[ILUG] Trying to buy a ThinkPad

[Timothy Murphy]

I'm trying to follow Your advice (I use the royal You)
to buy a ThinkPad to replace my dearly beloved Sony Picturebook,
and have been surprised how difficult it is to see these animals.

IBM no longer have any kind of display at their Pembroke Road offices -
I had the impression that they regard PCs as a lower form of life -
but they did give me a list of a dozen re-sellers.
I tried five of these, none of whom had any ThinkPads on display.
All said they simply filled orders as and when they arrive.
When I asked if people did not want to see what they were getting,
I was told that they dealt mainly with businesses
who chose their machines from the specs.

This seems an extraordinary approach to me -
a bit like buying a wife from a catalogue, or a Holbein painting
(allusion requires some knowledge of English history).

Incidentally, I'm thinking of selling my wife and buying a T60.
What is all this dual-core stuff?
Will it work with Linux?
I see they are available in the UK,
but was told they would not arrive in Ireland for 6 weeks or so.

Or should I get a cheap R-series machine?
And what is the difference between the X-series and the T-series?
They both look the same on the Lenovo web-site.

Choice is a greatly over-valued commodity.


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland