IBM ThinkPad celebrates 15th birthday

If you were looking for any reason whatsoever to hop into a celebratory mood, why not join IBM (or would it be Lenovo these days?) in celebrating the 15th birthday of the ThinkPad. Of course, tech historians are likely to bicker over the ThinkPad's true day of emergence, but reportedly, the IBM 2521 (later renamed the 700T) ThinkPad holds the honors of being the first of its kind to ship in July of 1992. Interestingly enough, one could argue that this very machine was actually more akin to a tablet PC than a bonafide laptop, but it proudly donned the ThinkPad logo nevertheless. So, ThinkPad owners, today's your day to gift that oh-so-industrious machine of yours with a few extra moments of rest, but before you do, why not let us know what model you're partying with if you're in the club?

[Via jkOnThRun]

[Chris Thompson @ Jul 19th 2007 1:47PM]

X41 Tablet baby, I guess a distant relative...

[Kelvin @ Jul 19th 2007 1:49PM]

Woot! T60p Widescreen!

[Nicolast @ Jul 19th 2007 1:58PM]

15" T42p & 14.1" T43p

[Vinay @ Jul 19th 2007 1:59PM]

I would have had an X61 right now, but ever since IBM went Lenovo, I ditched it for a Gateway E295.

[Judd @ Jul 21st 2007 11:07AM]

What a moron. Go from the best laptop in the industry to the second worst. Good job.

[Psychodad1961 @ Jul 19th 2007 1:59PM]

R51

[Psychodad1961 @ Jul 19th 2007 1:59PM]

R51

[gabbo241 @ Jul 19th 2007 2:05PM]

R31, baby, kickin' it old school. Bought a T60p this summer but returned it because Vista blew chunks. Plus, now that they got rid of the classic multicolor IBM logo, there's no point in owning a new one.

[Colin @ Jul 19th 2007 2:06PM]

I'm keepin' it real with my T30. Still going strong after 4 years.

[SL33T @ Jul 19th 2007 2:07PM]

T61, 2.2 Ghz centrino core 2 duo pro, 14.1 " widescreen, 2 GB ram, vista ultimate, nvidia quadro nvs 140M

first thinkpad, for college. happy bday baby

[Dan @ Jul 19th 2007 4:53PM]

happy birthday, ThinkPad!!! (I'm writing this on my T61 - 14.1" WXGA+, X3100 graphics, winxp)

Also a high school graduation gift. ;)

[Ignacio @ Jul 19th 2007 2:12PM]

Typing from a R50e at work (missing certain other "white" laptop at home :P ).

The good: very rugged, solid feel
The bad: ugly, battery life of 2 hours :(

[Josh @ Jul 19th 2007 2:25PM]

T42. It turns 3 next month... =)

[Rees Clissold @ Jul 19th 2007 2:25PM]

X22 here - 256MB RAM, 800MHz processor, no optical or floppy drives. Running Debian and still going strong!

I love ThinkPads... ;)

My first laptop was a ThinkPad.

[rob72 @ Jul 19th 2007 2:28PM]

T60 with Intel Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM

[Scott @ Jul 19th 2007 2:30PM]

T43 and T21 - best, most durable laptops I've ever used. I've been tempted by MacBooks, but nothing feels like a T-series. And I freakin' HATE touchpads...the TrackPoint FTW.

[Karl @ Jul 19th 2007 2:30PM]

I'm on my third: 755c -> 600x -> T42

I have loved every one, but the 600x was so much better built than the T42 and the newer ones that it still makes me a bit sad. The 600x is still going strong, too.

[The Chadd @ Jul 19th 2007 6:00PM]

600x -> T40 -> hopefully T60P

[Flying? @ Jul 19th 2007 2:30PM]

IBM T41p

My best laptop without a doubt ... 3 years after buying it, it still looks brand new ...

[Brian Hawkins @ Jul 19th 2007 2:31PM]

755 x21 and x60t

[Flying? @ Jul 19th 2007 2:31PM]

IBM T41p

My best laptop without a doubt ... 3 years after buying it, it still looks brand new ...

[jono @ Jul 19th 2007 2:31PM]

Thinkpad 570e

Maxxed out to 320MB RAM, 453MHZ P3 Coppermine, WIFI G, 2.5MB NeoMagic Video

Installed Debian Etch with Gnome. Much better than Ubuntu. Works better in Linux than in Windows, minus hot-mount/unmount of the dock.

[jlramire19 @ Jul 19th 2007 2:34PM]

T42p 2373-Q1U

Awesome machine. I've had it for 2.5 years, was about to get an XPS (10 pounder, yuck!)

[jlramire19 @ Jul 19th 2007 2:36PM]

Oh, I also have two x30s. Both work great after 4+ years.

[Saluki @ Jul 19th 2007 2:37PM]

T40, and now a new X60. The T40 still works great after 4.5 years.

BTW: these are Thinkpads we are celebrating, so allow me to party by firing up another spreadsheet.

[Blocatan @ Jul 19th 2007 2:41PM]

All our company buys are Thinkpads ... good machines. I hope lenovo keeps the quality going .. and Congrats Thinkpad!

[Mike @ Jul 19th 2007 2:46PM]

I have an R40 and a T60. Mmmm.

[Ellianth @ Jul 19th 2007 2:46PM]

Watch them pull a Dell and kill off the line on it's birthday...

[Pal @ Jul 19th 2007 2:47PM]

awesome stuff... T42 here!!! happy birthday baby!! :D

[Ben @ Jul 19th 2007 2:47PM]

Former T42p (2373-GVU) user

Currently rocking the T60 (2007-C4U), last Thinkpad with the colorful IBM logo on it!

Both excellent machines, although my current T60 is nearly crippled with all the SMS shit IT put on it...

[Mgates @ Jul 19th 2007 2:49PM]

Started with a 600E; Saved my arse when I feel off my skateboard at 30mph, literally... my butt fell on it and it only cracked the case and crashed the HD (was running because I was listening to mp3s on it at the time). New HD and it ran like a champ until I got a T42. Then a T43 (good enough graphics to do moderate gaming on) and now I'm on a DualCore T60. Someday I'll get a T61, whenever we get our shipment...

But yeah, Thinkpads aren't the prettiest or lightest, but they get the job done and stand up to a lot of abuse!

[Paul @ Jul 26th 2007 11:14AM]

There's something especially cool about riding a board using a ThinkPad as an mp3 player!

[Perka @ Jul 19th 2007 2:50PM]

T43, got it from work. Piece of junk, so incredibly slow.

[Greg H @ Jul 19th 2007 2:50PM]

My long history with ThinkPads:
700c, 750c, 701CS (remember the 'butterfly' keyboard?), 755CV, 760E, , T20, T22, T30, T40, T42, and now, a T61. ThinkPads have always had the best keyboards, period.

[Nash @ Jul 19th 2007 2:52PM]

X21 in the past......T61 now.....

TP ROX

[nick @ Jul 19th 2007 3:08PM]

X60 Tablet high-res version...woot! love it

[Scott @ Jul 19th 2007 3:09PM]

X40 "ebay special." 3+ lb laptop.

[Joey @ Jul 19th 2007 3:09PM]

T42 from work when I was with IBM last year. Just got a T61 widescreen to replace my broken VAIO.

[Joey @ Jul 19th 2007 3:13PM]

FYI...my T61 came with the multi-color IBM logo like Thinkpads of yore, I think cuz it came from IBM's employee purchase plan :)

[Minofz @ Jul 19th 2007 3:21PM]

Weeeeeeee

R51e dude ^^

[Al.S @ Jul 19th 2007 3:24PM]

Sporting the T30...crashes windows non-stop but runs ubuntu flawlessly...who knew?

[chris w @ Jul 19th 2007 3:30PM]

A30, still rock solid 4 years on...

[DaveFlys @ Jul 19th 2007 3:35PM]

I'm using my G40 workhorse. It's been through a lot and keeps on ticking!

[emil @ Jul 19th 2007 3:36PM]

T30 - strong after 4 years

ThinkPads rock!

[David Scott @ Jul 19th 2007 3:56PM]

560 > T23 > X20 >R51

[Aaron @ Jul 19th 2007 4:07PM]

X41 tablet, just got here used a few months back, best $300 I've ever spent, much better then my old ECS G731e, much liter and a way better battery life.

The thing I wish is that they had a way to both middle click and still have scroll, maybe tap to click and hold to scroll or something. Or to set press to select to middle click

The only other issue I've had is probably just my machine, but the wireless doesn't seem to stay connect, it will randomly disconnect for a very short period of time, I wouldn't even have noticed if it wasn't for google talk sending my status message to people seemingly randomly and the "network connected" bubble popping up constantly. It also breaks downloads, it's pretty annoying but most of the time I'm just programming on here or reading news so it isn't bad.

[Stephen Armbruster @ Jul 19th 2007 4:08PM]

I've got a new T61 with a 2.0 ghz C2D, 4gb ram and a nVidia NVS140m. It's my first ThinkPad (and first laptop) and so far it's been great.

[courtaud @ Jul 19th 2007 4:19PM]

T21, a brave little knight.

[Mike @ Jul 19th 2007 4:46PM]

I've got an T43, work @ IBM.

[William C Bonner @ Jul 19th 2007 4:56PM]

I've still got an IBM Thinkpad 750p that ran pen windows. I think I bought it sometime in 1992 or 1993.

I've not tried to do anything with it in the past few years, so don't know if it would still work.