[ltp] X60 - (bad) experience, others?

[Pete Phillips]

>>>>> "Joakim" == Joakim Lagerqvist <jokke@linux.se> writes:

    Joakim> Dear all, Interesting to follow your discussion since I am
    Joakim> thinking of getting a new (small) laptop myself. I have used
    Joakim> thinkpads for quite some time and had good experience with
    Joakim> them, especially with Linux. But are they still as good or
    Joakim> should I look around for something else? I am currently
    Joakim> thinking about either a x61s or sony vaio TZ or something
    Joakim> similar.

    Joakim> What do you think? Is thinkpad still worth it?

I have been using an X61s for nearly 3 months now, and am very very
happy.

I needed something portable with which I could work on whilst
travelling, at home, and at my desk. I use emacs to read my mail and
org-mode to organise my life, so I wanted something small I can keep
near me at all times with working suspend/resume so I have easy access
to my emails and lists. 

Most of my work is done using using emacs, lyx, roff, firefox, gnumeric,
perl, freemind, openoffice etc, but I also require the ability to run
gimp, development web sites (using Zope, Joomla, Apache etc), plus some
database stuff (mysql/postgresql) when necessary. I also need to use
VMware with Windows XP occasionally, and the 2Gb memory (standard is
1Gb) means I can run a number of VMs without manic swapping (no dual
boot option necessary!)

The X61s is a perfect weight with the small battery for taking to short
meetings, carrying around the lab, plus I also have the larger battery
for travelling and all day meetings.  I get up to 5 hours from the large
battery but haven't really tweaked the system much. The small default
(and very neat) battery gives me around 2 hours although I suspect i
could get more.

They are not cheap, but postings on the net gave me the impression that
Thinkpads really last.  The machine seems solid, and I was partly
persuaded to buy due to seeing a post that said that the trackpoint
button is solid state, and is very robust (the trackpad on my previous
Asus gave up the ghost after 2 years). There also seems to be superb
community support for thinkpads compared to my previous laptops.

It is wonderful to get home, open the lid, and almost immediately see my
gnome session back up and running from the suspend I did at work.

Lastly - if you are going to get one, spring for an Aussiebag slip
case. They fit these laptops like a glove (they make different sizes
depending on if you have the 4 or 8 cell battery!)

Pete