New member, (soon-to-be) new TP owner...
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 3:29 pm
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.
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.
