Initial reflections of OSX on a T60p

[tsservo]

Hi all,

I've just gotten OSX working on my T60p after futzing with it for a few days being stuck at 1024x768 (for details go to the sticky at the top of this forum).

After playing around with it for a while, I have to say that OSX on this Thinkpad could be a slam dunk winner. It look nice, works great, seems pretty chipper... I'm not going into if it's more stable or faster than my XP install because I haven't had any problems with that either.

The first thing, and the thing that pretty much sold me on OSX was installing an application. I just downloaded it, pulled the file out of it's disk image, and dropped it in the Applications folder. That's it. No long install, no rebooting, no files copied all over my hard drive and to the system folder. To run it, I just double click the same file.

To uninstall it, I just drag it out of the Application folder and toss it in the trash. That's it. No registry muck, no program remnants in System32, Local Settings and Application Data. It's just gone. The way it should be.

Spotlight really makes life easy, but after using Launcy for XP, it wasn't as big a wow as it would be otherwise (if you don't know about it, check out Launchy. You'll never use the Start Menu again.)

OSX recognizes my XP partition, lets me read files from it (I haven't been brave enough to attempt a write to it) and play my MP3's from it and my external drive in iTunes (which is as much a hog on here as it is on XP).

I love how devices that I plug in just pop up on the desktop. Ubuntu works the same way.

Something that's going to take some getting used to is CTRL+C, V and X are now ALT C, V, and X. It's just different and it catches me sometimes.

I also can't seem to figure out how to skip over, select or delete entire words while typing using the CTRL (and Shift to select as necessary) and arrow keys. As I'm a keyboard junkie, reaching for the mouse to select and delete a word is a huge pain, and holding down the backspace forever to delete things is also a huge pain.

I'm going to have to fix that, becuase that simple a thing is a simple dealbreaker. Anyone know if this is just because it's OSX on my Thinkpad, or does a real Apple work this way too?

Ah, something else I just noticed. As I'm typing this, the System Update icon started bouncing in the dock. No message window appearing to distract me from what I was doing, entering this post. It'll just wait until I get to it or that bouncing annoys me to no end and I have to do something about it.

So then, if I like it so much why don't I just go and buy a Mac you ask? It'll take care of all these little annoyances and the random bits of hardware that don't work becaues there's no support for it? I did seriously look at a Mac in an Apple store before I bought this T60p. I thought I liked it, but playing with it in a store is very different than living with it day to day. I wasn't comfortable enough in the store to see if it would work for me. So I didn't get it.

I also wasn't, and am still not, sold on Apple hardware. It seems that they're always coming out with something very new and different. New cases, new platforms, new whatever. They don't let a product mature and develop like the Thinkpads have. And after passing on the new MacBook Pros and reading all the hardware issues they have had, looks like I was right to wait for a long while.

Seriously, if Apple legitimately sold OSX to be installed on a PC, I would buy it tomorrow. All they need to do is open the necessary API's to the development community so they can get the little various hardware bits to work. Like they did with the Power Management bundle work.

Time to get back to the little bouncing System Updater icon.

[NeoMatrix]

Thank you so much for posting this!

Were you able to get suspend/hibernate to work? With the T60p's on sale this just might be the perfect laptop for OS X.

Thanks,
NeoMatrix

[3nigma]

Thanks as well for the fantastic review!

Have you had mouse graphic issues? When you move windows around, are there leftover particles/pixels, etc.? These are some issues many have reported.

As the previous poster mentioned, does hibernate/sleep work?

I am about to buy a T60p with them on sale this week as well, but I've been trying to figure out which graphics card to get- the 128MB ATI Radeon X1400, or the ATI FireGL V5200 256MB card. The normal T60 has option A, and T60p has option B.

I was thinking about waiting until October until purchasing my T60. Apparently, in Oct. Lenovo is putting the newer Intel Core 2 Duo chips in the ThinkPad line finally, rather than Core Duos. This will drive down price for T60s, and I may even get the "T61" w/ the Core 2 Duo, for 64-bit support (OS Leopard is 64 bit).

Thanks again, and we'll look forward to what other insight you have to offer!
-3nigma

[tsservo]

I haven't had any graphics tearing issues to speak of. When I move windows around there are no leftover fragments - though on occasion I do get the mouse pointer remnants if I scroll using the scroll wheel on my Logitech mouse. If I scroll using the arrow keys or page down, there is no problem that I've seen so far. How I got to that point is in the sticky at the top of this forum. YMMV depending on the screen, resolution and gfx card you get.

I have not been able to get sleep/hibernate to work, though I haven't had any of the system freezing issues that have also been reported. I closed the laptop overnight, opened it up in the morning, and it was right were I left it. The part that makes me uncomfortable is that the display seems to have stayed on and the system was quite warm overall. I really wouldn't want to live without the power management features on a daily basis.

I will say that the one thing which is really, really irritating me is the inability to CTRL+backspace or CTRL+arrow. I'm a stones throw from dumping OSX now - almost specifically for this reason. I'll have to make sure that there is an equivalent on an actual Apple system. I simply can't seriously use a system without being able to delete entire words at once without a mouse.

I really don't see myself using OSX on the T60p on a daily basis. I suppose you could, but you would be living without a lot of things which make the T60 worth the entry price, like all the security software, the fingerprint reader, wireless without buying a new hardware...

At this point, if you really want to run OSX because you know you want to run OSX, I would recommend waiting for Rev2 of the Macbook Pro's or wait a few more months for the final bugs to shake out of the Macbooks and get one of those. If you're looking for something to mess around with OSX, the T60p seems an excellent option.

[MaloventEvil]

I haven't had any graphics tearing issues to speak of. When I move windows around there are no leftover fragments - though on occasion I do get the mouse pointer remnants if I scroll using the scroll wheel on my Logitech mouse. If I scroll using the arrow keys or page down, there is no problem that I've seen so far.

Just to be clear, what you just described is what we refer to as a graphics tearing issue.