Like so many of my source code jockey brethren, I am one of those saddened by Lenovo's sudden decision to stop selling laptops equipped with "normal" aspect ratio screens. This widescreen all-the-way fad is bugging the hell out of me. At around 5lbs, a T-series laptop with a 14.1" screen and 1400x1050 resolution was a rather nice machine for a traveling programmer. It seems that it's either too few of us buying normal aspect ratio screens or nobody at Lenovo can possibly think of why anyone would value vertical resolution above and beyond the wide-screen idiocy.

Anyway, I was in the market for a new T series laptop, and as I was pricing out a new one online, I noticed a rather great deal they're offering their Linux users:

Yepp, that's right - one can upgrade from SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to a full-blown Thinkpad PC DOS License for the low, low price of $8,473.65. I think I should upgrade the CPU to the fastest they offer, memory to the max and get the biggest, baddest hard drive they offer to be able to run that PC DOS beast...

Thinkpads have been my laptops of choice for many years. I have personally owned/changed/worked through 9 of them so far. The Thinkpad line always used to have a 14.1" regular aspect ratio screen in their lineup. As a "businessy" user, I hate change. I hate having to change my coding habits to deal with widescreens. A source code terminal would only utilize half the screen estate, which would bug me to no end. I hate having to purchase a new laptop bag and/or travelcase to accomodate the new screen dimensions. I hate wasting time researching which bag would work best - my current one has not been produced for years now, and keeping up with new developments in the luggage industry has not been one of my curiosities, ever. I hate that these new Thinkpads only come with a 6-cell battery instead of the awesome 9-cells they used to have before. I hate that the new fully-Lenovo designed models are bulkier, thicker, boxier and much heavier than the ones they replace.

I hate that people who feared that Lenovo would end up trashing the prized Thinkpad line appear to have been right.

At long last, my loyalty to the Thinkpad series is forced to an end by Lenovo's dumb decision to stop selling models that I would like to use. The part that sucks the most about this is the fact that I have to waste time looking at other brands of laptops - something I have not done in a long time.