE, SLED, or OpenSuSE. SLED got only 312 votes, giving it less than 0.5% of the votes.

As unscientific as the poll was, the author of the blog admitted in the lead-up to the poll that he figured that he needed to try out Ubuntu and that he was pretty sure what linux distribution was going to be chosen. So with all this user interest in Ubuntu, why did Lenovo go the Novell/SuSE route?

Oh well -- as long as the Thinkpad hardware is fully supported by some modern Linux distro, I figure that Ubuntu should have no problems supporting it.

My ThinkPad R32 had firewire, and I bought it back in about 2002.

And the current R series ThinkPads have the webcam as at least an option.

Not a troll at all! I recently bought a HP dv9620us and installed Fedora 8. I could not get the Broadcom BCM94311MCG wireless card to work. I tried the b43, bcm43xx, as well as several other drivers via ndiswrappers. I just could not get a connection! I had to bring it back for a refund. As far as this machine, just looking at the specs I'd say the networking (including wireless) should work and the video should work. They don't really say anything about the sound card so I can't say. More than likely, acpi should work, even maybe suspend and closing the lid.

Try the one with the Intel graphics chipset. Start here:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=2432D88590C944B79D33FDA517A5C756

Click the far left one. Select all the options I listed above.

I'll give you that I'm not able to run a 'hip' os and perhaps don't have all the truthinessy intangibles
that go with owning a Mac, but I saved a good $500+ and own a laptop from a company that doesn't seem to
have yearly recall issues.

Take it easy man, I really don't have any incentive to waste my time posting fabrications on /.

For me the thinkpad makes much more sense as the two things I value most in a laptop are display
and keyboard. I really can't stand the Mac keyboard, and as I'm not living in a cave I really
have little use for the backlit keyboard. I prefer to light my home.

The US doesn't need more engineers. If it did, salaries would be higher. In 1970, engineering and law salaries were about equal, or so says the IEEE. That's certainly changed.

The US doesn't need more engineers because high-tech manufacturing has gone offshore. Where the manufacturing goes, the production engineering must go, and the design engineering follows. Then the brands go. Then top management. Then the financing.

Read the Lenovo story. They're not a spinoff of IBM. They're a successful Chinese PC company that bought IBM's PC business to expand. IBM is just the company to which Lenovo outsources US warranty service.

I love the Trackpoint on my Thinkpad, and I really miss it when I use my desktop. Here's what I've really been looking for: a WIRELESS keyboard with a Trackpoint. Does anyone know of such a thing? I looked around at http://pckeyboard.com/ and http://www.lenovo.com/ ...but I have not been able to find such a creation.

The iPhone *is* a real tablet computer

No, a tablet computer is something you write on with a stylus. Poking an on-screen keyboard with a finger doesn't count. A Thinkpad X60 Tablet is a tablet computer; an iPhone is not.

ride the slashdot effect and show your support for linux with their quick survey. it takes about a minute.

first, search for linux http://www.lenovo.com/Search/?q=linux&v=15&lang=en &cc=us&en=utf&Search.x=0&Search.y=0&Search=Search

second, take the survey http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB224MRKGUV W7

be sure to tell them that you are dissatisfied that the search for linux does not lead toward the purchase of a notebook.

* Only Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is supported. The ThinkPad T60p Mobile Workstation does not come preloaded with SUSE Linux. Users must obtain SUSE Linux licenses from Novell. The ThinkPad T60p comes with DOS entitlement only and ships with a blank hard disk drive. SUSE Linux OS will be supported by Novell, while Lenovo will support Hardware, ThinkVantage Technologies, and drivers. ** Not all ThinkVantage Technologies available on other ThinkPad systems are supported under SUSE Linux.

Disclaimer: I own an ultralight notebook, the smallest MP3 player I could find, a tiny car, and a Wii. I should be the target market for these things.

However, they really didn't bother to actually test market these things before putting them out there. For one, the lack of a keyboard really limits usability. Heck, keyboards are becoming standard on phones these days. To not have a keyboard on a laptop replacement is silly.

Two, they don't fit anywhere. They're way too big for a pocket, so you have to put them in a bag or backpack. At that point, you might as well just use a 3 lb Sony Vaio Tx, or a 4 lb Lenovo v, or a 4.5 lb Dell Xps or one of many other ultralight portables out there. And really, that's the key: laptops are losing weight as fast as the balance between performance and price will allow.

But worst of all, they never really had a use. They all take time to boot, so there isn't much use as a dayrunner. They have no keyboard, so word processing is out. And forget photoshop. What, exactly, are you supposed to do with one? Play halo? Web development?

Ultimately, all of the tasks that were supposed to be delegated to the UMPC were actually far better served by high-end phones. Need e-mail, texting, intranet access to a client database, and synching to a desktop? Just get a treo. They're about 1,000 dollars cheaper, and they fit in your pocket.

While I was intrigued by the concept, I won't be shedding a tear for the UMPC. They were far ahead of their time. Which is to say, someone was pushing them early in the hopes of making a quick buck.

Not sure the link works, but the IBM Thinkpad T series has XP option. That, and thinkpads are the best freaking laptops you can purchase hardware-wise. I'm sure you can get recertified or clearance models as well.

As a technician, I have only seen one thinkpad die, and it was after extraordinary abuse and being 10 years old. If you're not going to pay for a $300 throw-me-off-a-building warranty, you should get a thinkpad.

Or a MacBook, and he can run windows in parallels.

Lenovo is still selling laptops with Windows XP:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/cata log.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=1 2F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-i d=E7C796E266D74BF38557DB55784F4EB0

If you want Linux drivers, you have to let these companies know:

ASUS
Lenovo
HP
Power Color
HIS Tech
Sapphire

The suggested letter is:

Subject: Product Feedback

To whom it may concern,

I recently purchased one of your [graphics cards || notebooks || desktops] that had contained an ATI GPU. While I realize your products are catered toward Microsoft Windows users as they are your largest consumer base, I wish to use this product with Linux. I had used the [your model number for their product] with the ATI Linux drivers, and while they have improved a great deal recently, I still feel there is much room for improvement. The drivers in their current form run much slower under Linux than Windows, lack support for AIGLX (a visual desktop feature), and other features found within the Windows Catalyst drivers but not Linux.

I do realize you may not officially support Linux and that you have limited control over the development of these drivers, but I would kindly ask that you forward this comment to AMD and that you ask them to channel additional resources to the development of these drivers. In good time you should make Linux support from AMD a requirement. Another step that I would hope to see is including the ATI Linux display drivers on your support/driver CD. As the adoption of Linux on desktops continues to increase, I hope you are able to jointly improve your Linux presence with ATI/AMD.

[your name]

You may want to look at other vendors like System 76 or Lenovo.

I'm very curious about the quality of Lenovo's service/support for their cheaper 3000 series notebooks and desktops, which are not ThinkPad/ThinkCentre models and were released by Lenovo after they acquired IBM's PC division. Their desktop computers page says the 3000 series is "Backed by IBM service and support" (just like ThinkCentre), but I have doubts about Lenovo providing the same level of support for such a low price.

Anyhoo, thanks for your current ThinkPad anecdotes.

I remember when buying my Macbook Pro there were all sorts of rumors not to buy one. That there would something to be shortly released that would supersede it (of course, at the time, the only thing that could be cooler was a iTablet). People claim that Apple enjoys these rumors, though I have to imagine to some extent it hurts their sales.

No kidding. If an iTablet existed, I would have upgraded from my 800MHz iBook G4 about six months ago. As it is, I'm going to get an Lenovo X-series Tablet instead. I would have already bought it, but development of it lags behind the normal X series and it still uses a Pentium M. Of course, now that I say that I need to check again... holy shit, they've finally come out with it! *dances around wildly* Now I just need to scrounge up the $2000 ASAP...

But anyway, back to the point, Apple just lost a sale from me -- even though I love OS X -- because they didn't have a tablet.

Also, please, really, PLEASE, if this does come true, don't make us subscribe to .mac. It's not like I can actually afford the iPDA .. forcing me to pay a monthly subscription for owning a piece of hardware is too much.

I completely agree with that, too. I actually own two macs, the aforementioned iBook and also an iMac Core Duo. It's absurd that I should have to pay Apple $100 a year (or whatever the price is) to get my data to sync between the two (and so I refuse to do it). If you actually think about it, Apple is penalizing me for being a loyal customer! That's just not right.

They want you to buy one of THEIR systems. Deal with it.
I did deal with it by buying one of these fine machines. OS X did work on it despite the software design against such. Durable, maintainable and well appointed.

"Or set my room on fire. Or hurt me in other more subtle ways. Only then will I respect it." I know just the thing for you! http://www.apple.com/
http://www.dell.com/
http://www.lenovo.com/

This is finally getting attention because upper management is being "outsourced". First the manufacturing moves offshore. Then the engineering. Then the marketing operation becomes a small unit in Bentonville to interface with WalMart. Financing starts to come from Hong Kong and Dubai instead of New York.

At that point, there's no reason for expensive upper management in the US.

The IBM PC saga is instructive. It's Lenovo now. Principal operations are in Beijing. There's an "executive headquarters" in Raleigh, NC. They're hiring; they have about 250 openings. One is high-level technical (wireless networking interoperability). Five are low-level technical. The others are all sales-related, except for some people in "accounts receivable" doing collections.

Lenovo started out with more ex-IBM execs, but they're gradually disappearing.

Although the ASM and FRU numbers give you a rough estimate, Lenovo is telling us this is not a reliable way to flag the battery, since some of the recalled FRU's do not have Sony cells.

This is straght from Lenovo:
Along with the part number, every battery has a unique identifier known as the 11S bar code. This bar code is key to identifying if the battery is affected by the recall. If you believe you have one or more of these affected batteries, please visit the recall web site at http://www.lenovo.com/batteryprogram

The 11s Code is hard coded inside the battery, so I would think there would be no problem extracting it. Then go to the above web site, copy/paste the code, and it will tell you if it's affected or not.

You uninformed idiot. Perhaps you've never heard of http://www.research.ibm.com/bluegene/. IBM makes supercomputers, CRAY is a has been.

Oh, and by the way, IBM doesn't even make thinkpads anymore. http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/

So you've managed to make two claims and be wrong twice. I think I'll stick to my guns and say I'm right and you're wrong.

Lenovo's executive headquarters are in Purchase, New York, USA with principal operations in Beijing, China, and Raleigh, North Carolina, USA and an enterprise sales organization worldwide. The company employs more than 19,000 people worldwide.

You can find the same "certification" information here also:
http://www.lenovo.com/think/linux (same page, different logo).

Anyways, big deal. IBM wasn't shipping Linux or even supporting it directly. Just providing some installation info.

There are a multitude of other places where one can see IBM's support, endorsement, and development of Linux. The big question is where is IBM getting its hardware for its own employees these days? If there's an agreement with Lenovo to purchase PCs from them, I would imagine that this decision will create some serious support problems.

I don't work for Lenovo or IBM, but I do talk to my sales reps on a regular basis and get to ask some pretty pointed questions. Yes, IBM does have a relationship with Lenovo to provide laptops ... probably desktops, as well. IIRC, the deal is over the next 3 years to provide Lenovo laptops.

The deal is also when you buy a laptop from Lenovo, it comes with the "IBM" logo on it, and the blue "Access IBM" button. And that's also why www.lenovo.com/thinkpad redirects you to an ibm.com web site.

Personally, I'm curious how IBM will react to this. The IBM/Lenovo deal has IBM receiving all its laptops from Lenovo for the next 3 years, so what will the IBM Linux support techs say? Will they not care much, since the hardware isn't likely to change all that much in the (near) future?

As a customer, I am concerned if this will have any impact on IBM's support commitment for Linux on their servers and blades. We're a big user of IBM servers and blades, exclusively to run Linux. (Yes, I've already emailed my IBM rep to ask.)

A) The URL to let Lenovo know they'll lose your business, if like me, you're a longtime Linux Thinkpad user.

B) A request to Slashdot users for laptop alternatives that are Linux friendly. My T43 has bluetooth, built-in wireless, cpufreq scaling, the hd motion detector, the fingerprint scanner -- i.e., everything -- working great under Linux, with little to no hassle on my part. Have others had similar good experiences with other non-ibm/lenovo laptops? I'll be needing to find another company to give $2000 or so every couple of years.

errr... that's Lenovo , not "Levono" as spelled in the headline.

>firewalls to prevent any unauthorized phoning-home by these systems

If somebody were putting in factory-installed spyware (as if it were difficult to install it over the web later on), then if they were as clever as a national intelligence agency then they could use a covert channel.

Smpler and more elegant would be to have it periodically talk to https://support.lenovo.com./

Nonw of which should matter because machines with classified data are restricted to isolated networks.

Agreed, this is politicacl grandstanding.

Oh really, where can I buy this IBM PC you speak of?

http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/

Notice how that url doesn't contain ibm.com in it . . .

Also notice how all the products at http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/en/ are labelled Lenovo and not IBM. So where is this IBM PC I can buy?

Oh really, where can I buy this IBM PC you speak of?

http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/

Notice how that url doesn't contain ibm.com in it . . .

Also notice how all the products at http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/en/ are labelled Lenovo and not IBM. So where is this IBM PC I can buy?

http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/

I also think that there is a serious naming problem for... for... for this thing that I don't know a name for. I guess "x86 compatibles?"

So, they were "IBM's." Then "IBM compatibles." But now that IBM isn't even in the business anymore, that term is dumb, not to mention dated. Then there was "Wintel," but there's AMD, and there was Cyrix there for a while, and there's Transmeta.

So then there's just "Windows Machines," but what if I am indeed trying to talk about the machine, and not the software? It makes no sense to talk about a "Windows Machine" that's only ever run Linux. So there's "PC," and as the parent points out, many people know what you're talking about, but I also think it's a pretty seriously imperfect and potentially confusing term. My last Mac had "Power PC" printed in large, friendly letters on the front. Surely, Macs are "Personal Computers," so even if we computer people know what we mean by "PC," I wish we had a better word, and one that won't confuse others. (Yes! It does confuse others! I've had the "Macs aren't PC's?" discussion with people before. My step-mother told tech support she was on a PC, because her Mac said "Power PC" on the front, and didn't say "Mac" anywhere.)

Does anyone have anything better than "x86 compatible?" After all, the new Macs are x86 compatible. Of course, the new Macs also run windows. The new Macs are Wintel machines!
"Mac Wintel" or "Non-Mac Wintel?"
"Mac" or "Non-Mac x86 compatible?"
"Mac PC" or "Non-Mac PC?"

I wish there was a good term for what we're calling "PC's." A word for "non-macintosh, x-86 compatible home-level desktop computers that could run Windows or Linux."

Fine, I went and checked -

Press release for the X41 - April 5, 2005
http://www.lenovo.com/news/us/en/2005/04/x41.html

Lenovo Completes Acquisition of IBM's Personal Computing Division - May 1, 2005
http://www.lenovo.com/news/us/en/2005/05/dayone.ht ml

So all the work for the X41 was done by the time the PC division was actually sold off, but not before they agreed to sell it. I still say the X41 was an IBM model. So if it was a bad design, it would've had nothing to do with Lenovo management.

Fine, I went and checked -

Press release for the X41 - April 5, 2005
http://www.lenovo.com/news/us/en/2005/04/x41.html

Lenovo Completes Acquisition of IBM's Personal Computing Division - May 1, 2005
http://www.lenovo.com/news/us/en/2005/05/dayone.ht ml

So all the work for the X41 was done by the time the PC division was actually sold off, but not before they agreed to sell it. I still say the X41 was an IBM model. So if it was a bad design, it would've had nothing to do with Lenovo management.

Here's something interesting: After reading a lot of viewpoints (where I thought Thinkpads ALWAYS sucked - now there's just a "legitimate" excuse) - I went to Lenovo's site to examine the TPs again. http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/ If you keep your mouse over the T60 balloon (New ThinkPad T60 Notebooks) - the image on the right still has the IBM logo on the bottom right? This is true as of 4/17 9am EST.

You cannot have looked very hard. Try starting from here.

Or are you looking at the Lenovo ThinkPad pages? IBM doesn't make desktop PCs or laptops anymore.

That's called misinformation. It's a tactic used in the "free market" to create force that appears desirable. Even IBM has succumbed to this to sell off their PCD to Lenovo. What was the highest in quality is now in the hands of one of the CEOs from the Cursed Brand of Abysmal Quality. It's something to think about when let quality fall by the wayside, knowing that it affects your job as well by supporting an unsustainable practice such as offshoring.

Lets see... here is lenovo's press release: http://www.lenovo.com/news/us/en/2006/01/ind_state .html

I have reproduced the article here, with italics for word for word sections from the press release:

Indiana State University has selected the Lenovo ThinkPad as its preferred computer for students and faculty as the university moves toward becoming a notebook institution.

Developed by IBM, the ThinkPad is now manufactured and marketed by Lenovo, the world's third-largest personal computing company after its acquisition of IBM's personal computer business in 2005.

ISU will become the first public university in the state to require all students to have notebook computers, beginning with incoming freshmen in fall 2007.

The university is one of a handful of institutions nationally, including the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Clemson University, to institute similar mobile computing initiatives.

"When we announced the Notebook Initiative last September, we pledged that our students would receive high quality, business-grade laptops worthy of the investment they and their parents are making in an ISU education," said C. Jack Maynard, ISU provost and vice president for academic affairs. "The selection of the Lenovo ThinkPad fulfills that pledge."
ISU chose Lenovo because of its superior service and support, the quality of ThinkPad notebooks and the advanced wireless capabilities of the PCs.

(some parts skipped by article in their grab from the press release...)

ThinkPads help simplify the network connectivity process through ThinkVantage Access Connections 4.1, which helps mobile users set up and automatically switch from one available network connection to the next.

Through Access Connections, students and faculty will be able to seamlessly move from classes to dorm rooms and wired to wireless environments.

The widespread use of laptop technology will leverage the power of mobile computing to provide campuswide access through the university's extensive wireless network, said Susan Powers, professor of curriculum, instruction and media technology and chairwoman of ISU's notebook implementation committee.

"The notebook initiative gives us an opportunity to use technology to support learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered and community-centered learning environments. It is a window of opportunity for true innovation. Lenovo ThinkPad will be an excellent partner in our strategies to expand the learning environment of ISU," Powers said.

Isn't this unethical journalism, or am I simply old fashioned in my my thinking?

Nice try. Thinkpads are basically the same price as iBooks. In fact if you spec them out, the ThinkPads can be more expensive for about the same level of hardware.

The base-model iBook is $999, an equivalent ThinkPad is an R- or Z-series "Value" model, $1299 or $1499, respectively. The only way you can get a ThinkPad for less than the price of an iBook is with a crippled configuration (the R-series "Economy" model: XP Home Edition and only 256MB RAM with at least 64MB being used by the video controller).

Neither of the sites will let me deep-link to the configurations, but they're easy to find. Apple's is from the Apple Store, then click on iBook, the ThinkPads are from Lenovo's Products page and then click on ThinkPads.

Quality PC laptops are not necessarily cheaper than Apple. And I've used some of the "non quality" off-brand PC laptops, and I'd prefer never to go there again. Frankly they're so much trouble I'd say students would be better off with a spiral notebook and a #2 pencil.

There's some here. http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/

Quite. Here's the best picture I could find:
http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/

That's probably a fairly ephemeral link; this might hang around longer, but it's only a thumbnail:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/thinkpad/images/rt_titani umback_78.jpg

From this page:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/thinkpad/zseries/index.ht ml

I'm sure someone can do better than that.

I think it would be the ultimate Irony if they could work a deal with http://www.lenovo.com/think/us/en/index.html IBM PCs produced not by IBM, OS Software produced not by IBM.

Worked for Microsoft, Can't beat 'em Join 'em.

Choice exerpts from TFA:
If Apple was willing to consider a processor switch, moving to the Cell Processor would have made much more sense than going to Intel or AMD

Uh, except that the Cell isn't a general purpose processor (GPP) ? Just because Microsoft used a GPP (Intel P3) on Xbox1, doesn't mean that all future Xboxes are GPPs.

The vaunted Intel roadmap is nice, but no nicer than the AMD roadmap, and nothing that IBM couldn't have matched.

Except that Apple's big beef with IBM wasn't about roadmap, but production capacity. I bet there exist some nice 3.0Ghz+ G5s over at Fishkill, but hell if IBM could get them out of their fab without wasting huge amounts of wafer space...

That's the story as I see it unfolding. Steve Jobs finally beats Bill Gates. And with the sale of Apple to Intel, Steve accepts the position of CEO of the Pixar/Disney/Sony Media Company.

ROFL!!! I guess this was all just a big joke and this is the punchline :-)

You got me this time, Cringely.

[mode="seriously, folks"]
He paints a pretty interesting (and amusing) picture, but fails to account for other industry giants like, oh, say... Dell, and ... what's the name of that new Chinese company? I'd say this Mac-Tel alliance is definitely something that worries Microsoft, but it's probably more of a "lease with an option to buy" for now... and who knows if Steve is ready to sell...
[/mode]

No, he was meaning Lenovo

Certain once-large organizations have shed a lot of (and will soon shed all ) folks around here, and others are threatening to do the same. Not surprising, since RTP has been so telecom-centric, and unlike Silicon Valley, concentrates its employment base in a handful of large companies (vs. gajillions of startups).

The upshot is that there are a lot of unemployed techies around here who need re-training. Enter TechEngage. The proposition is simple: if you're unemployed, you get to attend a certain number of classes for free (or close to it), and in return, you donate 40 hours of your time to the cause.

I really wish the public sector would wake up to this effort. Oh, sorry, that would be socialist. Can't have that. Unless of course you're an unemployed textile worker in the western part of NC, without even a high-school diploma. Then our state legislature bends over for you, even though you could never contribute as much to the tax base once employed (grumble)..

"ThinkPad recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional"

But I agree that it's possible that they may go towards more to a non-MS, or MS-agnostic company.

I suspect it's just a quirk due lack of foreign character set support, but my browser rather helpfully displays the title of their website as "Lenovo ??"