New T23 owner and new to the group.

[iMav]

Well since I am awaiting the delivery of my "new to me" T23, I figured this was as good of a place as any to introduce myself.

I am an IT security professional currently working under contract for the DoD in Iraq. I provide IA (Information Assurance) oversight for the network infrastructure of the southern Iraqi region. But enough of the boring stuff, let's talk about my new(-to-me) Thinkpad!

I purchased this T23 and this memory recently from Ebay. Both items are currently on their way to my home. Once they are received there, my wife will ship them off to me in southern Iraq. (so it will be a few weeks before I get my hands on it)

My main (and only) personal computer in theater is a 1st gen MacBook (1.83GHz CD, 2GB ram, 120GB hdd). I use crappy Dell laptops at work...but those don't count. I am a big Mac guy...having switched the family from, primarily, Linux workstations to Apple systems within the past couple of years. My IT background is almost exclusively UNIX, so it wasn't until OS X came around that I gave even the smallest consideration to the Mac world.

The T23 will be my beater system over here...allowing me to play with different Linux distro's and what not. It will primarily run Gentoo, but will likely see some *BSD distros and, perhaps, an Ubuntu install or two. So, you will likely see me a lot in the Linux forum.

I have a HughesNET two-way satellite system hooked up in my living area (and am currently using it exclusively for myself). Was extremely pricey for the equipment (and shipping...about $2000 total), but when you are isolated like I am, believe me it is worth it! (BTW, I'm just throwing out random information about myself and my current computing situation...so if you are looking for a theme, you're out of luck)

Anyway, I look forward to participating here. Thanks Bill for the welcome email and the great site!

[iMav]

Maybe I should've bought this T23 instead? The higher res screen would be NICE!

I'm sure I could spend all day looking at other auctions and the marketplace here and find better deals.

One thing is for sure. There are a LOT of Thinkpads out there! They just keep hanging around. That is truly a testament to how well these puppies are made.

[Temetka]

You got yourself a nice T23 there, they are great little units. I had one myself for about a year before switching to Apple and getting a powerbook g4. I can attest that that T23 will run Linux great. I ran Whax, Debian, Gentoo, Ubuntu and SuSE on it. All of them without problems. However as an IS (Information Security) student with an A.S. in CIS I found Whax to be the best distro for my needs. Check it out at remoteexploit.org. Backtrack is there too, but I prefer Whax.

RE: The higher res T23. Woulda been nice, but you can still hook up an external display and go dual monitor on the machine you bought.

Good luck in Iraq and hope to see you back safe and sound.

[rkawakami]

iMav,

A belated "Welcome to thinkpads.com!"

You have selected a good system as your beater but keep it away from the "nasties", okay?

As you can see from my .sig, I've got my hands full with T23s. There are a couple of weak spots in the system (board flexing causing parts to separate, broken rear mount on the Ultrabay guide causing a "wobbly" screen, not having built-in USB 2.0) but these are generally good systems if you treat them right. Very easy to field strip with just a small Phillips screwdriver; grab a copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual if you haven't already gotten one:

T2x HMM

As far as the SXGA+ screens, they ARE very nice. I've just swapped a good one off of a dead T21 into my 2647-5SU (backlight is a goner). This system is now setup pretty much like my 2647-HNU with 1GB of RAM, 60GB drive and a Broadcom 802.11b/g card. I think I now have two SXGA+ panels with broken backlights. Maybe some day if I get enough courage (and time and a clean place to work where there's no cat fur around...) I'll rip them apart and try a CCFL replacement. Certainly better than the alternative; these panels are pretty pricey just by themselves.

[Paul Pennington]

iMav;
I just purchased a very similar T23 2647-8RU on eBay. See here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0079330780
I've been having lots of fun bringing it up. I tried some restore CD's I had here for our A31 Thinkpads, and they worked! They're about the same vintage as the T23. Running Windows XP Pro now, and downloading all the T23 drivers from the IBM/Lenovo site.

One suggestion I would make is to buy a floppy drive and have it shipped with the computer. You'll need it for the BIOS and Embedded Controller updates. The last update was 19 Oct 2006, remarkably, so you're likely to need it. Mine was about six updates old.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance to you.

[rkawakami]

And don't limit yourself to buying an Ultrabay 2000 floppy. For about the same amount of money, you can get the A/T/R/X port replicator (FRU 02K8668) and a 600-series external floppy disk housing and drive (FRU 05K6187 and 05K8874), put them together and have a three-spindle setup. Place the T23 into the port replicator, plug the external floppy into the port on the back of the replicator, and with an Ultrabay 2nd hard disk adapter, you have the means to use a Ghost boot floppy and backup/clone your hard drive.