blog/draft/2013-new-laptop.txt

   1 Title: Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service
   2 Tags: english, lenker
   3 Date: 2013-01-19 09:20
   4
   5 <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
   6 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
   7 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
   8 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
   9 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
  10 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
  11 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
  12 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
  13 not a durable solution.
  14
  15 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
  16 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
  17
  18 <ul>
  19
  20 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
  21   than A4).</li>
  22 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
  23 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
  24 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
  25 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
  26 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
  27 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
  28 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
  29 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12"</li>.
  30 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
  31   X.org packages.</li>
  32 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
  33   the time).
  34
  35 </ul>
  36
  37 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
  38 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
  39 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
  40 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
  41 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
  42 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
  43 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
  44 still be useful.</p>
  45
  46 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
  47 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
  48 <ahref="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
  49 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
  50 of the vendors listed on the <ahref="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
  51 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>