Corwin Brown asked:


Operating system selection has almost always locked consumers into the Microsoft Windows operating systems, but recently many manufacturers have started to offer Linux alternatives. Lenovo has started to offer SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on some ThinkPad models, in addition to Vista and XP. This review covers the 14″ T61 with the “SLED 10″ Linux operating system.

Lenovo and Novell estimate that a major portion of the business workforce can transition from Microsoft Windows to SLED 10 on a ThinkPad “without skipping a beat”. In addition, the companies highlight some of the features of this OS, such as interoperability with current IT environments, OpenOffice.org productivity suite, integrated VPN, firewall and anti-virus protection, and support for popular multimedia applications.

New ThinkPad is traditionally whole black. It is very well built as usual. Nothing scrapes and the keyboard is nice acurrate.Titan-Magnesium hardiness was improved by hardening back part of chassis. The only thing where is the influence of Lenovo on IBM shown are the connectors for reproductions and microphone.
Lenovo says it will provide customer support for the hardware and the operating system, while Novell will be responsible for updates. Linux has chiefly been popular on servers and more recently has made inroads in embedded computing devices such as phones, but it’s never made much headway on desktop and laptop PCs. Nevertheless, Suse has long championed Linux on PCs.

The cooling system is ingenious; it’s simply the best out there and beats the MacBook Pro by a mile even though both machines are 1 inch thick. Cool air is ****** in from the bottom though many thin holes that make it impossible to block all of them when using on lap. Most of the air comes from the top left side, judging by relative temperature. Hot air is exhausted over the back side (away from the user). On idle battery, temperature stayed around 37 deg Celsius. The fan is also quiet and rarely turns on; it seems to run more often on AC than on battery.

System specifications:

* Processor: Intel T7300 Core 2 Duo (2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 4MB Cache)

* Graphics: Intel GMA X3100

* Operating System: Novell SLED 10

* Display: WXGA+ 1440 x 900 (LG screen)

* Hard Drive: 80GB 5400RPM

* Memory: 1GB (1GB x 1), up to 4GB max

* Ports: 3x USB 2.0, 1x FireWire, Monitor out, modem, Ethernet, headphone out, microphone in

* Slots: PC Card Slot and Smart Card reader

* Optical Drive: CDRW/DVD-ROM

* Dimensions: 13.2″ x 9.3″ x 1.09 – 1.26″ (335mm x 237mm x 27.6 – 31.9mm)

* Weight: 5.5lbs