Lenovo Announces ThinkPads Preloaded With XP

BBCWatcher writes "Lenovo just announced new ThinkPad T61 models preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP. Ironically they're called ThinkPad T61 'TopSeller' models. Lenovo says they're aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. The XP TopSellers are available immediately, and the part numbers are 6465-03U, 7658-04U, and 7664-06U (PDF links). "Lenovo recommends Windows Vista Business"? Not so much."

Why Won't MS Do Dual Licensing?

[BigAssRat]

I am surprised that MS doesn't allow you to purchase a Vista license that allows the use of XP if you would rather. I bet then they could really beef up their Vista sales numbers, even if only on paper. Who would be able to say that 75% of users purchased Vista but installed XP instead? Looks like they could "win" the numbers game.

2K to XP again..... ?

[jabjoe]

Has this happened before, a mass downgrading from the latest Windows to the previous version? Have to say, not to my knowledge. Many people have said this happens with every new version of Windows. Really? I personally wasn't happy with going from 2k to XP because XP didn't add anything and was all cute/telly tubby and was a bit slower. Like many, after being on 2K became a problem I moved (on work machines you don't always have a choice), I moaned but that was it. Once I turned off all the crap I was fine. From 9x to NT even though it was a big step I don't think there where many people thinking twice. NT was without question much much better/stable. But with Vista things do seam to be happening differently. As a programmer I'm noticing lots of min operating system : Vista for API calls in msdn that would be useful, so there is good stuff there. But there is the huge shadow of compatibility and poor performance which means work isn't even thinking of moving. Personal users fear the DRM and anti piracy tech, not to mention bad performance. The only thing I can see to resolve this is MS starting to take the stuff users don't want out. That already seams to be happening with the removing of the kill switch.

Been using a ThinkPad with Vista for half a year

[felix9x]

I been using a ThinkPad X60 with Vista Business for six month. Generally I had no major issues and like how Vista works. Here are a few notes though:

1. By default the CPU is set to run at half the speed. My notebook came with a 1.8Ghz Core2 Duo, but by default the power settings are set to run it at 900Mhz. In fact thats the only speed the laptop does not get hot as hell. Even at the lower speed most desktop apps work fast enough.

2. I did a few tweaks myself like disable shadow copy and windows defender. I decided to leave the indexer on since I actually like what it provides.

3. With the most recent updates I think a few annoying things got fixed. The laptop comes out of sleep faster and copying seems to be faster.

4. Wireless networking sometimes is flaky. I don't know if Vista is responsible or its due to the interference where I live or its the lenovo wireless utils that are sluggish.

5. I really like the minor UI improvements in Vista like the new resource monitor. I don't see why it cant be back ported to XP.

Re:Try a regular store

[BlueBat]

Try looking for XP in a regular store. You will not be able to find it. I have asked about having XP placed on the computer instead of the crappy Vista and was told that it was impossible. If you want XP preloaded on a machine anymore, you need to go to a website based business it appears. By the way, it was Circuit City that told me it was Vista only. I told them no way, I would go with Linux long before I would go to Vista. They told me I could get a Mac in that case and I told them I wasn't made of money it was XP or no way. They said no way.

But...

[Bazman]

Can I buy one with neither and how well does Ubuntu run on it?

We just bought a Sony laptop with Vista and poor techie had to spend ages upgrading it to XP... Yes, I do mean upgrading... Seems Sony don't do XP graphics drivers for this model, you have to use Win 2k ones with a modified .inf file or something...

Re:This is the end I tell you!

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there room for growth? Always. But I think shareholders are happy with MSFT regardless of Vista, considering they have revenue of US $50-60B/year and an operating income of over $20B/year a year. If Vista ends up being that big of a failure, they can always fall back on XP and continue maintaining and improving that. One of their big cash cows, the Office suite, seems to be doing great with many people rolling out Office 2007 on a large scale.

Re:But...

[JonathanErnst]

Ubuntu runs perfectly on my T61. I have even managed to get a refund on my XP license.

Posted from a T61

[norbac]

I just received my brand new Lenovo T61 preloaded with Vista home basic. What a disaster... but not because of Vista, but instead because of all the pre-loaded junk. The taskbar had 7 icons in the notification area in addition to the ones from the OS, plus a useless battery power gauge that took up another big chunk of real estate (this side-by-side with the already existing Vista power gage, so I'm getting duplicate data). I actually took a screenshot [flickr.com] since I couldn't believe it. I did a quick registry check and counted 30 executables set to auto-start on login. On every log on I got nagging pop-ups about turning on some lenovo software. Launching IE brought up two tabs, one set to always load the lenovo page. It was a slow, annoying mess...

I flattened the machine and installed a fresh copy of Vista Ultimate. With the all the cruft gone, things are now flying on the machine, and I'm quite happy with the OS. The difference is astounding.

All these negative comments I kept hearing about Vista make sense now, but it's clear that at least some of the disenchanment is misdirected. Don't OEM's actually use the machines they send out?