I, uuh… successfully broke my ThinkPad T61 the other day. Still not quite sure how I managed that! But the hinge just completely snapped, and I broke the LCD further whilst attempting to take the LCD bezel off.
So I was computerless! Well, not quite computerless, but working on the ThinkPad became a bit iffy. Two “fixes” were investigated: purchasing a temporary laptop whilst getting the T61 fixed; buying a new laptop to replace the T61 completely.
The first option – to buy a new laptop to use whilst getting the T61 repaired was thrown out of the window quite quickly. To the get the entire LCD assembly replaced on my T61 would have been prohibitively expensive, excaberated by two factors. a) I’d have to purchase a temporary laptop as well; b) I originally purchased the T61 with a high-resolution (1400×1050) LCD, which I had grown rather fond of. In addition to those two factors, I had also been planning on upgrading to a Mac in the relatively near future.
So we decided to go for the upgrade route! I put in order for a 13″ MacBook Pro, which arrived yesterday morning. After fiddling around with things for most of the day (or possibly more accurately: working out what various buttons did), I finally had it set up how I liked it. I can definitely say that the move to Apple/OS X was a good one, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
As can be expected from moving to a different operating system (and possibly even a different way of thinking), my “working environment” has had to be adjusted. I didn’t really like OS X’s Spaces (even though I was a huge fan of multiple desktops in Linux), and this has led me to only keeping open the applications which I’m actively using open. In the past, I’d have web/email on one desktop, IM on another desktop and code on my third desktop. However, I’d keep switching to IM/web/email whilst coding – not very productive! Using OS X has encouraged me to only open what I need to complete a particular task – so if I’m programming, I’ll have Eclipse or TextMate open, and only open Safari if I need to quickly look something up. That’s it. It has resulted in huge productivity gains – I’m not quite sure why I didn’t work this out before!
On another note, I’ve become a huge fan of TextMate and Tweetie. Now, when I was using Linux, I would never have even considered forking out some of my *ahem* hard-earned money for a program. Ever. If I was using Microsoft Windows I would either use an Open Source application which had been ported to Windows, or (I’m sorry to say) I would pirate it. Now I’m perfectly willing to pay for software, and plan to do so for TextMate and Tweetie as soon as I can. They are both amazing pieces of software, and I’d strongly recommend them to any OS X users. I’m also using MarsEdit to write this blog post, but I currently blog so infrequently that I’m not sure I’d be willing to purchase it. Perhaps if it encourages me to blog more, I’ll look into paying for a full version.
Shiny
Sorry to hear about the thinkpad
The same thing happend to my t61p ( the right hinge ), but using the guide from ibm/lenovo i was able to disassemble it without any major hickups ( a 1×1 mm pice of the plastic that covers the rear of the screen broke ). I orderd a replacement hinge from lenovos website and assembled the lappy and it’s now working just fine 
When I bought the t61p I too was considering a Mac, but I don’t like the design ( well, the keyboard ) of the new mb pros… Don’t you miss your thinkpad keyboard?
Oh really? It was the right hinge on mine as well. I have suspicions that it was partly due to the way I opened it (using my thumb to push the screen up/forward with my hand at the base of the LCD). I cracked the LCD when attempting to take the front bezel off, unfortunately, so that would’ve made it a bit too pricey to repair.
I’m surprisingly not missing the ThinkPad keyboard too much – I’m really quite shocked at how fast I’ve become used to this keyboard. The only major issues I’ve been having is getting used to the OS X keyboard shortcuts and the fact that I’ve switched to a UK layout from a US layout.
Welcome to the Mac! And thanks for giving MarsEdit a spin. Hope it treats you well.
Ohh, sorry to hear that, those LCDs aren’t cheap
Maybe a bit of search could find you a second hand one if you’re interested…
Seems that Lenovo saved a bit to much on the hinges… A bit of googling finds numerous accounts of broken hinges on t61(p)’s
There are two manufacturers of hinges for this model, one is bad ( the default ). Strange thing was that the bad hinge was 4 times as expensive as the good one…
Have you given any thoughts to what you’re going to use the t61 for? I guess a HTPC would be kinda nice
Yeah, they’re a bit pricy. Maybe, but I tend to prefer “new” things, personally.
Oh really? That’s interesting – one of the things I’ve seen them boast about is that they open/close ThinkPads hundreds of times as a part of their testing process. Sounds like they should’ve just used the cheaper one on all ThinkPads!
Not sure what I’ll do with it yet – I think my father would quite like to replace the LCD (most likely with a lower-resolution one) and hinge and use it on his yacht for GPS navigation and so on. I’m not a huge fan of home-theater systems, personally… We shall see!
Thanks Daniel, I’ll let you know how I get on with MarsEdit
Might want to look into this:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/prefix/
We’ll see how long you last before you start looking up how to get Gentoo to work on a MacBook.
It’s actually quite compatible.
Haha, might be quite a while, I’m afraid – I was actually lead of a couple of the Gentoo on Alternative Platforms subprojects! I got a number of other Gentoo developers and users pestering me to start using/contributing to Gentoo Prefix, but they’ve not had any luck so far
microblogging is really useful when you want to broadcast short updates. i am still leaning towards traditional blogging.~”;