As is now ancient news – in digital terms – IBM sold off the ThinkPad line to Lenovo. I’ve been pretty much thrilled with both my ThinkPad T41 and IBM’s support. Easy to upgrade, pain free process to get parts, and updated drivers every couple of months. So the obvious question is “What will Lenovo be like?”
Up to now I haven’t noticed much difference… the IBM site I’ve gone to for over a year is still up with links for new patches. I haven’t had to call into a CSR for parts recently. One thing to note is that over the last couple of weeks there’s been just about a dozen updated drivers, most of which simply pull the IBM name off the install dialogs, icons, and program groups. True, there might some updated bits, but I’m assuming nothing much has changed: same code, updated string table. I’m still curious to see what the next year or two brings from Lenovo…
There was a new version of the Presentation Manager and the On-Screen driver… I was hoping they fixed the dialog for Wireless Card management – it doesn’t seem to like the fact that I have my Task Bar on the left edge of my screen – but it’s looking like that just one more bug in my life that won’t get fixed.
Please… please, please don’t screw up the ThinkPad line!
I’m telling ya – Powerbook x86 is the way to go!
Few things have to happen… one is that it’s gotta dual boot (which it should). Then Apple has to design a 14″ machine that is under 5 pounds AND doesn’t burn my leg hair – they’ve yet to do that in the PB or iBook line. Then it’s gotta be cheaper than a T4x line.
Ideally. the next upgrade for a notebook would be a 14.1″ T44 Tablet PC… but we’ll see.
I recently won an IBM Notebook 240. Not having much experience with computers, I found everything easy to set up and use. The instructions were very clear on how to set up and use the special functions. A big plus is the free 24/7 800 IBM help desk number if you have any problems.
The 240 notebook is very light weight and compact. Thus the 240 makes a great travel notebook by taking up less space (such as air travel.) But yet it is very durable.