New 2623DDU (and Linux)

[richtl]

Everyone else is doing it, so here are my thoughts on my new T60p.

The Beast shipped on Sunday, March 26th, two weeks ahead of schedule. I received the email notice at 4AM on Sunday night, the laptop left Hong Kong on Monday, was stopped in Anchorage for inspection by the FDA (Avian Flu, perhaps?), and arrived on my doorstep on Wednesday. Amazing! The only issue was the Ultrabay battery, which was the wrong model. The correct battery arrived one business day after I notified them of the mistake.

The T60p is thinner and lighter than any of my previous Thinkpads, and looks much better in person than in pictures. The 9 cell battery gives me pretty good life, but definitely sticks out the back. (I was pleasantly surprised to find that the system fits in my laptop bag.) I expect battery life to be even better with the additional Ultrabay battery.On the downside, the UB battery isn't a very good fit in the Ultrabay. I had to jiggle it to get in it all the way and there's a good 1/8 inch gap when it's inserted.

The 15” 1600x1400 display is very, very bright and very, very nice. I have the ALPS keyboard, which is ok, but not as crisp as the one on my A22p. The fan's on all the time, but it's still quieter than any of my previous Thinkpads. The dual-core processor is fast. (OpenOffice and Eclipse--both slow loaders--start up in a heartbeat).

Initially, the system booted very slowly. Installing Mandriva Linux (see http://www.arscognita.com/~richtl/T60p/index.html) and blowing away the XP boot loader cleared that right up. I think the performance increase had more to do with ditching junkware rolled into Windows that anything else.

For you linux types, linux installs fine with a few caveats. I use the fingerprint reader for authentication. I've played DVDs. Sound works. The only major issue has been the ATI driver, which doesn't work at all on X.org 7.0 (I'm using the VESA driver).

Overall, I like the machine a lot. It's a worthwhile replacement for my now-dead and much missed A22p.

[pundit]

Is Mandrake friendly with the wireless card, or did you have to run around patching and building random things too?

[richtl]

I have the Intel wireless card, which Mandriva didn't recognize. It was relatively simple to configure using the package and instructions at http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/