Thinkpads Forum

I sent an e-mai to Lenovo asking if they were willing to sell a Thinkpad with eCS preinstalled. The below is their reply.
" Dear Mr. Mullins,

Thank you for contacting Lenovo, the makers of ThinkPad
and ThinkCenter PC Products.

We are in receipt of your e-mail regarding information on
ordering a ThinkPad with the operating system eComStation.

Please be advised, you have reached a general contact forum.

For further assistance, please contact Think PC Sales Center
at 877-884-4658. Hours of operation are Monday to Friday
8:30 A.M. to 9:15 P.M, Saturday 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. EST.

Thank you for visiting our site and contacting Lenovo.

Shakeel Bk Ahmed
Electronic Response Center "

It would be neat if alternative operating systems were given as choices when ordering a computer.

As a choice? I don't see why not...

I'd like, on any model, the option of...

No OS
XP Home
XP Pro
eComStation
Some Linux distro (support would be tricky, though)

This in contrast to the current system where certain type-models are tied to certain OSes. If a certain type-model that comes with XP Home is on sale, yet the XP Pro version of that type-model isn't, and you need Pro, you're screwed.

I am more concerned about having to pay for an operating system that I won't be using. There is support for OS/2 and eCS online (ie; http://www.os2ecs.org , http://www.os2world.com , http://www.os2.org , http://www.os2warp.be and other places).

Well, the most important option would be (in addition to the current XP choices - yet adding the ability to pick your XP version on any type-model) no operating system. On any type-model.

It would not only be nice to be able to chose the operating system (eComStation, Windows, Linux, etc) but also be able to chose which software you want installed. I bought a notebook computer with WinXP-HE os plus software; some of which I do not use.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl ... 04/0415221

They're going to be a MS Exclusive Partner.

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Well IBM used to sell open bay computers such as the commercial desktop and maybe some PS/2 models. Unfortunately, if one doesnt want the MS preloaded OS, there's no credit for not wanting it.