Thinkpad T23 still useable after all these years!

[fefrie]

I had put away the thinkpad for a bit, but just recently upgraded the web browser from ie6 and opera 9.27 to opera 9.52.

In the era of more bloated software slowing things down, this latest edition of opera works great and makes the t23 seem super zippy again. It's supremely customizable and I highly recommend it!

There are some issues with website compatability with ebay, and hotmail, but if it's ever a real problem I use ie6. I've tried firefox, and really didn't like it. Couldn't make it look like the way I want, and opera has tons of skins which change the layout and spacing to how I need it, which is ultra functional, but minimalist. With only a 1024x768 screen I find ie7 and ff to have too many tabs and columns that take up too much space.

I highly recommend everyone try opera! I was thinking of letting the old t23 go, but it works as fast on the internet as my pentium m laptop. It bogs down because of the pc133memory and the slower hard drive, but for sites like youtube, it still manages to keep up.

The t23 form factor just can't be beat, and it's indestructible. Not that I treat it poorly, but I just don't have to worry carrying it around.

[tfflivemb2]

Moved to the T2x conference instead of the Marketplace, unless you were planning on selling it...

[fefrie]

Marketplace?

Heck no. I think that its at the 'worth more to me than more than it's worth' stage!

[AlphaKilo470]

I know the feeling. I didn't stop feeling regret over selling my T23 until I got my first functional T42 back in April (then the one I have now). Now, with that good news outta the way, when do you plan on sending me your newer Pentium M notebook considering it's no longer needed as much

[fefrie]

As soon as I max out the memory from 640mb to 1G!

I am starting to migrate back to the T23. I've got an Asus which is a no nonsense computer similar to the T23, it's got a 1600x1050 screen which is nice, but as a 15" widescreen, it's a bit clunky and the fan, although reasonably quiet, runs all the time. Especially since I don't use the touch pad, and use a mouse and have a aluminum sheet that acts as a laptop and mouse rest. It's mostly fine, but I'm definitely going to keep the T23 as it's a good short duration road warrior.

Sometimes it's a bit refreshing to walk around the house with a smaller laptop that doesn't need any wires or such, and even the 1024x768 resolution is a nice break from the crisp, but tiny resolution of the 1600x1050 screen. And did I mention that it runs ultra, ultra silent?

I don't need to travel for long times with a laptop much, but if I did, it would definitley be an x series laptop. But for the most part the t23 fits the bill for 90% of my needs in that regard.

It works well enough so that I can save my money for my foreclosure proceedings!

Ha ha, just kidding, but it sounds beleiveable don't it!

[doctor bloomquist]

I think I used opera once back in the late 90s, wasn't to my taste but are you sure about hotmail and eBay? I mean of all the sites to have compatability problems with !!!

[sjthinkpader]

Yes, when my daughter's T40 failed, she got a T23 as temporary machine. Now that the replacement T43 arrived, she doesn't feel compelled to switch yet.

Still has several serving in backup duties for newer machines.

[gator]

I own two top of the line T23s, and use one of them every single day. It is one of my favourite machines to use out of my house ... the form factor/weight ratio is just perfect, and these machines are very rugged. I love T23s!

[fefrie]

I think I used opera once back in the late 90s, wasn't to my taste but are you sure about hotmail and eBay? I mean of all the sites to have compatability problems with !!!

When I say hotmail or ebay doesn't work, what I mean is that when using those sites, opera just works like plain old internet explorer. I use mouse gestures to open, close, open in background tabs. With hotmail. I have to use 'physical' buttons instead of mouse gestures on the spot.

I do a lot of research on the net where a page will have tons of links that I have to open, and with opera, I can have them all loading in the background even while I'm opening up more links to the background on the main page! This is all with just moving the mouse and the right click button. No need to press shift, or right click for the context menu and selecting 'open in background tab', of which I should mention, doesn't exist in IE or FF. Open something up in a new tab, and it always pops up infront of your work.

Spend 5 minutes with mouse gestures, you'll never want another browser again. It is the Mac of browsers. I've customized how/why/what/where, the buttons are/do/work to my preference. Can browsers be intuitive? With opera, yes!

Even with little things like that, opera as a web browser is infinitley better than IE in my mind. When I do have to use IE for certain things, it is painful.

I promise to not talk about opera again.!

[mattbiernat]

everything works for me t23 except the WiFi, can't get it to work ever since i got it a year ago. but it is a great machine overall

[fefrie]

everything works for me t23 except the WiFi, can't get it to work ever since i got it a year ago. but it is a great machine overall

My t23 had stock built in wireless b, and my home still uses wireless b (no g) and when at home, it NEVER had a problem connecting to the internet.

However when going to coffee shops, I had an AWFUL time trying to connect. Reinstalling drivers, ibm wireless connect program.

One time I went to Banff and at the coffee shop, no internet connection. I bought a broadcom minipci G card, and went back to Banff 2 weeks later, no problem connecting to the coffee shop. And no problem connecting to any hot spot anywhere.

I highly recommend upgrading the card from b to g. It's simple, you lose the modem, but you can always keep the B card. It's worthless these days anyways.

Upgrade the CPU to 1.2, and you'll never get another laptop again!

[ajkula66]

Although one would never guess from my signature (or reputation on this forum... ) T23 remains my favourite form factor, and one of my all-time-favourites. Most bang for the buck in today's market as well, if one is content with using it for basic stuff that it was designed for, and where it performs flawlessly.

Sooner or later I'll bump into one with SXGA+ and wireless again and keep it...

[mattbiernat]

I highly recommend upgrading the card from b to g. It's simple, you lose the modem, but you can always keep the B card. It's worthless these days anyways.

yeah i got a linksys g wifi, doesn't work at home but i didn't try it elsewhere yet.

[sjthinkpader]

I was infatuated with built-in WiFi and SXGA+ so all of my T23 except one have both these features.

It is hard to tell the LCD cover type without the part number and antennae if the hash marks on the side are not visible. Actually the WiFi cover has an extra lip in the right side hinge cover cut out. So I was able to find WiFi covers for all my T23s.

[fefrie]

yeah i got a linksys g wifi, doesn't work at home but i didn't try it elsewhere yet.

Everywhere else will also have a g router, so you will have the same problem. Nobody has a b router. I think that my b router is at least 5 years old?

You can 'try' to turn your g router into a 'b only' router by going into the config of the router. Most stock routers are set in b/g config, but try to reset it to only b configuration. If you connect, then you know it's either the t23 card, or software causing the problem. Problem is, the card only works with the Access Connections program, and the Access Connection works only with the IBM card.

Upgrading to the Broadcom card was the best $10 I've spent on it yet.

[fasterbybike]

Open something up in a new tab, and it always pops up infront of your work.

You can customise how FF opens new pages: in a new tab or window; and whether it brings it to the front or not. Under Tools|Options|Tabs

[ZAGNUT]

With only a 1024x768 screen I find ie7 and ff to have too many tabs and columns that take up too much space.

yes, ie7 is a steaming pile but your wrong on FF. here's a screenshot of how i have mine set up on my T30:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showatt. ... id=1924345

the tab bar will only show up if i have more than one open and even so i still get a lot of usable screen space. i do like opera but i could never get it slimmed down as much as FF and it didn't have the inline spell check feature that i love so much in FF. but what really peeved me with opera is that the tab bar would never be right above the page but always above another tool bar. maybe the newer version has these problems fixed?


dave

[RealBlackStuff]

Sooner or later I'll bump into one with SXGA+ and wireless again and keep it...

Check your email.

[Purcy]

With only a 1024x768 screen I find ie7 and ff to have too many tabs and columns that take up too much space.

yes, ie7 is a steaming pile but your wrong on FF. here's a screenshot of how i have mine set up on my T30:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showatt. ... id=1924345

the tab bar will only show up if i have more than one open and even so i still get a lot of usable screen space. i do like opera but i could never get it slimmed down as much as FF and it didn't have the inline spell check feature that i love so much in FF. but what really peeved me with opera is that the tab bar would never be right above the page but always above another tool bar. maybe the newer version has these problems fixed?


dave

This is your Firefox browser? Are you using an IE theme maybe? it sure looks like IE. I have mine set up to always show the tab toolbar, can you possibly tell me your settings to only have it show up if you start to open tabs?

Thank you

Oh, I am using FF3

[RealBlackStuff]

In FF3, click on Tools/Options, select the Tabs tab and (un)tick the option Always show the tab bar.

With it UNticked, it only shows if you have more than one window/tab.

[fefrie]

Opera Vs Firefox, it's all personal preference! But one feature in Opera, the Wand feature!

You don't have to type in passwords anymore, it remembers them, AND to log in you can set up the mouse so that you wave it like a wand on the screen, and it enters the login info and takes you to the next page. Thats pretty good.

And the other thing I like is lets say you like searching for stuff on craigslist all the time, you can create a search feature so that you can search for whatever on craigslist by typing in a keyword and the search term in the address bar and it takes you directly to the search results. Sort of like what happens for google already.

[Purcy]

In FF3, click on Tools/Options, select the Tabs tab and (un)tick the option Always show the tab bar.

With it UNticked, it only shows if you have more than one window/tab.

Thanks RBS!

[ZAGNUT]

In FF3, click on Tools/Options, select the Tabs tab and (un)tick the option Always show the tab bar.

With it UNticked, it only shows if you have more than one window/tab.

yep, and it's the same in the older version i'm using.

and here's a few tips for gaining as much real estate as possible:

auto hide the windows task bar.

drag any browser icons you need and the address bar to the upper most toolbar.

disable the navigation and bookmarks toolbars.

and finally, choose small icons.

if you choose to keep the google search feature or have too many icons you want to keep then your address space will be kinda small. with how i have mine set up i get all the functionality i need and the most possible display area.

while the wand feature in opera might be cool i rarely ever have a mouse hooked up so i doubt it would be of much use to me.


dave

[ZAGNUT]

You don't have to type in passwords anymore, it remembers them, AND to log in you can set up the mouse so that you wave it like a wand on the screen, and it enters the login info and takes you to the next page. Thats pretty good.

the one thing i would never ever do is let any browser remember my passwords for me! i also have FF set up to delete all personal info when closed. call me paranoid but after having an obnoxious nephew wreak havoc on a couple of forums using my accounts i don't take risks like that anymore. nowadays if there is ANYONE around i just close FF if i'm going to leave my machine unattended for any length of time.


dave

[fefrie]

while the wand feature in opera might be cool i rarely ever have a mouse hooked up so i doubt it would be of much use to me.

nowadays if there is ANYONE around i just close FF if i'm going to leave my machine unattended for any length of time.

dave

I've got windows set so that when it goes into the screensaver mode, you have to enter a password to log back on, or set so that it goes back into the userlogon page.

Mouse guestures work even better with touchpads/points!

[T23FUN]

Thanks for the thread on web browsers. I have a couple of Dell desktops and I'm using one for experimenting. I just put ff on it.

I really like this T23. It had win2k on it and got a virus and died. I had to use MBR and reformat and then put XP on it. I have all the drivers from lenovo I want and it is such a nice running machine. A middle school science teacher had a hard drive fail and I learned enough on this forum to replace it for him and he is happy. I could use a new HDD myself.

Got to post to stay active, and I agree, this machine is pretty solid.

[WarMachine]

Hello,

I have a mint T23 unit, right here, in front of me.

That's a wonderful machine, rock solid, silent, and powerful enough for surfing, watching DVDs, and for office use.

It's beautiful too (but not everyone will agree with this ! ).

Mine has 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, XGA screen, and a 40 GB Samsung HDD which is very quiet.

It runs Windows XP Pro SP3 like a charm.

Long life to it !

W.