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Replacing a Thinkpad?

Posted by kdawson on from the swimming-against-the-race-to-the-bottom dept.

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?"

19 of 902 comments (clear)

  1. the t series by bakamaki · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've repaired and issued a lot of laptops in my day and I'm not aware of a true competitor to the T series in terms of chassis design. The current T lineup is really nice, but expensive. I'm starting to think I'll get myself a Dell 1420n with Ubuntu for my next box. Granted it's not a rugged laptop but I don't really need that kind of durability. You could consider the Toughbooks, but I really don't have any practical knowledge of them.

    1. Re:the t series by melstav · · Score: 5, Funny

      While the Toughbooks may survive a drop into a vat of molten metal, I have on good authority that they don't take well to being dropped into a spinning dynamometer.

      Buddy of mine who works for one of the "Big Three" had the Toughbook on the hood of a car on one of the dynos. Walked away from the laptop and the testing tech gunned the engine. Computer vibrated off the hood and went into the dyno's rollers.

      My friend picked up all the pieces, put 'em in a box, went back to his desk, and called the HelpDesk and said: "There's something wrong with my laptop. It won't boot. It booted up fine this morning. I think you need to send someone out to take a look at it."

      The look on the HelpDesk technician's face when he looked into the box is said to have been priceless.

  2. Ummmm by tgd · · Score: 5, Informative

    You do realize Lenovo is selling the Thinkpads now because... *drumroll* they were the company that made them all along?

    1. Re:Ummmm by anthonyclark · · Score: 5, Funny

      You do realize Lenovo is selling the Thinkpads now because... *drumroll* they were the company that made them all along? Lenovowned!
      --
      ----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
    2. Re:Ummmm by OS24Ever · · Score: 5, Informative

      How do you define 'make'?

      Reason I ask is the same building where Lenovo computers are 'made' (IE Physically Assembled) is also the same building Apple, Dell, HP, Acer, and many others are made. The company is contracted out to make just about everyones laptop.

      China has taken over the manufacturing of *so* many products that we use day to day in the United States (and every other country) that it would be downright impossible to function by 'boycotting' anything Made in China.

      I started to look into it after the tenth toy of my kids was recalled. My son's wooden trains, my daughters dolls. Fun stuff. Not that my kids chew on them or anything but still, figured I'd send em in.

      So I started wondering what I could get as far as a toy without Made in China on it.

      in Short, you can't easily. A specialty store sometimes you can find things made in maybe Europe somewhere, but US made things are hard to find and anything non-chinese is pretty hard as well. Forget about shopping at Wal-Mart. That's the retail arm of China now.

      In this current global environment it's impossible for a company to be cost competitive because as a consumer we've been trained to throw out everything and focus on price. If this toothpaste is $0.50 cheaper than that toothpaste, I'm gonna buy it. Never mind that one keeps a family in the US employed and has strict laws about what can go in it vs. the other guy putting antifreeze in his mixture in china.

      What's a person to do? It can be done, but it's not something that is easy.

      --

      As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.

    3. Re:Ummmm by jaweekes · · Score: 5, Interesting

      NPR did an interview with the author of "A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy" and they admitted that it was almost impossible to avoid goods from China. It's a very good interview if you want to reduce your purchases from "Made in China".

  3. by that logic... by onemorehour · · Score: 5, Insightful

    avoid Dell, too, since the American government is doing such horrible things around the world. Yes, it's flawed logic. Move on.

    1. Re:by that logic... by operagost · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm certainly not buying American until the government allows freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. Oh wait... they do!
      Ascribing moral equality between the governments of China and the USA is an insult to the innocent people executed and imprisoned by the vile, corrupt government of China.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    2. Re:by that logic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Right, the US would never hold people without a trial, spy on its citizens, or deport people to be tortured

    3. Re:by that logic... by hoyeru · · Score: 5, Insightful

      by your logic, why isn't USA in Sudan RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE? Do you know by UN estimates 1.5 million women and children has been killed, raped etc in Sudan.

      by your logic, why did USA turn their back when simular genocide was happening in Rwanda?

      by your logic, why isn't USA invading Burm, sorry Mun-whetever its called?

      I can continue for a long long time you know. It would appear USA selectively decided who is bad and who isn't.

      Oh and also, remember that photo of Saddam and Rummy shaking hands back in 1980s-something? How come Saddam was good enough to do business with back then but NOT in 2003?

      Hello? hoyeru00@yahoo.com eagerly and breathlessly a-waiting your reply.

      Surprise me, PLEASE by saying something, anything intelligent instead of coming up with YET another new reason as to why USA illegally attacked a sovereign country without provocation.

        fuck karma, I like the truth better

      --
      fuck karma, I like saying the truth better
    4. Re:by that logic... by king-manic · · Score: 5, Insightful


      The worst part about the US going into Iraq is the entire world should have gone. Leaders like Saddam who routinely kill their own people en masse should not be allowed. While everyone was busy living in their free little NA or Europe, few seemed to care what was actually happening in Iraq. Until the US went in there.

      No, I don't buy the reasons given to us all as to why the US went in. But Saddam was a threat. To the world, to the region, and to his own people. He was a disgrace. The type of leader that the world shouldn't tolerate. So forgive me for not weeping that some shoddy reasoning (and who really knows the true purpose) was used to go in there.


      You invaded a fairly stable dictatorship and destroyed almost all of the infrastructure over 15 years, then remove the government and promoted civil war. It was bad under Saddam it's worse under the US. Unlike Japan or Germany there isn't multi billions pouring in to rebuild the infrastructure, we have multi-billion pouring in just to try to maintain order and supply your troops there. There wasn't a good reason to go in and that is why few countries did. Unlike Serbia or Rwanda there was no hope of making the situation better.

      You remember whose payroll Saddam was on in the 70's and 80's? Remember who was training and supplying Osama? Saddam is the type of leader The US promotes. It's asinine for you to say much about it. It's a bigger disgrace that your knowledge of history or world politics seems to come directly from fox news. Any an all action by Saddam were indrectly sanctioned by their main backer the US. So if the submitter has a problem with Chinese products because they backed the oppressive myanmar government then he should also boycott US products due to us backing Saddam and various other tyrannical dictators.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  4. Buy it anyway by ispeters · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

  5. Re:Yes, you're being silly by p0tat03 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Standing up for one's moral convictions is now silly? How far we've fallen...

  6. I'm also a fan of the T series by zymurgyboy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    and I've replaced it with this and this and couldn't be happier. If you're looking for something with a similar lifespan, look no further.

    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.
  7. Re:Yes, you're being silly by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do not misunderstand me... I find it great that he does that. However, I fear, he's going to have to stick to his current laptop. There is no was to get a computer that isn't manufactured at least partially in China.

  8. Re:Yes, you're being silly by p0tat03 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    True, though he can certainly minimize the dollar count going to China. Buying Lenovo would be giving every single dollar of the purchase to a Chinese company (though how they are directly related to the atrocities there... I'd never know), whereas buying, say, Dell, would only be giving manufacturing costs, while R&D remains here.

    As a Chinese-Canadian I'm glad there are people who, at the very least, are willing to think along this guy's lines. There are awful, horrifying things going on in that country and it's nice to see some people who aren't so American-centric they can't point out China on a map, much less the atrocities being committed there.

    As a side note... From my experience, more Americans know about these atrocities than Chinese. It's depressing, really. It's also depressing the number of new Chinese immigrants who are totally blown away by Canada's democratic government, since they thought (or were taught) that they had democracy all along.

  9. Re:Yes, you're being silly by bwalling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do you think the factory workers, or even the management at Lenovo have anything to do with China's military decisions? The US has a behavioral problem as well, do you think that world consumers should punish the people of the US economically because of it? When you boycott an entire country, keep in mind that the employees of the companies are people just like you who are working for a living. "China" is not some collection of a billion evil people shooting at monks - it's a country full of good people working to feed themselves and take care of their families.

  10. Possibly Asus? by Entropius · · Score: 5, Informative

    You could get an Asus laptop. Owned by the Taiwanese, and made in Taiwan (or at least that's what's stamped on the bottom of mine).

    Why just buy from not-China when you can buy from their enemies?

  11. Re:Yes, you're being silly by alienw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you have so much trouble understanding this stuff, then just look at the US. How many people voted to re-elect Bush, even after seeing how incompetent he was? You don't think it's the same phenomenon?