[PLUG] Lenovo T410?

[Paul Heinlein]

On Thu, 10 Jun 2010, Rich Shepard wrote:

>   Has anyone here experience with the Lenovo T410 and linux? I'm 
> looking to replace my Sony Vaio and prefer a smaller screen, 
> business oriented unit rather than the oversize, wide models that 
> appear more suited to movies and gaming.
>
>   Recommendations for other brands and models very welcome.

ThinkPads are our recommended model for Linux. (I steer toward Dell 
for Windows.) We've got various Linux distributions running on T41s, 
T60s, T61s, X61s and X200s. Obviously the T410 isn't in that list...

Still, Linux installs cleanly on all of them. Ubuntu works quite well. 
CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, and Arch work great, but there are 
sometimes binary drivers that need to be retrieved and installed from 
unofficial sources. I can't speak to Slackware.

The only consistent problem we have is X interacting (or failing to 
interact) with the docking station. Docked is fine. Undocked is fine. 
Transitioning is sometimes fine, sometimes not. It's hard to predict.

Lenovo's ThinkPad service is much improved, IMO, over IBM's. My 
impression was that IBM's tech-support representatives wanted to blame 
me every time I called. Lenovo's reps have all wanted to help. On one 
occasion, despite a next-business-day warranty, I had to wait several 
days for a part shipment. Otherwise, Lenovo service has been snappy.

-- 
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/