Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide

Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by rhizome on Friday October 28, 2016 @03:51PM (#12820010)

They didn't do that on Thinkpads, though.

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by criddell on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:22PM (#12820259)

It's the same company though. I have two Thinkpads (I'm typing on a T520 right now) and today I wouldn't buy another.

Even if you want to give them a pass for unethical behavior, Lenovo still installs a lot of extra software that you don't really need. If you do buy a Thinkpad, I recommend reformatting the machine and doing a stock Windows install.

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by sliken on Friday October 28, 2016 @05:13PM (#12820771)

Sadly this is becoming very hard with lenovo ideapad and yoga. I fear this is coming for the thinkpads as well.

They seem to claim performance/battery improvements with their magic single disk "RAID" interface. Doubly dubious because said device just binds with the windows software raid driver.

What is worse is lenovo disables the included AHCI (breaking both Linux and Windows), so you have to use their install media to install the OS. Which of course installs whatever crap the original laptop came with.

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by syshum on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:42PM (#12820475)

>>>If you do buy a Thinkpad, I recommend reformatting the machine and doing a stock Windows install.

that should be done with all computers no matter who you buy it from

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by mst on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:56PM (#12820603)

Personally, I've found the Thinkpad windows build to work better for me by far than a vanilla one (especially the projector stuff, which generally makes me a very happy bunny at conferences).

However, given there's a recovery partition and you don't wipe it while doing a stock install, "try both and see which you prefer" is clearly an option.

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by criddell on Friday October 28, 2016 @05:10PM (#12820746)

That's good advice.

If you don't want to wipe, you can selectively install and uninstall the Lenovo software. I have a 12.5" Thinkpad Yoga that I've uninstalled lots of stuff and it works great now. Some things, like Lenovo's power management tools, didn't get along very well with the standard Windows tools.

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by bchociej on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:25PM (#12820285)

Why not Linux?

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by criddell on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:27PM (#12820319)

Worse battery life. Really though, the applications you need should dictate the OS you use. If Linux works for you, by all means, use it.

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Re:Apple Sucks Now, Here’s a ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide by ymse on Friday October 28, 2016 @04:56PM (#12820602)

I didn't downvote you, but even my Macbook friends were jealous of my 20+ hours on a Thinkpad x250 (9-cell).

The default power settings on Linux are pretty bad, though. Anyone with Linux on their laptop should create a boot service that runs this command:

    powertop --auto-tune

...and observe battery time increase by ~25%.

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