Comments on: Ubuntu Linux on Thinkpad T61

By: Leif Harmsen

Leif Harmsen — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:30:45 +0000

Agreed. I usually advise less than tech savvy clients to get a Mac, especially if they’re high on money and low on time. I’m an Ubuntu dude – and with every update it gets more user friendly – I can see the day when it will eclipse Mac for simplicity and ease of use without a zillion unasked for features and the proprietary hampster-wheel of expensive add-ons that Mac is becoming famous for. Once Ubuntu works it works the best – and I was lucky with my last Laptop, an HP Pavilion, everything worked perfectly from the start. No fishing for drivers etc., nothing command line, no nonsense.

Windows is firmly legacy now – nobody in their right mind would start with anything Microsoft today – Windows is a pile of patched together debris still trying to pass itself off as a viable operating system. The rest of the world, Mac included, has well beyond with Unix or unix based OS.

By: Eric Pulvino

Eric Pulvino — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:29:49 +0000

I was just going back over this article and looking at my previous responses from several years ago and couldn’t believe I flamed you as hard as I did. I worked in tech support back then… call it repressed rage. Anyways the newest version of Ubuntu 9.04 has been delicious for the T61. Every single one of the hardware related issues, sound, video, screen brightness, wireless, sleep/hibernate you had originally mentioned has been resolved. They all work right out of the box now.
It’s been amazing for me as a constant Ubuntu user to literally see the OS evolve with each new release during my four years of use. This article being direct evidence of that evolution. Plus they keep speeding up the boot time with every release, and it’s only going to get better, my machine boots from powered-off in 30 seconds flat. If you were ever thinking of giving Ubuntu another look, now might be the time.

By: Eric Pulvino

Eric Pulvino — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:10:10 +0000

Virtualbox allows for direct hardware access via a checkbox called Enable Passthrough under the CD/DVD settings of the VM. Once enabled you can rip and even burn cd/dvd’s just like you normally would in the VM. A very handy tool.

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:53:05 +0000

I’m not positive, but I don’t think this is possible through a VM. Programs like this (dbPowerAmp w/Accurate Rip, Slysoft AnyDVD) need direct hardware access. In the past, I tried AnyDVD and it was extremely slow and didn’t function properly.

If they did work properly in a VM, I’d be much more likely to switch to a Mac or possibly Linux, but they are required programs for me, so I don’t.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:37 +0000

Let’s say you have Windows XP running in a virtual machine on Ubuntu via either VMWare or VirtualBox. Can you then use dbPowerAmp and AccurateRip to rip CDs from Windows XP virtual machine?

By: Mohnish

Mohnish — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:38:39 +0000

Hi,

For Skype voice input problem, double click volume icon, go to “Recording Tab” and unmute the capture control. Increase the capture control to amplify the recording. That’s it. Done!
Further about your missing favorite applications, Ubuntu had many which are professional, intuitive and stable. You’ll immediately fall in love with them. Mu suggestion, don’t we disheartened, keep trying Ubuntu for a month. After that you’ll love the choice you made.

By: Dag Rende

Dag Rende — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:48:27 +0000

Its getting better and better with Ubuntu 8.04 on my T61. Look at my website about how I did it. The most important is how suspend/resume can be fixed even with restricted nvidia driver.

Regards,
Dag

By: Per

Per — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:21:51 +0000

You can scroll up and down using the trackpad

By: Del R

Del R — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:00:23 +0000

I am going to install Ubuntu today. I wonder however if I will be able to get the extras working. Has anyone had problems with the following:
– The hard drive active protection service
– the battery maintenance services – (battery deterioration may occur if battery is constantly charged at 100%)
– ability to scroll up and down using the trackpad
– I like the System Update software from Lenovo – I have seen quite a few bios updates. I wonder if I would be able to run those in Linux (since they are .exes…)

Thank you for your help!

By: Eric Pulvino

Eric Pulvino — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:07:01 +0000

There were a few programs I just couldn’t find great replacements for (like the office ’07 suite or Adobe CS3 or modeling softwares like Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor) so I just made a virtual copy of Windows XP Black on my primary partition with use of the program called VirtualBox. If you go to their website there’s a debian package that you can download to install it. If you decide to apt-get it instead the only version that’s in the repositories is the open source edition (OSE) which has certain functionality like USB disabled. I recommend grabbing the edition off of their website. With the use of VirtualBox I’m truly Windows-free. I love VirtualBox because it allows me to continue to use those few Windows-ONLY programs that I have left. It’s also rock solid and has great support and did I mention it’s free? I’m sure this might offer you a solution to your CloneDVD and ANYDVD software issues however DVDshrink has always worked well for me in the past. Nowadays, I just rip ISO’s and store the iso’s in digital form on a file server in my basement. I find it easier than managing all the disks because you don’t always have to worry about them getting scratched, or taking up space on your laptop hard drive. I just use NFS to mount the directory with another little script and I’ve got full seemless access to all of my iso’s and other large files that are on my fileserver in the basement. Discovering NFS was another HUGE thing for me that has completely changed how I think of storage and home computing. Might be worth a look!