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Ctrl+F ThinkPad. I guess the search count should show you something. I'm on a W530. It's a beast and everything works. And I'm talking Debian!

Galanwe 12y ago
ThinkPads USED to be good products. Lenovo killed it. the W530 is still good, but the W540 is a joke. The "Lenovo recommends Windows." at the top of Lenovo's website finished to convince me not to buy any TP anymore.
- Silhouette 12y ago
  ThinkPads USED to be good products. Lenovo killed it. the W530 is still good, but the W540 is a joke. Elaborate, please?
  - DArcMattr 12y ago
    The Haswell refresh has been full of laptops where corners have been cut in the form of lower production quality, many convenient features being removed, and questionable keyboard layouts. There have even been a couple of ThinkPad-branded keyboards that do not have trackpoints. I realize that in order to make a lightweight and power-efficient laptop, there have to be tradeoffs, but the ThinkPad has historically been a premium brand, where frills like indicator lights, hardier materials and more generous keyboard and trackpoint/trackpad button layouts are expected. Their absence in the Haswell lineup is saddening, yet Lenovo still "wins" by default because all the other companies' offerings are even more deficient.
- Befittd 12y ago
  I'm on a T-series running ubuntu and it's the best machine I've ever owned. It's fast, reliable, has 6 hours of battery and it's taken a serious kicking and still works perfectly. It's irritating that they won't sell them without windows, but at least they're guaranteed compatible.
- ansible 12y ago
  I got to try out a W520 recently. It seemed quite nice, and I like machines with a bigger screen but without the numeric keypad (which I generally have no use for). From my point of view, it is a shame the W540 now crams in the numeric keypad. I'd rather have a keyboard with full-sized keys (including shift, control, arrows, etc.) than have the more common cramped style seen with most 15.6" screen laptops.
  - Pyrodogg 12y ago
    For all the configurable internal guts and how much people have issues with keyboard layout i wish manufacturers had options for the keyboard on their mid-high tier laptops.
maguirre 12y ago
I am on a W520 and things worked fairly well until I decided to connect an external monitor. Has this problem gotten anywhere in the past year or so?
jlgaddis 12y ago
> I'm on a W530. It's a beast and everything works. Same here: Quad-core i7, 32 GB RAM, 480 GB SSD + 500 GB SATA, 1920x1080. This thing is mostly going to waste. :(
- sitkack 12y ago
  My current machine only runs 16GB, I am very envious (jealous) of you. Doesn't that machine support 3 SATA devices, so you could run 2 SSD and I rotational drive? I really could use a machine with 64GB. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7742/im-intelligent-memory-to-release-16gb-unregistered-ddr3-modules http://www.anandtech.com/show/7742/im-intelligent-memory-to-...
Torgo 12y ago
I have that same laptop. It uses the Nvidia optimus video architecture, I can't get that to work right, but I just use the Intel GPU and it works perfectly if you're not playing 3D games. The external displayport doesn't work out of the box for me, I have heard it doesn't work right but it might be an advanced configuration thing. The fingerprint reader doesn't work, but you shouldn't use it anyway because it offers no real security. The BIOS doesn't support booting off the sdcard or expresscard slot, which isn't a linux-specific problem, but is a giant pain in the ass. edit: also adding, I bought it only maybe a year ago, and the battery is already at around 50% recharge capacity. I don't know if it's me or it's linux, but I only run Linux and it's torn through thinkpad and macbook (2008-ish) batteries.
- porlw 12y ago
  After 2 years my X220, which runs off battery for a couple of hours pretty much every day, reports it's at 74% or original capacity. This is with vanilla Ubuntu 12.04 Wasn't there a recall for some Thinkpad batteries a while back? Maybe you can get a replacement.

Galanwe 12y ago

ThinkPads USED to be good products. Lenovo killed it. the W530 is still good, but the W540 is a joke. The "Lenovo recommends Windows." at the top of Lenovo's website finished to convince me not to buy any TP anymore.

Silhouette 12y ago
ThinkPads USED to be good products. Lenovo killed it. the W530 is still good, but the W540 is a joke. Elaborate, please?
- DArcMattr 12y ago
  The Haswell refresh has been full of laptops where corners have been cut in the form of lower production quality, many convenient features being removed, and questionable keyboard layouts. There have even been a couple of ThinkPad-branded keyboards that do not have trackpoints. I realize that in order to make a lightweight and power-efficient laptop, there have to be tradeoffs, but the ThinkPad has historically been a premium brand, where frills like indicator lights, hardier materials and more generous keyboard and trackpoint/trackpad button layouts are expected. Their absence in the Haswell lineup is saddening, yet Lenovo still "wins" by default because all the other companies' offerings are even more deficient.
Befittd 12y ago
I'm on a T-series running ubuntu and it's the best machine I've ever owned. It's fast, reliable, has 6 hours of battery and it's taken a serious kicking and still works perfectly. It's irritating that they won't sell them without windows, but at least they're guaranteed compatible.
ansible 12y ago
I got to try out a W520 recently. It seemed quite nice, and I like machines with a bigger screen but without the numeric keypad (which I generally have no use for). From my point of view, it is a shame the W540 now crams in the numeric keypad. I'd rather have a keyboard with full-sized keys (including shift, control, arrows, etc.) than have the more common cramped style seen with most 15.6" screen laptops.
- Pyrodogg 12y ago
  For all the configurable internal guts and how much people have issues with keyboard layout i wish manufacturers had options for the keyboard on their mid-high tier laptops.

maguirre 12y ago

I am on a W520 and things worked fairly well until I decided to connect an external monitor. Has this problem gotten anywhere in the past year or so?

jlgaddis 12y ago

> I'm on a W530. It's a beast and everything works. Same here: Quad-core i7, 32 GB RAM, 480 GB SSD + 500 GB SATA, 1920x1080. This thing is mostly going to waste. :(

sitkack 12y ago
My current machine only runs 16GB, I am very envious (jealous) of you. Doesn't that machine support 3 SATA devices, so you could run 2 SSD and I rotational drive? I really could use a machine with 64GB. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7742/im-intelligent-memory-to-release-16gb-unregistered-ddr3-modules http://www.anandtech.com/show/7742/im-intelligent-memory-to-...

Torgo 12y ago

I have that same laptop. It uses the Nvidia optimus video architecture, I can't get that to work right, but I just use the Intel GPU and it works perfectly if you're not playing 3D games. The external displayport doesn't work out of the box for me, I have heard it doesn't work right but it might be an advanced configuration thing. The fingerprint reader doesn't work, but you shouldn't use it anyway because it offers no real security. The BIOS doesn't support booting off the sdcard or expresscard slot, which isn't a linux-specific problem, but is a giant pain in the ass. edit: also adding, I bought it only maybe a year ago, and the battery is already at around 50% recharge capacity. I don't know if it's me or it's linux, but I only run Linux and it's torn through thinkpad and macbook (2008-ish) batteries.

porlw 12y ago
After 2 years my X220, which runs off battery for a couple of hours pretty much every day, reports it's at 74% or original capacity. This is with vanilla Ubuntu 12.04 Wasn't there a recall for some Thinkpad batteries a while back? Maybe you can get a replacement.