libreboot t400 is now available for purchase on minifree (gluglug)
I am a translator!
YAYYYYY!!! :)
Makes me so happy that there are actual computers I can buy when my sturdy old warhorse finally dies.
I'm a little bit confused as to whether the T400 is actually newer than the
X200- neither are on the Lenovo website or mentioned on Wikipedia, so I'm not
sure which is better. What are the principal differences? They seem extremely
similar to me, except that Minifree sell the T400 for more, and the T400 seems
to have an inferior keyboard (according to reviews). Any significant
differences? Which is better?
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X200
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T400
Except specification differences I know
T400 can upgrade CPU (I think can upgrade to Quad Core)
X200 need to replace motherboard to CPU upgrade
T400 has stereo speakers
X200 dock has Displayport and optical drive
T400 dock has no Displayport
I havnt tested T400 but X200 is very nice. If you dont need performance and only a computer for surfing, light games it's great. Extend it with a dock and you have Displayport but I think with no sound. X200 have the problem with the "electric noise" that is normal with Core 2 Duo computers.
The Minifree is truly a beautiful computer, isn't it?
It has so many ports-- 'tis a great refurbishing job. *AND* it has Libreboot!
i wonder why it hasn’t got a "Respects Your Freedom hardware product certification"
from the FSF yet?
It'll take them some time to get it certified. I'm sure the FSF have been
informed of the release.
However these models are not USB 3 ports available.
Are these models equipment with other than mainstream language keyboards?
I reckon I can get an old T400 myself somewhere, buy a new 9-cell battery for it, and take the HDD from my Ivy Bridge Celeron laptop, and spend way below the Libreboot's price (nice to see they're able to chase big margins now, it seems!).
Now, let's see when do I get around into trying that.....(and of course there's the Libreboot-flashing thing - Minifree's service seems to be too steeply priced so.....maybe there are BIOS-flashing services I can find where I am that asks for a fraction of Minifree).
Factory stopped working and the manager of the plant called in an Expert. The bearded weirdo walked around the factory floor and intensely listened to all the pipes and fittings for a few minutes. Then he pulled out a small silver hammer and gave the nearest pipe a little knock causing the factory to start working again. Then he said to the manager next to him his bill would be $10000. The manager somewhat shocked asked if he could get the bill itemized. The Expert wrote down
* Using the silver hammer $1
* Knowing where to hit $9999
I am a translator!
:)
Great story. I paid for the install service even though I didn't need it, since my machine had already been flashed previously and independently. This money is the only thing Francis gets to keep on going with rent and food and etc so I wanted to support him.
Yeah, what I was saying was that it's nice Francis can charge highly for knowing where to hit the hammer (and in all fairness for wanting to - installing Libreboot on the thing is a bit harder than simply hitting the hammer somewhere as in the analogy, or installing Libreboot on an X60) presumably because more people want him to meaning he can raise the price, thus the profit, which is a good thing.
I wasn't saying that the fact that Minifree charges a lot for things was bad (I actually wrote it was a good thing with "it's nice to see he can chase big margins now"), I was just saying that that is how I feel and that I'll try to hit the hammer myself (which by the way is because of how nice Francis is to actually give detailed instructions for that!) and see how I go.
i think part of high price is due to the euro having gone up a lot in value recently so if your buying with any other currency’s then you money is worth less and you must use more of it.
and there’s also the fact that installing Libreboot on the T400 isn’t easy and requires you to take it apart and to have some specific equipment to flash it and there’s the fact that certain LCD panels of the T400 wont work with Libreboot
so your paying for the knowledge reassurance that it will work mainly!.
Personally I like to think that the only reason Minifree seems to have raised the price of things is because the demand for them has risen - a very good thing!
Not only this, here too much work when you buy a used laptop. You must to test it, disassemle, flash it externaly(t400), clean it, test hardware, install hdd and install OS and configure it. +Hack and program, replace all firmware/bios/efi/software.
So I flashed 3 macbooks 2,1 and had to do these things axcept flash externally, I did everything and I sanded and later polished (not hand polish) my macbooks, it takes me some days.
Although it is true that you could do more or less the same thing quite easily
yourself, I'm happy to fork out the money to support freedom-respecting
hardware. We need more companies like Minifree and Thinkpenguin- don't let the
ones we have die!
So even though I could do the same thing myself far more cheaply and just as
easily, I'll buy from Minifree anyway (when my current lappy dies that is).
I found very good model.
Lenovo ThinkPad T400 с T9900 2x3.06GHz/4GB DDR3/1440x900/14’
Question is pannel at 1440x900 will work with libreboot ?
according to this page most likely not:
http://libreboot.org/docs/hcl/gm45_lcd.html
"On the T400 and T500 (maybe others), some of the higher resolution panels (e.g. 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200) fail in libreboot. "
Besides, the Thinkpad T400 is only 1280p.
For the high-res panels, re-compiling with register "gfx.lvds_dual_channel" = "1" partially solves the problem for those displays; there is still no display in GRUB, but once the kernel takes over, there is a display.
And this is no big deal :) just will don`t have grub menu
And when kernel is loading will load driver so i will get it :)
This is for only 200 USD :) and is fast :)
Also i want to donate to libreboot project and to support future developing !
Are they accept Bitcoin ?
Especially for USA customers, the going prices for an X200 or T400 from Minifree (whether in £ or €) probably seem quite expensive if one can't move beyond the notion of upgrading aging hardware. But if you think of it more as an investment into the future of the libreboot project (& libre computing, generally) with the benefit that you can use and hack on a libre computer *today*, I think the prices start looking reasonable. What else is out there? Barring ThinkPenguin, other suppliers are just making promises for a future with their hardware that will probably never arrive.
> Especially for USA customers
But then pretty much all tech is exponentially cheaper in the US. When it comes
to computers, we really are on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
Some T400 and T500 models have ati 3650 video.
Did anyone know is this is removable pci-e card ?
I can`t find picturies of mainboard with ati card.
here a image of a t400 ATI board:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/2jQAAOSwDNdVy5ib/$_57.JPG
from this ebay link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Lenovo-ThinkPad-T400-256MB-ATI-Motherboard-System-Board-43Y9287-/281772020033?hash=item419aebd141