Recently in Lenovo Category

Geeks love ThinkPads. They used to be IBM ThinkPads before China-based Lenovo bought IBM's PC business, and then as now, developers love these things. They're built like tanks (not quite as tank-like as the expensive, hardened Panasonic Toughbooks, but nowhere near as crappily as what Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Gateway, MSI and pretty much every other laptop maker churns out).

Part of the allure of the ThinkPad is the extensive maintenance manuals that accompany the machines. For most of the laptops I own, you can't find this kind of stuff, and you're on your own if and when you start taking it apart (and I've never once used a laptop that I didn't have to gut at one point or another). And they're actually designed to be serviced. You'd think an item hovering around $1,000, as many laptops do, would not be designed and built as a disposable device. But you'd be wrong more often than right.

ThinkPads don't do it that way. Sure they don't look all that streamlined. Their design is squarish, black and very 10 years ago. But they're tough, they tend to work, and that developer love means that free, open-source operating systems such as Linux and the BSDs tend to run well on them.

Of course ThinkPads tend to be expensive. That's why I took notice of the new Lenovo ThinkPad L series, of which there are two models (as ZDNet let me know) retailing for $599, with Intel Core i3 CPUs and 14- and 15.6-inch screens (same price for both).

This means three things: Cheaper new ThinkPads, cheaper used ThinkPads, and cheaper refurbished ThinkPads. At least I hope so.

If you're in the market for a new laptop — and with the new Intel Core i3/i5 mobile chips (not to mention the general good feeling for Windows 7) beginning to flood the marketplace, it seems like a great time to buy.

I've always wanted a Thinkpad. With the Lenovo Outlet, it looks like if I come up with $500-$600 I could actually get one.

Thinkpads, both in their IBM days and now that the Chinese company Lenovo owns the brand, have seemingly always played nicely with free, open-source operating systems based on Linux and BSD.

That's because lots of developers tend to use them. And they want their stuff to work.

Me too.

Ever since Fab of the Linux Outlaws podcast has been gushing over his recently acquired Lenovo ThinkPad laptop, and before that really, I've been at times on the hunt for used ThinkPad laptops, never seeming to be able to "win" them on eBay.

Part of the allure is that ThinkPad laptops tend to work great with Linux and the BSDs, the reasons being (I assume) that the machines have always been well-documented by IBM in the past and Lenovo in the present, and the popularity of them among developers of free, open-source operating system software.

I decided to visit the Lenovo site — and in case you're wondering, the Chinese company Lenovo bought out the Thinkpad line from IBM some years ago and has surprisingly not mucked up the great reputation those Thinkpad computers had from their Big Blue days &mdash.

Quickly I zeroed on on one area: The Lenovo Outlet for new, redistributed, refurbished and "scratch and dent" gear.

I haven't done any kind of detailed analysis of the prices, but it looks like you can get somewhat of a deal on a Lenovo laptop, desktop or server model. So if you really want a Lenovo machine, this looks like a great place to start.

For instance, there's an IdeaPad netbook for $330, a "full-sized" IdeaPad for $688, a ThinkPad T500 for $902, a Value line H210 Tower for $273, and a whole lot of desktop machines between there and the mid-$300s.