[ltp] Which Thinkpad to get

[Bernd Illig]

Hi,

I own both 600x (650MHz/256MB RAM/20 gigabyte) and a T22
(900MHz/256MB RAM/40 gigabyte)
My comparison: Both laptops are nice to work with and go with a lot of
different distributions. I have tried (among others):
- Libranet 2.8.1 and 3.0 (very user-friendly Debian based)
- Slackware 9.1 up to 10.1,
- VectorLinux 5.0 SOHO (my favourite at the moment, a Slackware based
  and _very fast_ derivate),-
- Suse 9.2 and 9.3 (maybe a bit slow on a 600x)
- Mandriva 2005 LE
- Ubuntu 4.10 and 5.4

All of them worked o.k. Suse 9.2 and 9.3 were pre-configured very well
for Thinkpads, but Suse is a heavy weight distro and a bit slow
compared to Vector and the others mentioned above.

While working with multimedia apps (players) or graphical apps like
Gimp, you can notice the difference between a 600x and a T22. The
900MHz chip is working faster and your graphic card memory is 8 MB
instead of 4 MB in a 600x.So, If you are going to work with multimedia
tools a lot, the T21/22/23 is the better choice. 
For browsing, mailing, text processing and stuff like that a 600x is
quite enough. 
Oh, yes, there are two more plus points on the bigger one: A T21/22/23
has a "Thinklight" which enlightens your keyboard when working in dark
rooms. And the fan of a T2x is more silent than on a 600x.

Plus points on the 600x are (subjective) better feeling working with
the keyboard and the covered ports (USB, serial,floppy,printer etc)

I cannot compare the running time for the batteries, because all my
batts are used. Normally, I can squeeze out about 2 hours (offline,
writing, reading mails and usenet, X server _on_)

Facit: A T2x is worth its higher price when 8 MB graphic memory
compared to 4 MB memory is important for you. Imagine starting a 16
MB .mpg video with mplayer on Gnome/KDE with your 600x: Its no fun to
watch your player go down every second try...

Hope this helps,

 cheers,


Bernd Illig
Muenster, GER
(T22/VectorLinux 5.0.1 SOHO/Sylpheed2.0)




am Thu, 29 Sep 2005
22:25:35 +0100 schrieb Nigel Wilkinson <nigel@waspz.co.uk>:

> Hi folks
> 
> My beloved 600E has been commandeered by my wife but I've been granted 
> permission to purchase another machine for myself. With the cash available 
> I'm looking at a 600X (650MHz) or perhaps a T22. The T22 is faster but I've 
> never seen one let alone played with one. Does anyone know how they compare 
> or have any other suggestions.
> 
> Cheers
> Nigel
> -- 
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad
>