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IBM

Lenovo Completes Acquisition Of IBM's PC Division 192

Posted by Zonk from the purchasing-the-collective dept.
karvind writes "Chinese computer maker Lenovo has completed its $1.75 billion purchase of IBM's personal computer division, creating the world's third-largest PC maker. Under the deal, IBM takes an 18.9 percent stake in Lenovo. Lenovo paid $1.25 billion for the IBM PC unit and assumed debt, which brought the total cost to $1.75 billion. Slashdot timeline: Dec 3, 2004: IBM Puts PC Business Up for Sale, Dec 4, 2004: Chinese PC Maker Looks to Buy IBM's PC Business, and Mar 9, 2005: U.S. Approves IBM/Lenovo Sale"
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Lenovo Completes Acquisition Of IBM's PC Division More

Lenovo Completes Acquisition Of IBM's PC Division

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  • IBM doesn't need stinking pcs! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @03:58PM (#12424171)
    but i wonder what this will do to support for prior IBM computers

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) * on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @03:58PM (#12424176)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:00PM (#12424207)
      It's like Anakin Skywalker being thrown into the lava and left there by Obi Wan Kenobe in the climactic scene of the new Star Wars movie...

      Worst. Analogy. Ever.

      • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:19PM (#12424452)
        It's like Anakin Skywalker being thrown into the lava and left there by Obi Wan Kenobe in the climactic scene of the new Star Wars movie...

        Worst. Analogy. Ever.

        No, this is:

        It's like a bunyon in your left nostril left there by the intrusive drone of Alien Pope during his weekly sermon on why we should eat pieces of our neighbors liver to better understand the glories of our great god, Eddy the Reproductive Shrew, Lord of the Golden Fucker.

    • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:01PM (#12424212)
      Well, customer service has definitely sucked over the past few months. The motherboard on my X31 broke at the end of March, and I'm still waiting for a replacement. IBM supposedly has a 3 day replacement policy for broken parts under warranty; it's been five weeks and IBM's been giving the runaround to both me and the tech (their business partner, for crying out loud) as to when my bloody $3000 notebook is going to be repaired.
    • ...rant about trackpads ...

      dude, by a 10$ optical mouse and get over yourself.

      I'd rather use a real mouse than ANYTHING put in a laptop because it's just simpler. But touchpads aren't really that hard to use. They are annoying if you rest on it by accident when typing but other than that they're not a mystery.

      Tom

      • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:1)

        by hal9000(jr) ( 316943 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:15PM (#12424404)
        dude, by a 10$ optical mouse and get over yourself.

        Ever try to use an optial mouse while balancing that laptop on your lap while in the airport, restaruant, the sofa, or the easy chair? I barely have room to put my g40 and a glass of water on the flimsy little airport tray. Grrg. Argh.

        I have also had a hell of a time trying to use photoshop with a trackpad or anything other than a trackpoint or a mouse.

        So no mon, it's not that easy.

        • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:2)

          by X0563511 ( 793323 ) * on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @06:04PM (#12425674) Homepage Journal
          Don't you hate it when the jerk in front of you puts his seat back down and forces you to use your laptop on your chest, or half closed?

          Maybe thats just me flying coach all the time...
          • Try being 180cm tall or so and having the jerk infront of you "insist" on moving the seat back. Of course I then "insist" on digging my knee into the middle of their back.

            And by "insist" I mean "laws of physics dictate this". As much as people like to think I'm a jerk for that I can't grow shorter on the plane so you can lean back over my knees [e.g. my space].

            Honestly I don't understand why the seats recline at all. Not like there is actually enough space for it anyways. Might as well just be fixed position and get over it.

            As for using a laptop on a plane I never saw the point. On flights 2 hrs you're up and down pretty fast and on longer flights the battery won't last.

            So chances are if you're rushing todo work on a 2hr flight to a clients you're not prepared anyways. And otherwise you're laptop won't last the flight so there's no point.

            Tom

            • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:2)

              by X0563511 ( 793323 ) * on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @10:58PM (#12428356) Homepage Journal
              The flights I take are usually about 5-5.5 hours long. My laptop has a 2 hour and a 1.5 hour battery, so I can get 3.5 out of 5, that's not bad.
              • I'm not saying you *can't* use a laptop on a flight. I'm saying it's not worth the hassle of getting it out of the bag/case, doing work, being interrupted by the beverage/food/peeps, etc...

                The way I found to travel that makes it peaceful is to just space out. Get comfy, put seat belt on and just vege. Mind shuts off, flight seems shorter.

                Now if there was more room and an AC outlet ... I'd be all over the using the laptop...

                Doesn't help that I have a Presario 2100 which isn't exactly a "small" laptop [15" screen to start with]. So opening that on the average tray is a challenge in coach.

                Tom

                • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:2)

                  by X0563511 ( 793323 ) * on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @04:06PM (#12434830) Homepage Journal
                  I have an HP Pavillion ze5700(*)... the same size if not bigger. I couldn't stand a smaller screen though, or one that breaks the 4:3 ratio.

                  But I have a special backpack that has a laptop compartment alont the back, and I keep books and such in there as well. So when I want to take it out, slide the backpack up against my legs, open the back pouch. Pull the velcro strap, and slide the laptop up and out.

                  I'm pretty patient about things, but being strapped into such a small place for longer than 2 hours breaks my limit. It helps that I have good books, and a Sony walkman/mp3/atrac player that gets a good 20+ hours off of a set of AA batteries (rechargable, I might add...)

                  (*)
                  A very good laptop, aside from the Broadcom miniPCI wireless. Need to use ndiswrapper. They also messed with some of the extra buttons, only 2 of the "multimedia" keys produce output in "cat /dev/input/whatever". The mute key doesn't output any there either, just the vol up/down ones. Same deal with the radio button (wifi on/off in windows. I could set scripts to do the same, but only if I can capture the input.
        • Here's a tip... don't bother using your laptop on a plane or in a restaurant.

          ENJOY YOUR LIFE.

          I mean I use my laptop professionally and the only time I "really need" to work at it [and not just boot it up to get a number or two] is when I'm at an office of some sort.

          When I fly I just relax and enjoy the trip. Bring my gameboy/some cds and enjoy it.

          Tom

      • funny?!? (Score:1)

        by game kid ( 805301 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:19PM (#12424465) Homepage
        Insightful, maybe--I can't stand those pads, especially if they have any extra annoyances^Wfeatures like scroll or navigation zones*--but the parent seems quite serious to me.

        Even if I was on a train I'd take an optical, and maybe move it on the keyboard if said train is crowded. Touchpads are not teh awesome for me--unless, perhaps, they had a built-in cover to stop those typing accidents...

        *Yes, I can turn them off on most, I know. They just feel odd in either case.

    • Off to a bad start (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TheBeginner ( 30987 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @05:29PM (#12425277)
      I just spent 2 hours on the phone yesterday with customer service and ended up angry both at the lack of any resolution to my problem and the complete and utter waste of an hour and a half.

      According to one of the 6 people I talked to during my wonderful adventure, yesterday was the day on which Lenovo took over customer supoort in form, if not in practice. The call (4 calls in truth) I made was still routed to IBM's call center in Atlanta, but my problem was given a Lenovo tracking number. Also, new procedures of a nebulous sort had just been put in effect. While no one I talked to was willing to admit any substantive change, it became clear to me during the course of the 2 hours that something had changed.

      To be fair, this is a bit of a rant. My computer, a thinkpad T40, lost the ability to display useful images at about 9 am yesterday, and instead award me with a rainbow of vertical strips immediately upon power on. As it turns out, I needed to have the system board replaced as the graphics chip had stopped working. I am a student and finals are several days away and I needed my laptop in order to take one of the finals so I was distressed.

      I called IBM at 1800IBMSERV and my fears were quelled immediately when I was told that I would simply need to upgrade my existing "depot" (send-it-in) warranty to a "on-site" (they come and fix it) warranty. The cost was 120 (later, when I paid it was dropped to 98) and it was worth it to me to have a computer in time for my final. So I was transferred to sales where I had to explain everything again, I paid for the upgrade and was told to call 1800IBMSERV again to schedule my maitenance for the next day. The sales person told me that because I wanted immediate service I would have to talk to "endowment" (an ethereal branch of the IBM hierarchy that turned out to be the devil incarnate) and explain my situation but that it would not be a problem. I called back, waited on hold for not too long (5 minutes) and then explained my situation yet again. After spending 10 minutes explaining everything, I was transferred to the mysterious "endowment" department. I explained everything once again and at that point the entire experience disintegrated. I was told that I, in fact, would have to wait for up to 3 days for my warranty upgrade to "invoice" and then anohter 5 days for that upgrade to be applied to my computer.

      At first I couldn't believe this. I had been told that I could get service the next day by two people. I had purchased the upgrade on that understanding. I insisted to this "endowment" demon that she must be mistaken. After quite a bit of insistence on my part, she told me that I might be able to get this to work if I called back sales and got the "information (unspecified)" she needed to put this directly through.

      So I called sales, waited on hold for about 40 minutes with a woman's voice repeating every minute or so "please be stay on the line and your call will be answered shortly." That phrase repeated so often was the worst part of the whole experience.

      I finally got a salesman, he told me that the voice on high of endowment was correct and that I was simply out of luck (read - had been misinformed for 1.5 hours). I asked if this was due to the changeover to Lenovo, and he said no. Later, after a bit of "discussion," he mentioned that under the old policies this could have been fasttracked, but under the new, I was out of luck. This chnage seems to have just happened to coincide with the changeover.

      Now, perhaps all of this is just a kink that will be worked out. I have loved my thinkpad, and I have loved the alacrity at which IBM service has always leaped to help. At the moment, I am deeply disheartened and fear for the future.

    • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:2)

      by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @06:31PM (#12425965)
      where you're never sure if you just accidentally selected something because your attempt to move the mouse was interpreted as a click, etc

      You know you can turn that off in like 5 seconds, right? And never be bothered with that problem ever again in the lifetime of the laptop, right?

      Criminy.

    • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:2)

      by demachina ( 71715 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @08:21PM (#12427219)
      "IBM leaving the PC business seems sad"

      This deal isn't exactly about IBM leaving the PC business. They are buying there way in to the Chinese marketplace on the coattails of China's largest PC manufacturer, by practicly giving away one of their crown jewels, though one that is not profitable and they don't really want. Cringley [pbs.org] did a decent job of describing all the not so obvious angles to this deal last year.

      Every greedy capitalist and multinational on the planet wants to get in to China's markets because they are poised for explosive growth and in fact already are exploding. This is IBM's roundabout way of doing just that.

      China's government and business leaders figured out early on that rather than just letting big American and European companies just come in and loot their markets that it would be better to force them to partner with Chinese companies, move their manufacturing to China and transfer their capital and IP to China. It was a smart strategy because it gave them a huge jumpstart thanks to the infusion of capital and IP and its allowing them to rapidly surpass their American and European benefactors, and Asian competitors. China is growing a LOT faster, thanks to Western help, than it ever could of on its own. Many American companies are crating up whole factories, machine tools, etc and just shipping them to China, that is a massive migration of capital and aboon to China.

      China can force this kind of deal because Chinese markets are NOT even remotely free, the government massively manipulates them and manipulates all the Western companies who want to do business there. Lenovo is heavily influenced by the Chinese government like most big Chinese companies.

      It is long term a pretty raw deal for Americans and Europeans but it is short term very profitable for them and thats all most stock market obsessed western execs care about, short term profitability just long enough for them to make their killing on their stock. They dramaticly cut their labor costs by disposing of expensive western labor and they gain access to big, fast growing new markets, both things which are very good for your short term stock price. They choose to ignore that long term its unlikely their Chinese partners will need them and someday their Chinese partners will probably bury them.

      Market growth is a also a big factor here, American, Japan and European markets are mature, saturated, tired, slow growth and obviously the labor is way overpriced in a newly globalized market place. Real wages aren't growing in those places so most people don't have any new money to spend buying products. The head of GE was on Charlie Rose a while ago and he spelled it out. All big multinationals are moving all their labor intensive jobs to the cheapest, friendliest(a.k.a oppressed) labor market and China is the leader by far in that arena. They are also completely fixated on tapping new markets with growth potential those are in places like China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe not the U.S., Western Europe and Japan.

      There is a whole lot of basic Marxism/Capitalism going on here. Capitalism is always going to flow production to the cheapest labor and sales to the growing markets. When growth slows and stops in the developed nations they have to pump up new markets in the underdeveloped world by employing workers there, pumping money in to their economies and training them in rampant consumerism. If you don't brainwash people in these new markets that they must have cars, fast food and appliances capitalism would starve.

      Unfortunately capitalism really isn't a sustainable economic model. Eventually the world is going to burst at the seams from the overpopulation of rampant consumers, pollution, resource exhaustion, etc. America got away with its extravagantly wasteful life style for half a century but when you introduce the same excess in places like China and India the world is going to run out finite
      • No matter what you do, within 20 billion years, most of the stars in our universe will no longer exist, and no amount of Gaia worshipping commy nonsense will fix that. So we may as well consume everything we can, while we can.

        Fast food, cars, and appliances do not require brainwashing. What requires brainwashing is to reject them. People choose fast food because it is convenient and tasty and warm, which is a rarity in many nations. People choose cars because they are a reliable, quick and enjoyable form of transportation, and appliances greatly increase the amount of free time we have. Go ahead and haul 500lbs of ice from the creek to your house, if you prefer. Only a fool on this earth would not want to have the wealth and luxury of an average American, and only the most power mad despot could dare proclaim that the world does not have the right to that lifestyle.

        Capitalism is infinitely sustainable. There is no shortage of raw materials on this earth. We have only explored the tiniest part of the earth's crust, in select areas perhaps one or two miles deeps. The entire planet is thousands of miles wide.

        Even if the planet were consumed, there is more than enough raw material to satisfy a virtually infinite human population within this galaxy. When there is a will, there is a way. If we trash the Earth, there will always be new planets that we can either colonize, consume or move onto.

        • Re:What a bunch of retarded crap. (Score:2)

          by demachina ( 71715 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @11:01AM (#12431844)

          Heh. Dude, nice troll I almost bit and started responding to all this nonsense, before I realized either you are a troll or maybe your a trekkie whose watched a little to much Star Trek and you've lost a grip on reality, one hint no we don't have warp drive and we aren't going to be tapping the galaxy's resources anytime soon, ROFL.

          Only thing that scares me is there probably are a lot of people who actually think its OK to loot and pillage the earth because A) it will never run out or B) we will just find some miracle fix when the needs arises. Well chances are you and those like you will turn the Earth in to a hell hole before they realize that miracle solutions don't necessarily have to happen and no, trying to live on the Moon, Mars or a tin can in space isn't a pleasant alternative to sunshine, oceans and an atmosphere.

          If you value your "wealth and luxury" as much as you seem to, a little hint, trying to live on Mars will be a rude awakening, it will be a really hard and unpleasant life.

          I'm guessing your main tack on life is loot and pillage while you can, and hope you are dead before things turn really ugly.
          • It's not a troll. You no faith in the vast capacity of the human race to overcome adversity.

            I do.

            Our species survived multiple ice ages and dealing with large predatory mammals and we did so through technology. Take that Mr. Sabre Tooth Tiger - we have spears now! Guess what, now the planet is warm, and all those bad old giant sloths, saber tooth tigers, every animal that ever walked or crawled and even so much as gave mankind a dirty look is now either extinct, bordering on extinct, living in a zoo, or, in the case of wolves, have been reduced to pets.

            Look at what we can do today technologically. If the oceans get too high, we can build even higher walls. If the planet gets too hot, we can distribute particles in the atmosphere to cool it down. We could plant more plants to absorb C02. We will build hydrogen cars and more nuclear plants in the future and eventually we will figure out nuclear fusion. We have every means at our disposal to ensure the survival of our species, should it come to that.

            The Earth exists so that we can learn how to terraform it. Obviously, because we are changing our world climate it now, it proves that yes, terraforming is something we can actually do. If we can transform our own planet, we can transform others. This is a skill to learn, not science to fear.

            We cannot live on Mars or Venus now, but we can certainly heat Mars up, or cool Venus down. And that doesn't even count the many earth size planets within 100 light years of us - we can colonize those as well, and yes, we can get their with technology on the horizon, such as solar sails, fission drives, fusion drives, and even now they have made breakthroughs in understanding how hibernation can actually be drug induced, so we could simply hibernate our way through deep space.

            Barring the advent of a newer and more advanced species, (most likely alien), or a global natural disaster such the sun going nova, the yellowstone volcano erupting, or comet / asteroid hitting the earth, there is every reason to believe that humanity will continue to transform our own planet as it sees fit, then our solar system, and then, gradually, the rest of our galaxy.

            • Re:What a bunch of retarded crap. (Score:2)

              by demachina ( 71715 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @09:55PM (#12437725)
              Dude you are delusional. I need do nothing more than point out that you view it as a badge of honor and superiority that humans are pushing one species after another in to extinction. Yea our technology is great, it helped us create industrial scale fishing with which we have managed to crash the population of one species of fish after another.

              I really think maybe you should try traveling in the parts of the world that are already desperately overcrowded and starving and just imagine what kind of a fine place the world will be when there are 10 billion mouths to feed and the earth will be to depleted to feed them. Or maybe you should visit the booming cities of China where the air pollution is so acute that it is an immediate, not just long term, health hazard.

              Capitalism is a great motivator and it does lead to some giant leaps forward. Unfortunately the only thing boundless in it is greed and the devastation that unconstrained greed leads to.

              Later dude, you're not worth the bandwidth any more.

    • Re:A new hope for IBM (Score:2)

      by markhb ( 11721 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @08:27AM (#12430583) Journal
      Umm... some of us are trying to remain spoiler-free, you know (re: the lava thing)

  • taking bets (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Naikrovek ( 667 ) <jjohnson@pWELTYsg.com minus author> on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @03:58PM (#12424179)
    how long before we see lonovo machines at Best Buy?

  • Um... who does this effect, really? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TodPunk ( 843271 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:00PM (#12424203) Homepage

    Honestly, I don't think this matters much. Thinkpads are about the only IBM PCs I've ever seen used in the past 10 years. We had an old IBM PC back in High School that was donated because it simply didn't hold up. We ended up trashing it because it kept eating video cards like they were candy, and the computer lab didn't have many to spare for it. It did resist that sledgehammer well, but that doesn't have much to do with the computer itself.

    So in the end, this really doesn't effect anyone I know of unless you really want a Thinkpad...

  • What Future For Thinkpad's? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rAiNsT0rm ( 877553 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:00PM (#12424208) Homepage
    It figures the only laptop I will even consider since they hooked me on the little pointer nub is a Thinkpad. A lot of business users rely on TP's too, and now with this Lenovo aquisition what lays ahead for the beloved Thinkpad?

  • But will they run Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by belmolis ( 702863 ) <billposer&alum,mit,edu> on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:01PM (#12424217) Homepage

    Here's a case in which the standard question "but does it run Linux?" is actually relevant. China getting into the PC business in a big way could have an impact on the availability of machines on which one doesn't have to pay the Microsoft tax. With China explicitly interested in independence from Microsoft, it seems likely that they won't play ball with Microsoft and will offer machines with no OS or with Linux pre-installed.

    • Re:But will they run Linux? (Score:1)

      by TodPunk ( 843271 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:05PM (#12424267) Homepage

      I highly doubt it would be profitable to spend 1.75 billion dollars on a company and then not offer Windows machines. As much as we all like Linux, in a corporate sales environment, it's just fighting an uphill battle, and not a wise choice from a risk management perspective.

      Unless they really REALLY hate Microsoft, they'll continue to offer Windows, and just offer Linux as an alternative.

    • Re:But will they run Linux? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by grumpyman ( 849537 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:29PM (#12424574)
      First off, Lenovo is a private corporation, not a state run business. It's all about profit. It's nature is just as good (or evil) as any other businesses in the world. Check this [lenovo.com] out:

      "ThinkPad recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional"

      But I agree that it's possible that they may go towards more to a non-MS, or MS-agnostic company.

      • Lenovo may be a private corporation, but a good chunk of their market is, or will be, in China, where many of the buyers will part of the government, and in any case, in China even private companies are subject to a lot of government influence. It is true that Lenovo will probably continue to provide MS Windows where they think it will be profitable; I don't expect them to take a purely ideological stance. At the same time, between government pressure, the growing Chinese Linux market, and the widespread desire of Chinese people not to be controlled by or beholden to foreign companies, Lenovo will have a lot of motivation not to insist on pre-loading MS Windows on every machine.

    • Is Red Flag Linux? (Score:3, Funny)

      by amightywind ( 691887 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:33PM (#12424623) Journal

      it seems likely that they won't play ball with Microsoft and will offer machines with no OS or with Linux pre-installed.

      Yah, you get Red Flag installed for free, and a BIOS to protect the user from any OS not approved by the Party. Can't wait, comrade.

    • Re:But will they run Linux? (Score:3, Informative)

      by chris_sawtell ( 10326 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @05:39PM (#12425398) Journal
      ThinkPads run Linux beautifully. Look what 'uname -r' on my TP says:-
      Linux imogen 2.6.11 #3 SMP Fri Apr 29 14:57:42 NZST 2005 i686 Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 1.80GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

      It takes a bit of knowledge and effort to get the ACPI and wireless systems to go, but that's all. I'm happy.

    • Re:But will they run Linux? (Score:2)

      by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @07:25PM (#12426619)
      Here's a case in which the standard question "but does it run Linux?" is actually relevant. China getting into the PC business in a big way could have an impact on the availability of machines on which one doesn't have to pay the Microsoft tax

      Ugh, to me paying the China tax would be worse than paying the MS tax.

  • my girlfriend will hate me saying this (Score:1, Funny)

    by h4rr4r ( 612664 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:04PM (#12424258)
    As much as it may be the only practice most /.ers ever get, I hope to god they get rid of that stupid clitoris mouse.
    • I know there will be about a million posts in this thread on the topic of preferred laptop pointing device, but I don't see why. One of the reasons that I love Thinkpads so much is that they come with both a touchpad and a nubbin. I'm happy with my proportional mousing (mouse moves in proportion to how my finger moves), and my friends who prefer it get differential mousing (finger movement controls the rate of change of cursor position) when they use my machine.

  • Maybe they will build something different? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by big-giant-head ( 148077 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:07PM (#12424297)
    With the powerpc, the cel processor maybe IBM ditched the old pc to begin something new? Maybe not. However I could see somekind of wirless set top box that records (DVR) has basic Web/Email/Office capabilities and has wirless KB and Mouse. Others have tried it, but maybe it's time has come?

    BTW whatever happened to CHRP and the promised PowerPC MB's we hobbyists could buy and build our own system from?

  • no more discounts? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jwjcmw ( 552089 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:07PM (#12424298)
    One thing I noticed with the acquisition is that some of the discounts that were available previously are not there any more. Realtors were able to get a pretty good discount (20% or so) on Thinkpads, but when you go to the link from the Realtor partner site, there are no thinkpads with discounts listed anymore. I wonder if they are doing away with these discounts? What about the good discounts that IBM employees get for their family and friends...I'd really hate to have to pay retail for a thinkpad.

    • Re:no more discounts? (Score:2)

      by Jaywalk ( 94910 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:47PM (#12424789) Homepage
      What about the good discounts that IBM employees get for their family and friends...I'd really hate to have to pay retail for a thinkpad.
      Well, speaking as an IBM employee, we were told that we'd get the same discounts that Lenovo offers its employees. How those discounts compare to IBM's historical discounts remain to be seen, but the announcement stated a continuation of 15-35% discounts. IBM has equipped its mobile employees with Thinkpads, so it makes sense that they would want to keep that consistent.

      IBM employees can also provide friends and family with a URL and serial number so they can get the same discounts. If you have a buddy who works for Big Blue you might ask them if you could use their serial number. But don't expect them to post them on the Internet; a single employee code can only buy 25 units per year.

      Thinkpads still aren't cheap. I've had friends who were undecided who went with a Thinkpad when they had the discount. I've also had friends who decided the things were still too expensive. It depends on what you need.

  • . . . No windows key. I didn't like it at first but then I realized, it is a neutral pc. It doesn't have an ms advertisement on the keyboard. I hope that doesn't change.

  • Why don't major vendors sell Linux PCs?? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by moeinvt ( 851793 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:13PM (#12424379)
    I recently saw a pretty decent deal on a Dell PC and called to ask if they would sell it with Linux pre-installed. No. Well, how about with no OS? Sir, you can reformat the hard drive when you get it and. . . OK, forget it. I was then quite stunned when I called about an IBM PC and even THEY(one of the biggest corporate backers of Linux) wouldn't sell a PC with Linux pre-installed . . . or even a box without Windows. ??? How is Linux supposed to catch on and put a dent in the MS monopoly when the major vendors won't sell Linux boxes and force you to buy a Windows OEM license regardless?

  • Does this mean ... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by tomhudson ( 43916 ) <barbara.hudson@b ... minus physicist> on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:15PM (#12424399) Journal
    Does this mean that if I want a ThinkPad I'll have to buy it at Walmart?

    Talk about down-scaling a product ... guess there's no more "born in the USA".

    (not that I'd buy one of those Fords that Gates is supposed to be helping make crash-proof. Yeah, sure. That'll be the day - the first time in history that onboard computers either rust or commit suicide in shame)

  • ThinkPad's have been made in China (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:19PM (#12424456)
    I wish to preempt foolish comments that quality will now deteriorate into the crapper:

    ThinkPads have been manufactured in China for some time now while maintaining high quality.

    Please stop the unfounded China bashing: the country's industries have been quickly becoming very competent at high quality production as well as churning out $2 Wal Mart items.

    • Re:ThinkPad's have been made in China (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @04:53PM (#12424862)
      Very true. I've bought several Chinese Acuter spotting scopes (optics are another area with frequent China-bashing, top scopes being made in Austria or Japan for thousands) and found little noticeable difference with scopes whose sales tax cost about what I paid for the whole scope + zoom lens + video tripod. Sharp, bright, fully-round images from 20x all the way to 60x with an 80mm objective. I could not justify the $$$$$ leap for the noticeable but relatively minor quality differences.

      Don't people remember how Japan was underestimated post-WWII? And Japan doesn't have a fraction of the manufacturing capacity of China!

    • Re:ThinkPad's have been made in China (Score:2)

      by Detritus ( 11846 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @05:55PM (#12425565) Homepage
      They are also capable of producing real crap if the customer does not enforce some standards. This used to be a common problem with goods made in Japan. The Japanese government and industry setup quality assurance programs for many export goods. This helped improve the reputation of Japanese products by keeping many cheap and poorly-made products out of the international marketplace. This helped erase the widespread perception that "Made in Japan" was synonymous with cheap junk.
  • Really. Mainframes are still IBM's big ticket items (no pun intended). The Slashdot community, which seems to be so infatuated with tiny things, still doesn't get it. So, right guys, the total amount of COBOL code, running on mainframes, has been reduced from 90% of all computer code in 1990, to "only" 50% of all computer source code now. IBM is saying with this transaction, that they know where big business is looking. Check the stock price; the Street also thinks that this is a good move.

  • Which machines do they get? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @05:23PM (#12425194) Homepage Journal
    Do they get all the x86 servers as well as workstations and thinkpads?
    Just wondering.

  • Dated story (Score:2)

    by kitzilla ( 266382 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (gorfrepap)> on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @05:38PM (#12425377) Homepage Journal
    This story is dated Monday. It's not news anymore.

  • irony.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gsfprez ( 27403 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @06:14PM (#12425793)
    1984: apple puts out 1984 commercial decrying IBM as Orwellian PC maker stifling industry.

    2005: IBM NO LONGER MAKES IBM compatible personal computers... They now they make Apple Power Macintosh and iMac computers.

  • Not exactly news (Score:2)

    by Java Ape ( 528857 ) <mike,briggs&360,net> on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @07:05PM (#12426372) Homepage
    This deal was announced some time ago. IBM has been very forthcoming with information, and with reassurances that Thinkpads will continue to built to the same standards that have been previously. They are already built in china, so there's no real change there.

    I recently spent a lot of time on-line (shopping ever so slowly!) purchasing a high-end laptop for my wife, and settled on one of the upper-tier thinkpads. The only downside I can see is the price. They're very solid, well built little workhorses, and I'd sooner trust my work to them than just about any of the Wal-Mart machines. Go Thinkpads!

  • Money or interest (Score:2)

    by heroine ( 1220 ) on Tuesday May 03, 2005 @08:35PM (#12427334) Homepage
    So IBM had 5% of the PC market compared to others which had 16%, yet economists feel the PC business was a tiny part of IBM's income. How can 5% of the world PC market be a tiny part of anyone's income? It sounds more like the same thing which every other American company is doing.

    They're getting out of perfectly profitable businesses because they're not interested in it.

    Now they resell software contracts from Infosys and resell computers from Lenovo. Only 1% of the total value of that place is actually IBM.

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