The Apple Store India was relaunched some time back but fairly recently, possibly even today, Apple has dropped the prices on almost all products in India. The top of the line iMac offered by Apple in India (not the new 3.06 GHz one but the older 2.8GHz 24″) has been reduced from Rs. 96,600 to Rs. 83,500 and the MacBook Air (1.6GHz with PATA drive) has gone from Rs. 96,600 to Rs. 87,900. Those are some pretty substantial drops. Now if only Apple could release their most current products in India like the rest of the world.
Archive for the 'ThinkPad' Category
After the release of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, I decided to try upgrading my installation of Edgy Eft directly using Ubuntu Update Manager. It wasn’t working for various reasons so I used the command line to run apt-get upgrade. That was a big mistake. It downloaded and installed a few packages which upon reboot, broke Gnome. I was able to only get Ubuntu to boot into run level 3. I poked around a bit and couldn’t fix the problems mainly because I didn’t have a wired Internet connection and I couldn’t effectively connect to a Wireless Access Point using Network Manager from the command line (I need to figure out how to connect to a wireless AP from the command line, especially when I can’t remember the WEP or WPA passcodes).
After a frustrating night, I decided to use my MacBook to download the Feisty Fawn LiveCD. I started the download at night via BitTorrent and by the time I woke up, the download was done. I burnt the iso image to a CD and popped the freshly minted CD into my ThinkPad T60. During the installation, I decided to do a completely fresh install of Ubuntu so I wouldn’t have to worry about all the broken dependencies from Edgy Eft and how they might make Feisty Fawn unstable. I did, however, preserve my home partition and mounted that into the installation of Feisty Fawn. The installation process was very easy and allowed me to get my T60 up and running within and hour.
Feisty Fawn picked up all the necessary drivers for the ThinkPad T60. The Intel 3945 wireless drivers were also installed and setup. The Ubuntu installation also allowed me to use the ThinkPad keys for volume control and brightness control with complete OSD. It didn’t appear to install the tpb packages but managed to provide similar functionality.
Feisty even recognized the proprietary ATI drivers that are necessary for the Radeon X1400 in my ThinkPad T60 and made it very easy for me to download and install the drivers, though, they aren’t open source. The open source drivers for the ATI video card were loaded by default and worked pretty well. I’m not doing any gaming on Ubuntu so 3D graphics aren’t a major concern.
I have wanted to play with Beryl and Compiz for a while and now I finally got my chance. It took a bunch of tweaking to get going. Unfortunately, Feisty Fawn has a broken package that doesn’t include the beryl-xgl package. I was able to download an older package and extract the relevant binary and put it into the right place. After a few hours of fiddling with driver updates and getting to the bottom of the whole beryl-xgl problem, I have the ATI drivers running with XGL on Feisty Fawn. Though, I’ve read it’s pretty unstable to use the proprietary drivers with XGL, I’ve yet to see any major problems. Beryl is pretty slick but it’s a resource pig. Even so, I haven’t stopped using it. The only thing that’s a bit annoying is that every time I login, I have to reload the Beryl Window Manager. If I don’t reload, my Metacity mobile themes load up and Beryl doesn’t. This is apparently caused by Beryl crashing immediately upon login but not crash when I reload. I’ll get around to writing a full post on my experience installing Beryl on the T60. Below are some screenshots of Beryl under Ubuntu on my ThinkPad T60.
Upon booting up into Feisty Fawn, I didn’t notice any significant changes. Luckily all my settings were saved in my home directory and I was quickly attached to my wireless network. I did find that the Network Manager Gnome applet had an option to create a manual configuration which I don’t think it did before.
The sleep functionality is still broken. I can put the T60 to sleep using the hotkeys but waking up from sleep is a problem. However, applying this fix solves the sleep and hibernation problem on Feisty Fawn (unless you are using Beryl).
Overall, I find Ubuntu to be the best desktop Linux distro I’ve used thus far. Though, I’m still more comfortable using and developing on Fedora, I find that the basic things a distro should do work very well on Ubuntu and not so well on Fedora or OpenSuse. There’s a lot more tinkering involved with these other distros. Hence, I’ve decided to install Fedora 7 from the LiveCD into a VMWare appliance. Below are a few screenshots of Fedora 7 running in a VM.
Lenovo has issued another batter recall. This time it is for batteries manufactured by Sanyo. Systems affected are ThinkPad R60, R60e, T60, T60p, Z60m, Z61e, Z61m, Z61p series laptops.
Well, I finally got around to installing openSUSE 10.2 on my ThinkPad T60. Unfortunately, I was running very low on disk space and couldn’t get any screen captures of the installation process.
In general, the installation process went very smoothely. The biggest advantages of openSUSE 10.2 over Fedora Core 6 during the installation process are:
- Installation picked up my Intel Centrino 3945 and installed the kernel module. Fedora requires you to set this up manually later.
- openSUSE has the ability to connect to the Internet, get a list of add-on repositories and add them during the installation process. Fedora has a screen where you can add the repositories manually during the installation process but this requires you to know the full URL of the repository.
- openSUSE also allows you to install third-party applications like Sun’s Java JRE along with the Centrino firmware and kernel module that Fedora requires you download and install from a third-party provider of RPMs such as Livna or RPMForge.
openSUSE also has better fonts and looks “cleaner” and cripser than Fedora. Proprietary ATI drivers on openSUSE are easily available and installable. The default installation used a VESA driver and set the resolution to 800×600 so installing the ATI drivers was important. Fedora does a better job of providing a hi-res driver but installing the ATI drivers on Fedora is also very easy and well documented all over the place.
I’m not using openSUSE as my primary desktop yet. There’s some hacking to be done with my user settings that would allow the same user id and home directory to be used on both systems. I might remove openSUSE and give Ubuntu a whirl.
Well, as much as I love OS X, the MacBook just wasn’t cutting it for me. The MacBook is a great computer for people who want to get things done and not have to worry about the underlying technology. I need to be able to get things done without futzing with configurations, but I also need a flexible environment where I can work with new technologies, get back to working on my open source social networking project, and also be able to work with Linux environments like Fedora, OpenSuse and Ubuntu.
The MacBook is great for multimedia things and I will probably continue to use OS X for video editing, managing my music collection, and managing the fast increasing number of digital photos that I take. However, it will probably NOT by my MacBook. I have decided to sell my MacBook. It was a tough decision, especially since I bought it less than six months ago and I upgraded the RAM to 2GB less than two months ago. I might try another Apple portable someday in the future but for now, the geek in me is screaming for a ThinkPad running Fedora Core 6, OpenSuse 10.1 and Ubuntu 6.10.
On Thursday, I picked up a Lenovo ThinkPad T60. Sorry, but i was just too excited about getting a new ThinkPad and I didn’t take the required unpackaging pictures. The ThinkPad T60 comes with 1 GB RAM, 120GB 5400 RPM HD, Intel 3945abg Wireless, ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 with 128MB Hypermemory, SXGA+ video at 1400×1050, Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 at 2GHz, DVD Recordable, 56k Fax modem, Infrared, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, Verizon Broadband Connect EVDO, 3 USB, Mic and Headphones, 1 PCI Express Full and 1 PCMCIA Slots, Fingerprint Reader, Security chip, 9 cell battery, and a three year warrant. The only real difference in specs is that the ThinkPad doesn’t have any sort of webcam (Apple MacBook has iSight) or remote control (Apple MacBook has FrontRow).
The ThinkPad has an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, 128MB of video RAM, double the hard drive capacity, double the RAM of the MacBook, and also the Verizon EVDO built-in. That’s a substantial amount of hardware for $1600. The only thing I’ve found so far to complain about the ThinkPad is that the screen isn’t as bright as the MacBook and considering winter is approaching, the ThinkPad can’t double as a heater like the MacBook can.
The 14.1″ version of the ThinkPad T60 is a bit smaller and lighter than the 15″ version. I had considered an ThinkPad X60 or X41 but I decided against it mainly because they both use an Intel 950 graphics chip with 64MB of shared memory, the units in stock didn’t have DVD-RW capability and the HD was maxxed out at 60GB.
The feel of the lenovo ThinkPad T60 isn’t very different from my old IBM ThinkPad T40. However, Lenovo has made a few changes like changing the battery type and the power adapter. I won’t be able to use the battery from my T40 nor will I be able to use the two T40 chargers I have. I presume that dock options are also different for the T60 than for the T4x series of ThinkPads. This ThinkPad T60 also has the Lenovo name displayed prominently next to the T60 logo.
I’ll get into what I’m doing with my new T60 in another post but suffice it to say, I am very happy to be typing on a ThinkPad. However, I do miss having OS X working with such ease and finesse. As much as I love Linux, it is a serious PITA getting things to run and things still don’t run as cleanly or well as they do in OS X. Synchronizing a phone over bluetooth with your PIM is a perfect example … Oh well, I guess that’s part of the fun and challenge of using Linux 
I just spent 15 minutes on the phone with Lenovo trying to get information on their ThinkPads preloaded with SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. I am very surprised at Lenovo’s half-hearted attempt at preloading Linux on ThinkPads. As I mentioned in this post, Lenovo and Novell announced the preloading of SuSE Linux on the ThinkPad T60p. A T60p with the following specs is available for $3099.00 by calling Lenovo (it is not available for purchase from the website, you must call to get any information or place an order).
- Intel Core Duo T2700 (2.33GHz, 2MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
- 14.1″ Screen with 1400×1050 Resolution
- 1Gb RAM
- 100 Gb 7200 RPM HD
- 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5200
- DVD Burner
- 9 Cell Extended Battery
- A/B/G Wireless and Bluetooth
- Integrated Gigabit Ethernet
Oh yes, I must mention that the same exact configuration with Windows XP Home Edition costs $2289.00. Why Lenovo and Novell have to charge $810.00 more for the same exact laptop running SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is mind boggling. Why would anyone in their right mind buy this ThinkPad even if it running Linux? For those of you out there who have a T60p and would like to install SuSE, you could try running openSuSE ( Novell recently renamed the open source distribution ) and download the Lenovo software for SuSE here. It might not work because apparently Lenovo and Novell updated the SLED Kernel for the ThinkPad and I’m not sure if openSuSE contains the kernel enhancements. I am very interested to hear from any of you that try it out. I’m also curious if the software will run on other ThinkPads running SuSE so please let me know.
I still love ThinkPads ( See Apple MacBook vs. IBM ThinkPad - Part 3 ) but, by charging a ransom for a Linux ThinkPad, Lenovo isn’t gaining any friends in the community.
Lenovo - Notebooks - ThinkPad T Series mobile workstations
ThinkPad T60p 14.1″ 2007-8ZU and ThinkPad T60p 15″ 2007-9ZU
technorati tags:ThinkPad, MacBook, T60p, Novell, Lenovo, SUSE, Laptop
I’ve had my MacBook for over two months now. The more I use OS X, I really like it. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts here, here and here, I like the simplicity, I like the ease of use, I like the *nix foundation underlying the pretty user interface, I like the choice between commercial and open source applications and I love the stability.
I’ve been using my MacBook quite a bit the last few weeks working from cafes, Starbucks, parks, and other places where a wired Internet connection isn’t available. The MacBook has been connecting to the Internet just fine. However, the laptop gets way too hot to hold on my lap for more than a few minutes. The other day, I had to put a piece of wood under my MacBook to protect the plastic table cover from burning.
The sharp edge right below the trackpad…. Ouch! The more and more I type, I find my hands getting chaffed by the edge. It’s fine if i’m sitting on my bed and the laptop is also on the bed (craning my neck downwards becomes a different issue). If I’m sitting at a table or at a desk, and my wrists are resting on the edge of the MacBook, the laptop becomes less and less comfortable on the hands. I’m longing more and more for a ThinkPad running OS X. People have gotten OS X to run on ThinkPads and people are discussing it here.
I might decide to keep my MacBook for non-strenuous short uses and I might decide to either get my ThinkPad T40 fixed, or get an X series to carry around. Not sure that I want to spend the money on a new laptop right now since I just bought the MacBook. I will probably do some research to see if I can get a T60 motherboard with a Intel Core Duo 2 GHz chip put into the T40 chassis. I have no idea what that’s going to cost to do.
Lenovo, if you’re reading this, give Steve Jobs a call ad get him to license OS X for the ThinkPad!!!! You’ll probably wind up selling more ThinkPads than IBM ever did
technorati tags:ThinkPad, MacBook, os x, Apple, Lenovo, Laptop
25
May
Transcending boots
Unfortunately, Doc Searl’s IT Garage blog had some issues with posting comments so below is my comment on Doc’s Transcending boots post
Doc,
I’ve been a faithful Linux desktop/laptop user for about 7 years with no Windows at all. My most used computer was a ThinkPad T40 running Fedora Core 3, 4 and now 5 with a dual booting into Suse 10.0.
My TP recently had a few too many falls and the system board is damaged. I decided to take a foray into the Mac laptop world after configuring a new ThinkPad that was comparable in spec to the MacBook but almost $750 more. The new and affordable MacBook (Not the PRO) is absolutely amazing, with a few minor issues. I miss my ThinkPad a great deal but what I miss most is Linux.
I am using Q (an OS X port of QEMU) for Fedora Core 5 and am considering Parallels once I up the RAM to 2 GB.
My point is, that you are 100% correct. Apple won’t officially support other platforms but until they make OS X available on a ThinkPad, the MacBooks are great for the price (as long as you’re not a 3D gamer) and now give me the option to run multiple versions of Linux using virtualization or dual booting. Apple is primarily a hardware company and they can definitely sell more hardware if they at least maintain some openness to other operating systems. I just wish they would have added a two button mouse to the MacBook along with a ThinkPad style Trackpoint.
Pankaj
technorati tags: itgarage, macbook, thinkpad, apple, lenovo, Linux, OS X
