From a modality perspective, writers and programmers do the same thing, day after day. Both careers involve spending the bulk of their work day using a computer, though the tools marketed to and preferred by either industry are often diametrically opposed. While MacBooks are often the system of choice for digital creatives, ThinkPads are often seen in the hands of IT professionals. Users of either system are among the most vocal and opinionated, among laptop brands.
While Apple users have been increasingly seen grousing about the butterfly-switch keyboard, ThinkPad users, likewise, have complained about changes that have come to newer models, bringing them more in-line with standard, consumer-focused systems. Some criticize Lenovo's stewardship of the ThinkPad brand-after acquiring IBM's PC OEM division in 2005-though the company has worked to balance ThinkPad's visual design with the changing PC market.
TechRepublic's James Sanders interviews Jerry Paradise, Lenovo's vice president of global commercial portfolio and product management about screen ratios, soldered components, engineering 5G WWAN support, the potential of Linux preinstalled from the factory, and the original butterfly keyboard.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday May 18 2019, @10:05PM
This seems to mean "we couldn't afford to be the only ones"
So - damned hipsters are to blame for soldered RAM!
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Sunday May 19 2019, @02:35AM (2 children)
As a friend of classic T-Series Thinkpads I find this marketing bullshit outright repulsive. A pathetic attempt at saving some of the street cred that went into the gutter as the stuff got and still gets gradually worse. The only thing they could positively benchmark against is that the desirability of Apple gear went down the drain even further. (And Apple still has 16:10 displays).
Who makes the Thinkpads these days, anyway? Is it still Wistron? (*)
(*) the only "true" Lenovo (unless they put own work in after the T440 anyway) was the T400/T500 series. Their schematic is drawn by the same guy at Lenovo who did the T40/T60, T41/T61, and T43, where of course these older ones still had the IBM badge. But all of them are lovely kit (with the exception of ATI chips and the occasional southbridge failing).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Spamalope on Sunday May 19 2019, @01:50PM (1 child)
Yeah. If they were serious, they'd at least be at 16:10.
And they'd go thin and light only to the extent high quality was maintained. Soldered only options, previously restricting what will function in M.2 ports via bios restrictions... those are rent seeking moves, not quality seeking. (Like say.... superfish... :/ )
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19 2019, @09:22PM
Yeah, those stupid fucks burned me with their m2 whitelist bullshit. They don't have to worry about me ever buying from them again. I bought used anyways. I'll buy System76, Purism or maybe there will be Risc V kit by then.