Hi-res refurb Dell laptop. Comments?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Aug 03, 2012 at 12:47:43PM -0400, Digimer wrote:
> Until this generation, the Thinkpads still had a mostly traditional
> 104-key keyboard layout, except that the insert key was moved to the
> left to make the del key double-height. The pg up/pg down, home/end
> and other keys were all in the usual 2x3 grid at the top-right of
> the keyboard. While every other OEM was moving to the macbook style
> "chicklet" keys, Thinkpad stayed traditional.
> 
> So when the current xn30 line came out, like the T430 and W530, they
> mentioned they were changing to the chicklet-style keys as well. I
> was extremely concerned because the keyboard was always one of the
> biggest selling features of the thinkpads, to me. Every macbook (or
> similar key style) keyboard I have used sucked.
> 
> I decided to give it a try anyway, after reading about the insane
> R&D they put into the new-style keyboard. The tactile feedback from
> the keys is amazing! I was very surprised at how nice it feels.
> 
> I do still miss the traditional layout though... The 2x3 layout is
> now, in order, home - end - insert - delete on the top-right row and
> pgup and pgdown are directly above the left and right arrow keys,
> respectively. I got used to this pretty quickly, but I do still find
> myself hitting backspace when I want delete, and vice-versa. I'd
> still prefer the old layout, but it's not the show-stopper I had
> worried about.

Well my thinkpad (an SL500) doesn't have that particular layout that
you apparently like.  I have pageup and page down to the left and right
of the cursor up key.  To me that is way more useful than the back and
forward button that many other thinkpads seem to have.

home/end/delete/insert are in a line at the top right in a bit of an odd
layout, but I guess I have gotten used to them by now.  I don't use them
that often anyhow.

My wife's ideapad has the chicklet keyboard.  Originally it was french
canadian, but it has been swapped for a US layout after a cat broke
the spacebar.

> Something long-time thinkpad users and new converts might like; The
> Fn and l-ctrl keys have always been left/right, where almost all
> other laptops have l-ctrl on the left and Fn to it's right. Now you
> can swap the keys in the BIOS. I'm used to it, as I've used
> Thinkpads for >10 years, but it was something I had wanted back when
> I first started with them.

Actually the location of fn and l-ctrl has swapped on thinkpads over time,
although they did add that bios option.

> As for the rest of the laptop... I could still fend off a small army
> with this thing. It runs very cool, even under load. It's missing
> eSATA, which is sad, but I suspect that's a gamble on USB3 taking
> over.
> 
> Lastly; Fedora 17 "just works", save the fingerprint reader. Do note
> that I immediately disabled the nvidia gpu, as I prefer battery >
> graphics. That said, Gnome3 runs brilliantly on the Intel GPU.

Yeah the fingerprint scanner takes a bit of work to get going although
it is supposed to be possible.  I can't be bothered.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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