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#11
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On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 10:53:14 -0500, keith wrote:
Oh, so you're saying that the Thinkpad T21 that I have is an IBM? :-) Business manufacturing. Perhaps your ThinkPad wasn't made by IBM, but IIRC the 'T' series was designed by IBM (along with the 'A', and 'X'). FWIG the 'R' and 'I' series were OEM all the way. My T21 is marked "Made in Mexico." I believe that the factory in Mexico is/was owned by IBM rather than an OEM manufacturer. My old 701 and 600 ThinkPads were also made in Mexico. I don't know what I'm going to do when I replace my T21 next year. The desirable options seem to be diminishing. I'm not too keen on getting a Toshiba or HPaq made out of rounded, shiny silver plastic. That 12" Apple Powerbook is starting to look more attractive every day. But the cost of replacing all of my software plus a printer makes that a rather expensive proposition. - - Gary L. Reply to the newsgroup only |
#12
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Gary L. wrote:
I don't know what I'm going to do when I replace my T21 next year. The desirable options seem to be diminishing. I'm not too keen on getting a Toshiba or HPaq made out of rounded, shiny silver plastic. That 12" Apple Powerbook is starting to look more attractive every day. But the cost of replacing all of my software plus a printer makes that a rather expensive proposition. That 12" Powerbook with brushed Titanium is a magnet for scratches. And those Mac-crack-addicts being the computer-posers that they are, will not even consider buying a used Powerbook if it's got even one blemish on it. Besides, on my T21 Thinkpad, despite the fact that the case is made of metal, it's much easier to bend it than any of the plastic notebooks I've had. While I am opening up the display lid, without even too much effort the display will show pressure marks right at the point where my fingers are touching the lid. Never had this problem with plastic laptops. Yousuf Khan |
#13
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On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 16:33:23 -0500, Yousuf Khan
wrote: I don't know what I'm going to do when I replace my T21 next year. The desirable options seem to be diminishing. I'm not too keen on getting a Toshiba or HPaq made out of rounded, shiny silver plastic. That 12" Apple Powerbook is starting to look more attractive every day. But the cost of replacing all of my software plus a printer makes that a rather expensive proposition. That 12" Powerbook with brushed Titanium is a magnet for scratches. And those Mac-crack-addicts being the computer-posers that they are, will not even consider buying a used Powerbook if it's got even one blemish on it. I'm sure you're right about the scratches but I'm not really very concerned about resale value; just usability. The cost of replacing a fair amount of software makes the Powerbook a poor value. You really have to be a Mac lover to be willing to pay a big premium to switch. From my somewhat limited experience with Macs and OS X, there really isn't enough appeal to me such that I'm willing to pay the premium. Besides, on my T21 Thinkpad, despite the fact that the case is made of metal, it's much easier to bend it than any of the plastic notebooks I've had. While I am opening up the display lid, without even too much effort the display will show pressure marks right at the point where my fingers are touching the lid. Never had this problem with plastic laptops. Hmm. My T21 has plastic case with metal particles embedded in the plastic. It is quite flexible. When I first bought it, I was disappointed in the case and keyboard as compared to my 600. The 600 has a much sturdier metal case (aluminum, I think) that was coated with black rubber, and the keyboard on the 600 seemed firmer and better supported than the T21 keyboard. The replacement I was mulling over was an X series; perhaps with a media "slice" that could remain on my desk. I prefer to have just the TrackPoint and not a touchpad as well, and the lighter weight would be nice. It has a titanium shell, but with the black rubber coating. If the IBM PC business is sold off to some Chinese company, I'm not sure that I would want to buy another ThinkPad. So my question is: what other options exist? I want similar build quality as compared to the ThinkPad, decent driver support, good battery life and freedom from pre-installed garbage like AOL, previews of Disney games and MS Works. - - Gary L. Reply to the newsgroup only |
#14
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Gary L. wrote:
So my question is: what other options exist? I want similar build quality as compared to the ThinkPad, decent driver support, good battery life and freedom from pre-installed garbage like AOL, previews of Disney games and MS Works. I don't know, maybe an Acer Ferrari notebook? :-) They are supposed to be using the special Ferrari car paint on those things' cases (yeah, right!), so I would assume it's a metallic casing too. And it will allow you to out-pose the Mac-crack posers. Yousuf Khan |
#15
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Yousuf Khan wrote:
And there's also an early review of the first PC: The First IBM PC http://www.darron.net/firstibm.html a wonderful piece of engineering * intel 8088: programmers really like this architecture, easy assembler * isa bus: excellent forward-thinking design, still used today in some pcs * the best operating system: dos 1.0, boot-time better than windows xp! * excellent main-storage layout: later extended with xms,ems,hma, .... * optional coprocessor 8087: revolutionary stack-architecture |
#16
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Horst Gfrerer wrote:
Yousuf Khan wrote: And there's also an early review of the first PC: The First IBM PC http://www.darron.net/firstibm.html a wonderful piece of engineering * intel 8088: programmers really like this architecture, easy assembler * isa bus: excellent forward-thinking design, still used today in some pcs * the best operating system: dos 1.0, boot-time better than windows xp! * excellent main-storage layout: later extended with xms,ems,hma, .... * optional coprocessor 8087: revolutionary stack-architecture The chart shows that the IBM's competition at the time were Tandy, Apple, Commodore, Atari, HP, Northstar, TI, Intertec Data, Tektronix, and Exidy Systems. Most of those I could figure out, but what was HP or Tektronix selling at the time? And some of them like Intertec and Exidy, I never even heard about. Yousuf Khan |
#17
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On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 18:30:30 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Horst Gfrerer wrote: Yousuf Khan wrote: And there's also an early review of the first PC: The First IBM PC http://www.darron.net/firstibm.html a wonderful piece of engineering * intel 8088: programmers really like this architecture, easy assembler * isa bus: excellent forward-thinking design, still used today in some pcs * the best operating system: dos 1.0, boot-time better than windows xp! * excellent main-storage layout: later extended with xms,ems,hma, .... * optional coprocessor 8087: revolutionary stack-architecture The chart shows that the IBM's competition at the time were Tandy, Apple, Commodore, Atari, HP, Northstar, TI, Intertec Data, Tektronix, and Exidy Systems. Most of those I could figure out, but what was HP or Tektronix selling at the time? At the time I had a few Tektronix signal processing systems that were PDP-11 based. Tektronix and HP were both selling microprocessor *DEVELOPMENT* systems. At $50K to $1.5M there wasn't much "personal" in there (though they were hard enough to use that they tended to own a person). We had a network of Intel boxen that were no different. -- Keith |
#18
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On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 16:33:23 -0500, Yousuf Khan
wrote: Besides, on my T21 Thinkpad, despite the fact that the case is made of metal, it's much easier to bend it than any of the plastic notebooks I've had. While I am opening up the display lid, without even too much effort the display will show pressure marks right at the point where my fingers are touching the lid. Never had this problem with plastic laptops. I've been a pretty avid user of the Thinkpad eversince I tried the T20, then getting my own A20 replaced by a T30 as well as my darling's T40 (he wouldn't swap with me ). Don't think I've seen the same problem you did, maybe you were just being too rough with it? pPpP But this is sad news, I hate to think I've to live with a trackpad only replacement when my T30 gives up the ghost another year or two down the road -- L.Angel: I'm looking for web design work. If you need basic to med complexity webpages at affordable rates, email me Standard HTML, SHTML, MySQL + PHP or ASP, Javascript. If you really want, FrontPage & DreamWeaver too. But keep in mind you pay extra bandwidth for their bloated code |
#19
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Yousuf Khan wrote:
The chart shows that the IBM's competition at the time ... 1981 or so? HP's minicomputer lines had been competing with IBM for some years, of course. ... but what was HP or ... selling at the time? If we're just considering "PC" competition, it depends on what you call a PC. HP had been selling desktop BASIC- or HPL-only workstations based on their proprietary 16-bit "BPC" chip since 1975 or so (and was just transitioning them to Mc68K). There was also the HP 85A BASIC programmable calc (CPU not known to me), the HP 120 and 125 (Z80, CP/M as I recall), and some more obscure but still programmable stuff like the 2647A and 2649A terminals (808x, OS unknown). The HP 150 "TouchScreen" PC (808x, DOS), HP's first real (if not entirely compatible) "PC" probably wasn't out just yet then. -- Regards, Bob Niland http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider. |
#20
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The little lost angel wrote:
But this is sad news, I hate to think I've to live with a trackpad only replacement when my T30 gives up the ghost another year or two down the road I still don't get this, there are so many pressure-stick fans out there? I've had two laptops with pressure-sticks (a Toshiba Satellite and the IBM, and I still have them, BTW); and two with touchpads (a Compaq and a Dell). I still much prefer the touchpads over the pressure-sticks anyday. I would guess that will the pressure-sticks disappearing that I'm not alone in my preference. The touchpads are much easier to learn than the pressure-sticks, and are usually much quicker to move around. Also the touchpads are much closer to actual mouse-like positioning than touchpads, whenever the manufacturer is smart enough to place the buttoms above the pad rather than below. Yousuf Khan |
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