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Replacing a Thinkpad?
An anonymous reader writes "As a very happy Thinkpad T20 user (still working after 7 years), I always planned on replacing it with another Thinkpad T-series. However, Thinkpads are now produced by Lenovo, a Chinese company, and I can't quite bear to buy Chinese while the Burmese military are shooting at monks with the Chinese Government as their biggest backer. Maybe this is silly, as whatever I buy is likely to be made (at least in part) in China... but still, what are my options for something as well built as the Thinkpad T-series?"
Where exactly do you think the other laptop manufacturers make their gear? A hint: "Designed in California, Made in China", and that is just one of the favourites around here on slashdot.
avoid Dell, too, since the American government is doing such horrible things around the world. Yes, it's flawed logic. Move on.
>> Thinkpads are now produced by Lenovo, a Chinese company
If that was your problem, you should never have bought a Thinkpad ever. They were always manufactured by Lenovo which has always been a Chinese comopany, the country which it belongs to has always been the same. Can I call this a sudden attack of morality?
Aside from the obvious hypocrisy mentioned above, I am sure you will get a lot of suggestions from the cult of Mac, but believe me - its hard to find a replacement for Thinkpad. No matter how slick other notebooks may look, in terms of fineness, usability and sheer joy of typing (yes, thats critical factor for me at least), nothing comes near.
This is cynical of me, but your private little boycott is not going to do the monks any good. If you buy a new Thinkpad now, it'll outlast the problem in Burma. Just buy another one. Lenovo has always produced Thinkpads, it's just that IBM doesn't support them directly anymore. Thinkpads are still the most reliable laptops in the market.
Ian
Buy a newer, but still-made-by-IBM-not-Lenovo Thinkpad off eBay?
I've supported a large number of thinkpads over the years, and never thought of them as being that well made. Certainly no more reliable than a Dell latitude. Anyway, if you're looking for a tough relaible laptop, get a Panasonic Toughbook. It's the best we've found, YMMV.
I certainly wouldnt want to by anything from the USA while children are dying of cholera in Iraq because the USA backed regime has blocked imports of Chlorene.
Old COBOL programmers never die. They just code in C.
What is wrong with your T20?
I have an X23 that I refurbished. Maxed out the RAM and put in a new hard-drive. I can't see any reason to replace until it dies.
Eventually I will replace the spinning hard-drive with a flash-drive. I'd love to find a way to replace the CCFL backlight with LED were that possible, to make it even more long-lived.
The American fascination with tossing perfectly adequate technology into a landfill is apalling.
After Tiananmen Square I stopped buying Chinese. In the last few years it has been almost impossible. If the main thing isn't made in China, components are, and that goes for almost everything. I am sure my shoes are made from the finest Falun Gong hides. In terms of a laptop, I don't any that would have most of the parts made in China. Not much has changed in terms of Chinese regard for human rights, but no one seems to care much as long as they can get what they want cheap, regardless of the treatment of the labour that produces them and the regime that allows it.
We used to liberate people, now we liberate markets.
I've used Macs for years, especially the Powerbook line, and they are long lasting & durable. Plus, you'll be able to run 3 different OS's with Bootcamp.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
That reducing the wealth of people in an area makes them more subservient and dependent on the wealthy? In this case, the state... Sanctions ironically simply cement the power of the powerful.
You make people more independent by making them wealthy.
Deleted
Most companies, even Lenovo, use ODM companies to make laptops. Some of these companies are Chinese, but Taiwan is also a major competitor. Look for names like Quanta, Compal, or ASUS if you want to go with a Taiwanese company instead of a Chinese company. The ODM relationships are not advertised, so you will have to do some digging. Join forums like notebookreview.com and ask people to tell you where their laptops label says it was manufactured if you want to be sure.
I carried my little white 2001 iBook in a gym bag back and forth to the office for 4 years, before retiring it for it's final year to home only as a couch computer. It finally gave up the ghost after 5.5 years, and two drops to the linoleum covered floor in my living room -- once from 2 feet, once from three and a half. I wish Apple still used the bullet proof glass for iBook cases. That iBook sure took a beatin' before it belly-uped .
If you never make mistakes, it's probably because you're not doing anything.
"what are my options for something as well built as the Thinkpad T-series?""
You could try Macbook pro.
In America, you can have a website and a donate money to form an organization saying "Bush sucks". In China, if you did that, you would wind up in jail.
This is my sig.
Sources, or gtfo.
c++;
Is there really someone left in the US who believes that people are unemployed because of production moving overseas? We are at full employment; people aren't starving here, just doing non-manufacturing jobs. It's okay.
Do you have ESP?
Don't buy a Thinkpad anyway, the quality has gone through the floor in the last few years. My company bought some new T43's, and they are pieces of crap.
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
Then go to http://www.xogiving.org/ and order up a couple of XO laptops so the poor kids in Burma have a shot (pardon the expression) at a real future. If you like, you can sign up to buy a pair of XO laptops, one for a poor kid in some third-world country and one for your own kid or a neighbor or even for yourself. You'll pay less for those two XOs than Microsoft gets for a retail copy of Windows, and they'll do a lot more good (and, um, work a lot better ...)
I really hope these Burmese Generals end up in front of a firing squad.
Where do you want those to end up who pay (US taxpayers) contract killers murdering at random (aka 'Blackwater')?
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Aside - am I alone in chuckling at the stream of people suggesting Apple products, even though the original poster specifically stated that he doesn't want a Chinese made laptop? Has no Mac user ever turned their machine upside down and looked at the little sticker on the bottom?
Anyhow, I have to think that somewhere in the US secuirity establishment there must be a company supplying laptop gear designed and built in the U.S. specifically because folks like the CIA might not want to trust hardware built in China.
Or, in other words, if all laptops are built in China, could the Chinese government be dumb enough not to include some super-secret features that they can use when needed?
Three Squirrels
It didn't need to be said. And it does not even come close to telling the entire story. Almost all Iraqi arms under Saddam were French and Russian made.
That the US backed Iraq due to *the enemy of my enemy* policy is no secret. And I personally do not like that type of policy, even if the enemy was Iran. Do you have any idea what actually went on in Iran and how disgusting of a government that is even to this day?
However, as much as I don't like it I'm not going to pretend a case can't be made for it.
Bottom line is, just because you can copy-n-paste an article from the internet doesn't mean you understand anything about the the article. And it doesn't mean the article is with merit.
I personally find most of the touting of US-Iraq relations prior to GWI to be very simplistic in nature. It's rare to see someone discussing it in detail and in regards to the region and world as a whole over the lsat 40 or 50 years.
Life isn't always so simple that a trite copy-n-paste can make a good point on your behalf.
...is there no one left on Slashdot who grasps the concept of sarcasm?
How confidently you speak for the one point two million corpses in Iraq, plus the four million or so refugees. You must have mad psychic powers.
So by this metric, if the US simply executed its criminals w/o trial, we would be the BEST country on the planet.
Awesome
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
Yes like the West hasn't supported monsters.... Half of the "leaders" of Africa, Arab "royalty", and South American (drug)lords....
Stick with the Lenovo while the IBM magic is still there... Just got a X61s after having a T21, T30 and T42 and couldn't be more happy. Nothing like a IBM!! How I will miss them in a couple of years.