New member, (soon-to-be) new TP owner...

[kc7gr]

More specifically, soon-to-be owner of a new T61, fresh from Lenovo's order site.

Greetings to all. My interest in ThinkPads was rekindled recently when I realized that, as great a workhorse as it has been in years past, my Dell Latitude C640 is not one that I trust to stand up to my new usage patterns. I'm carrying it with me three out of five days in the week, and that's likely to go to four days if gas prices keep going as they are. Top that off with major travel coming up later this year, and I figured it was time to look for something tougher (but not quite the 'urban tank' of a Toughbook, GEtac, or Dolch machine).

Enter the T61. I'm one of those who does not like widescreens, so at first I was prepared to shop elsewhere. However, thanks to the efforts of a sales center rep at Lenovo's site, who went above and beyond The Call to allow me to order a standard 14.1 SXGA+ screen, I'm currently in debt about $1,200 (at least I got six-months-same-as-cash, and customized the way I want it) and looking at a ship date of June 6th.

This will likely shock some members, so let me say up front that I am simply stating my own opinion and that I have no desire to start an OS flame-war. I can't stand Win-XP, and don't even get me started on Vista.

Despite the fact that XP was the only viable choice I was allowed for this particular purchase, my first act once the unit gets here is going to be to take a snapshot/backup image of the drive (just in case), and then blow away XP in favor of Win-2000 Pro. I've already got the necessary drivers lined up, and I'll probably just end taking advantage of Acronis MigrateEasy to transfer my existing load on the Dell.

I do have one question for others who may also be die-hard W2K fans, and are running it on their own T61's. Are there any "gotchas" I should be aware of? I've done lots of research already, both here and on ThinkWiki, and I think I've got it covered, but I would appreciate comments from others who have done as I'm planning to do.

And please... No exhortations to change to XP, Vista, or Linux. It's not going to happen, period. FreeBSD MIGHT happen, if I decide to make the new 80-gig drive dual-boot.

Thanks much, looking forward to all kinds of forum fun.

[justinxxvii]

what OS did you order on the thing? I hate Vista so I ordered the SUSE build and it saved me like $130.

I'm just going to put XP on it when it comes.

Good luck with 2k. I know it's a rock solid OS but XP seems to have features that I miss when I have to use 2k.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what, but it's always a "well darnit" moment. Like 2k doesn't have a native jpeg viewer (other than IE), that's one.

[JaneL]

and that I have no desire to start an OS flame-war.

Good thing since we don't allow those here.

Welcome to the forum!

[kc7gr]

what OS did you order on the thing? I hate Vista so I ordered the SUSE build and it saved me like $130.

I'm just going to put XP on it when it comes.

Good luck with 2k. I know it's a rock solid OS but XP seems to have features that I miss when I have to use 2k.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what, but it's always a "well darnit" moment. Like 2k doesn't have a native jpeg viewer (other than IE), that's one.

Hi, Justin. I wanted to order Linux, but because the rep I was working with was going through a "back end" web site to get me a system with the standard SXGA+ screen, as opposed to a widescreen, that was not an option.

.JPG viewing is easy. Irfanview is your friend.

Happy typing.

[kc7gr]

and that I have no desire to start an OS flame-war.

Good thing since we don't allow those here.

Welcome to the forum!

Good to know, thank you! I like your avatar, BTW.

Keep the peace(es).

[jdhurst]

To the OP: If you take XP, get rid of the eye candy, operate in Classic mode, it turns into Windows 2000 and yet will be in some kind of support until about 2014 where Windows 2000 support is now dying out. I have used both systems and many others, and my XP laptop looks just like my old Windows 2000 laptop and runs the same way. To each their own, of course. ... JDH