Re: [Thinkpad] Your ThinkPad history

I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one with a 700C (arguably, the
first ThinkPad), but I see two owners showed up today.

700C:
I remember seeing the large advertising posters for the 700C at an airport
in 1992. I really wanted one but couldn't afford it (I later learned I
probably couldn't have found one anyway: IBM started out with a two billion
dollar order backlog on the 700C. I picked up two a few years back. The
original owner of one said they were nowhere to be found at first. His wife
talked a dealer into selling his demo unit, by paying list price and buying
an external CD drive and printer with it. I have the original box and all
accessories and papers that came with it, except a label template for the
function keys.

[fast-forward almost 10 years]

385XD:
My first ThinkPad was a 385XD. They're not in style now, but I actually
like the thick-as-a-brick case. It's small enough to sit on an airline tray
table, yet boasts three spindles in the case: hard, floppy, and CD-ROM
drives. The front-facing speakers sound good for a laptop. I still use it
occasionally to record music from records, and to play with old BASIC
programs. It has been excommunicated from the web since Microsoft no longer
issues security updates for Windows 98SE.

A31 (2):
My wife and I are still using these as desktop replacements. Another
three-spindle system, solid as a rock. No trouble with either one, except a
hard disk failure on my wife's system, easily remedied by restoring from a
backup. They rarely travel, but my wife took hers to visit the kids
recently and kept up with her email.

701C: (2+)
Picked up a couple and some parts to play with the keyboard, but they're too
slow to do much with. The lack of a Pentium meant they were obsolete by the
time they were released.

T42:
Just bought one from my son. Nice computer, still in warranty (a rare
experience for me). I still got to take it apart to replace the palmrest.

Others that came, got fixed up, and went:

600, 600E:
Nice keyboard.

T23:
I'm not as impressed as many here. Screen problems are frequent, and
replacement screens are expensive.

Paul Pennington
Augusta, Georgia

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Received on Fri Nov 16 17:10:11 2007