[ltp] New ThinkPad

[Micha Feigin]

On 18/06/11 21:22, Steven J. Owens wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 08:50:35AM -0400, James Knott wrote:
>> Paul Seelig wrote:
>>> Writing only in general terms, far from giving specific recomendations:
>>>
>>> The problem with byuing any new machine is that one becomes the Linux
>>> beta tester, if not even alpha tester, for the rather newish hardware.
>>> If i'd be you, i'd rather check the maturity of the Linux support for
>>> any possible machine via www.thinkwiki.org and decide where to spend the
>>> money on the basis of the thus acquired knowledge.
>>>
>>> Due to these considerations i once decided to stick with the T61 (also
>>> even T60) generation Thinkpads using Penryn CPU's, mostly relying on
>>> Intel graphics due to the infamous nVIDIA bug. Depending on one's own
>>> work requirements, this might already be enough oomph for the EURO.
>>>
>>> And if one doesn't mind the shift to 16:10 or even 16:9 display ratio,
>>> even something like the T400/T500 or T410/T510 would already be a good
>>> choice.
>>>
>>> If you absolutely need only the latest Thinkpad generation, it will be
>>> hard to benefit from the already gained and documented experience of
>>> already exisiting users.
>
>       Amen.  I just bought a top of the line t520, and am now
> replicating my previous experience with the then-bleeding-edge t43p.
>
>       On the other hand, I'm _just now_ replacing my t43p, so I have a
> tendency to hang onto these things for quite awhile :-).  Thus,
> despite the frustrations - the t520 is still a bit undersupported: I
> have to use hibernate instead of suspend; I'm not actually using the
> nvidia support yet because I don't want to spend a few days fiddling
> with drivers; sound seems kind of lackluster; we've seen numerous
> reports of lockups here on the list - I figure that soon enough the
> t520 will be into "well explored" territory and I'll get another
> sevearl years of useful life out of it.
>
>> As for 16:9 etc, my R31 is the last 4:3 device I own.  Everything
>> else is wide screen.  Even my main computer monitor is 16:9 1080p
>> and both my TVs are wide screen too.
>
>       The 16:9 screen was pretty disappointing.  I found it a real
> buzzkill at first, hadn't realized how much it was going to bug me.
> If they'd just kept the screen height of the old size and added screen
> width, I'd be a much, much happier camper.
>

I hate the 16:9 as well. Great for movies (as they are in 16:9 ratio these 
days), but horrible for text (seems like we're going back to one line terminals 
in the not so far future the way screens are going).

>       However, I did eventually get used to it.  Although I had some odd
> problems with pixel width last night.  I used imagemagick to rotate a
> roughly letter-box proportioned jpeg.  The new jpeg looks squashed to
> me, but not to people elsenet looking at it, and linux reports the new
> image as the same dimensions (576x432 vs 432x576).  My current
> suspicion is that something is wonky with my pixel width, but I don't
> have time to spend a few days fiddling with drivers.
>

How about using a ruler to measure the image on screen and see if it changes ratio?

One other thing for the OP from the original message, I don't think that 
anything bellow (edge included) the thinkpad line has the red trackpoint thingy 
if memory serves.