Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it?

Re:Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it? by jbarham on Thursday June 10, 2010 @10:10AM (#1420105)

I'll admit to being biased since I'm waiting for my new Thinkpad T410 to arrive, but I think the Thinkpad line is pretty logically segmented and named. The current convention is that each segment has a common prefix ("T" for their standard workhorse line, "X" for the ultra-portable line, "SL" for the more affordable small-business line etc.) w/ the suffix indicating the screen size, e.g., T410 for the 14", X201 for the 12". Of course there are exceptions such as the Thinkpad Edge, but generally it's pretty easy to compare the various models.

While Apple's practice of not publicizing their model names in their advertising might superficially make things simpler, it means you have to explicitly list the model year w/ specs to do a meaningful comparison between current and older models.

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Re:Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it? by rdtsc on Thursday June 10, 2010 @10:16AM (#1420127)

I have a T60 and love it. It's built like a tank. Has a good keyboard and the "stick" mouse pointer (which I really like). It is a bit heavy to lug around, but it is my only machine and it is a good compromise between portable and usable.

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Re:Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it? by AdamN on Thursday June 10, 2010 @10:27AM (#1420159)

Lenovo (IBM) has the best naming convention of the ones I've dealt with. Dell's site is so confusing and abyssmal that I simply could not help a friend buy a PC - had to go with HP.

This will be the last Windows PC I help somebody buy.

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Re:Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it? by jseliger on Thursday June 10, 2010 @01:41PM (#1420892)

Has a good keyboard and the "stick" mouse pointer (which I really like).

We're all friends here -- I think you mean the clit mouse: http://xkcd.com/243/ .

(Bad joke warning: no wonder you really like the "stick" mouse.)

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Re:Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it? by sbierwagen on Thursday June 10, 2010 @10:25AM (#1420151)

I've got a X100e. The hardware's alright, but the linux compatibility is awful. Ubuntu 9.10 worked well enough, except it wanted its wireless drivers to be manually installed, and it crashed every time it autoslept.

10.04, wireless worked out of the box, but crashed when you adjusted the brightness, or did anything with ACPI. Installing the proprietary drivers let me adjust brightness, but it still doesn't like sleeping. And now the headphone jack doesn't work.

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Re:Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it? by _deth_ on Thursday June 10, 2010 @01:01PM (#1420721)

I read somewhere that the headphone jack works if a headphone is connected during boottime.

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Re:Ask HN: Why do no other laptop manufacturers get it? by shpxnvz on Thursday June 10, 2010 @10:44AM (#1420220)

...it means you have to explicitly list the model year w/ specs to do a meaningful comparison between current and older models.

Which makes sense since when I'm looking for a new laptop (as I am now) I don't care about old models. And when I do care to discuss the relative merits of old vs. new models, the year is the natural way to differentiate them, rather than some opaque arbitrary naming convention.

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