[GTALUG] Thinkpad choices today?

[Steve Harvey]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 08:43:58AM -0500, Scott Sullivan wrote:
> After 4 years my Lenovo x120e has final succumbed to the rough and tumble
> I put it through. The screen cracked and is unusable. This leaves me 
> looking for a replacement.
> 
> I'm going to constrain this question to Lenovo options. I don't think I 
> can overcome my track-point addiction. 
> 
> Anyone purchased Thinkpad hardware in the last while? I know with some of
> the recent models Lenovo has started messing around with the keyboard 
> design.  What are peoples opinions?
> 
> -- 
> Scott Sullivan

  Back in 2007, I bought a new T60 for ~$1800.  Four years later, I
decided to buy another T60 ($400 used) as a spare instead of any of 
their latest offerings, all of which sported the trendy wide-screen 
aspect ratio which I dislike.  It appears to me that laptop manufacturers
seem to think that everyone prioritizes the watching of videos.  Since
then, I've needed to replace the screen on one of them and a motherboard
on the other.  There are a few repair shops around town that focus
on this market.  How long parts will remain available is yet to be seen.

  Both of my T60s are at 1400x1050.  There are 1600x1200 screens out
there, but they are rare.  

  Considering today's ratio of high-end laptop prices to the average IT
salary, I wonder if there might be enough latent world-wide demand for 
an upgraded Lenovo "Classic" to make it feasible.  Maybe it could happen
if enough people were to band together to have some "reverse marketing"
clout.

  I'd love it if I could have 16GB of RAM, an onboard SSD as well as a
HDD, keep the DVD drive, get rid of the PCMCIA slot and modem and give
me an HDMI port along with the VGA.  Give me a 2048x1536 (or even 
2800x2100) matte screen in a rugged 15" form factor with the traditional
hardware UI and indicator lights.  Add bluetooth and IR ports and hide a
9 pin parallel port on the back for people who want to do really low 
latency stuff.  Keep it as thick and heavy as required to provide this
functionality.  I don't care about touch screen or trendy ultra-
slimness or having to be cloud-dependent.  Make sure that it runs well
(addressing ACPI, UEFI/BIOS, and video issues especially) with Linux as 
well as Microsoft Windows. 

  One feature that I would like to be possible with this laptop is to
be able to use it with active shutter 3D glasses for stereoscopic
viewing of images such as landforms, simulated molecules, ...  The
hardware needs only to be capable of producing a correctly timed
strobe signal over a suitable interface.

-- 
Steve Harvey