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For what it's worth, I thought I'd document some of my experiences with setting up Windows Vista (final version) on my new T60p (2613LQU). There are already a couple of such reviews available online, but perhaps I can add something to that.
I started out by deleting Lenovo's predektop area. Sorry, but I want those extra 4.5GB to myself... That's done by disabling the predesktop area in the BIOS, and then telling the Vista setup that I wanted to delete the two partitions and create one big one to put Vista in. The setup took about 30 minutes and went without a hitch.
--- Devices ---
First of all, Vista did a great job recognizing hardware, especially considering it's a laptop. Let's see: Ethernet, Modem, Bluetooth, WiFi (I have the Intel card), Infrared, Battery and power management stuff (including closing the lid, etc), USB, audio, DVD burner. It also KIND OF recognized my display adapter (enoguh to make the system usable, read below).
Two devices that weren't recognized are the fingerprint reader, and my Cingular WWAN card. Not sure what to do about the fingerprint reader (maybe I'll dare to try and install the XP software for it), but I think I'm on the right track for getting the Cingular stuff to work. I downloaded a program called 3G Watcher from Sierra Wireless. I hacked their INF file to include my device's ID and point it to the right device (the Cingular card is called Sierra Wireless MC8765). The setup went through, and I now see that thing in the device manager. Trouble is that it's deactivated (it's LED is off), and I have no idea how to turn it on without Lenovo's wireless manager program. The 3G Watcher program doesn't communicate with it at this point.
I'll post an update as soon as I manage to get that working. Another thing I haven't tried is to just install Cingular's program from Lenovo (not sure it's on the website??). The thing is that the Sierra Wireless drivers are new and they have explicit Vista versions. Pretty sure the Cingular build is just for XP at this point.
Another thing that obviously doesn't work out of the box is the whole hard drive protection mechanism the T60 has. Again, it's possible that the XP version of that software would run on Vista, but I haven't tried.
--- Power Management Features ---
As I said, Vista recognized the power management hardware in the T60p. It sees the battery, and whether the system's plugged in or not, etc. It also let's you configure power schemes, etc. Still, it's not even close to Lenovo's stuff. You don't know how many watts you're burning, and I haven't even found a way to control stuff such as CPU speeds per power scheme.
--- ATI FireGL Adventures ---
During the installation, Vista recognized my ATI FireGL 5200 as a "Standard VGA Adapter", but it set it to the correct screen resolution and enabled some 2D acceleration. This is fine for most desktop work, but it's disappointing because it means that Aero wouldn't work, even though the hardware should be more than capable of supporting it.
From there I went to download the ATI Catalyst driver, thinking maybe it'll help (Lenovo's site appears to have nothing for Vista at the moment). Unsurprisingly, ATI's setup didn't find my FireGL. Looking through their INF file, I saw that the device identifier of the FireGL (PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_71D4) is simply not listed in ATI's INF file...
Then I discovered something interesting. If I select the device in the device manager, click Update Driver, and then tell him to also show me incompatible hardware, I actually see the FireGL V5200 on the list (apparantly it's a driver that ships with Vista)! I selected that, it replaced the drivers, and almost everything was fine. One slight problem was that the built-in LCD monitor wasn't recognized, and it showed the maximum resolution as something like 1280x720 or something. I had to again manually select a 60hz LCD with 1400x1050 resolution from their list of "incompatible hardware". That worked.
--- Aero ---
Having done all of that, I was able to play with Aero, and I have to say that it's very sweet. Pushing "Windows + Tab" shows a 3D stack of your Windows that you can "fly" through. Very nice, especially considering that the windows are "alive" in that 3D view, so that, for example, a video playing inside Media Player actually plays in the 3D view as well, they are not just frozen bitmaps of the windows. Also, the 3D view of each window is very detailed, you can actually read the text in the stacked windows if you want. I have found this little feature to be really useful, WAY better than Alt+Tab. Additionally, Aero adds some little window transparency effects that make everything look a bit sexier, but it's nothing significant (am I missing some of it's feature here??).
One visual aspect in Vista that is strikingly different is the fonts. They are all strongly anti-aliased, and look a lot "rounder" than before. It takes some getting used to, but I think it's easier on the eyes in the long run. We'll see.
Despite all of these relatively heavy things, the system appears to be very snappy. I have the Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33Ghz), and things really feel fast, wherever I go and whatever I try on it.
--- Windows Speech Recognition ---
Even though it has nothing to do with the T60 specifically, I thought I'd let you know that I've tried using the speech recognition with the Thinkpad's built in microphone (which is very decent -- I use it DAILY for Skype calls, etc.).
The speech recognition appears to be an impressive engine, with a LOT of thought put into its design. Unfortunately, using the builtin microphone I'd say it's borderline useable, at best. It missed more commands than it recognized when I tried it (and I coached it for quite a while), but I'd guess it would be really usable in a quiet room with a better mic.
--- Resource Monitor ---
On another note that has nothing to do with the T60, I'd say that the Resource Monitor is a great little tool. It's a little program that monitors all resource usage done by programs: network activity, CPU usage, memory usage, and disk accesses. It is a great tool for quickly discovering who's slowing down your system, messing with your harddrive, etc.
--- Other Software ---
Generally speaking, programs work fine. I have Skype, Office 2003, Visual Studio .NET, a Windows Mobile phone that talks to the built in Synchronization Manager thingy (no more Activesync!!!), etc.
One problem I have is that VMWare Player behaves strangely. The first time it's launched after the system is rebooted, it freezes the entire system, including audio, for about a MINUTE! Things then return to normal and it appears to work fine. This seems to be some memory management thing, because the harddrive is crunching like mad when it happens. I have 2GB of RAM, and this is pretty surprising behaviour.
As a side note, I installed the Need For Speed Carbon demo, and it crashes when I try to run it.
--- Summary ---
Overall, this has been a very positive experience. My T60p is definitely stable and usable running Vista, and I'm sure things will improve dramatically in the coming months. Vista is a significant step up for XP users in terms of convenience and productivity, and it sure looks nicer.
Hope this is helpful to those of you considering this upgrade.
