From: jbrock@csfb1.fir.fbc.com (John E. Brock)
Subject: ThinkPad Thoughts
Reply-To: uunet!csfb1!jbrock
Organization: First Boston Corporation
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 04:33:19 GMT

I am planning on buying an IBM ThinkPad 700C, unless somebody comes out
with something better within the next two weeks.  It comes from a major
player, which I think is important, and it has almost all of the
features on my wish list: a 486 level CPU (but no built-in math
coprocessor...,  bummer!), a color screen, an integral pointing device,
max 16M memory, removable hard drives, and an internal modem.  The only
things missing were SCSI-2 and PCMCIA2 ports.

I saw the machine for the first time last Friday (at Rockwell Computer,
39th & Madison in NYC), and I have some comments and a question.

It's a very nice machine (and according to the salespeople it's
selling!).  The display model was running Windows.  The screen and the
keyboard were both very good (all IBM portables have had good
keyboards, whatever their other faults), and I liked the finish better
than that of the IBM CL 57SX (it's rougher, less rubbery).

I was a bit dissapointed with the TrackPoint II pointing device -- I
thought it was better than the little trackballs you find on other IBM
compatable laptops, but not as good (IMHO) as the large trackballs on
the Apple PowerBooks.  Some other customers in the store disagreed with
me on this.

The TrackPoint II is a little hard rubber nub, like a small pencil
eraser, that sticks up about 1/4 inch from the keyboard.  You give it a
shove (it feels very sturdy) and the pointer scoots around the screen.
It works better than I thought it would, and it's easy to control for
large movements, but I found I was continually overshooting my targets,
and fine control was not as easy or natural as with the PowerBook
trackball.  I went to Setup to try to slow it down, but it was already
set slow.

The thing about a trackball (and even more so a mouse) is that the
movement of the pointer on the screen scales with the movement of your
hand, and when you stop moving the pointer stops dead.  Very small
movements are easy.  With the TrackPoint your pointer seems to have
some inertia, and you have to deaccelerate it.  Also, I think it's
maybe *too* small.  It doesn't get in the way of typing, but I have to
look for it when I want to use it, so I don't hit a key instead.  But
all in all the thing works pretty well, and it's the best I've seen on
an IBM compatable.  Maybe it will get more comfortable with use.

The removable hard drive was not as easy to change as the one I saw on
an Everex laptop, but unlike the Everex it is entirely internal, and I
suspect we will eventually be able to put them into IBM desktop
machines.  Could this be the start of a standard for removable hard
drives?  That would be great!!!  Oh, and the battery is removable too,
in fact you have to remove it before removing the hard drive.

This brings me to my question.  Of all the features of the ThinkPad the
removable hard drive is the most significant to me.  If I am thinking
about this right, this is the only Intel architecture machine I will
ever need to buy.  If I want to play around with other operating
systems -- OS/2, Unix (for work), Windoze NT, or whatever, I don't have
to buy a new machine or reformat my disk, all I need to do is get a new
hard drive.  (And they're bound to get bigger and faster and cheaper,
aren't they)?  But I am worried about the fact that the ThinkPad 700C
is a PS/2, so here's my question:  to what extent does a PC operating
system need to know about the difference between MicroChannel and
ISA/EISA buses?  More concretely, will there be separate MicroChannel
and ISA/EISA versions of, let's say, Solaris, or Destiny?  Or doesn't
the operating system see what kind of bus it has?  And can you see any
other flaws in my one-PC-forever game plan (aside from the fact that a
16M 486 VGA machine will probably look a bit lame five years from
now)?

-- 
John Brock
uunet!csfb1!jbrock
jbrock@csfb1.fir.fbc.com