Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 15:06:32 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org (Jonathon McKitrick) Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG (freebsd-chat) Subject: IBM Message-ID: <4.2.2.20000118143609.01924f00@localhost> In-Reply-To: <200001181839.LAA09857@usr08.primenet.com> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0001171729110.14007-100000@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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At 11:39 AM 1/18/2000 , Terry Lambert wrote: >IBM has been reported to send replacement units in at great >expense; one anecdotal instance had them loading a replacement >AS/400 onto a cargo plane in Germany to take to a central >African country in order to honor a repair contract. > >They have also been anecdotally reported to have flown a >replacement ThinkPad to an Australian who purchased the >thing in the US, and for which the unit was not normally sold >in Australia. The courier was a sales executive who happened >to be travelling to Australia on business. > >IBM has also supported the idea of "FreeBSD certification" of >IBM systems; Doug Ambrisko spent some time validating a >machine, only to have the Advocacy group _not_ show up with a >FreeBSD certification logo. Obviously, these were different departments. This ThinkPad has been a great deal of trouble for me. Its power management has never worked correctly, and the thermal design is poor; when you put it into the docking station, the station places the fluid-filled heat exchanger up against a slab of insulating plastic. The unit gets so hot you can't touch it. The MWave modem originally did not work at 33.6 Kbps, and when they finally hacked the code so that it could, it was balky, slow, and shut off the sound while you were online. If the machine tried to make a sound during the call, the system crashed -- sometimes immediately, sometimes as you hung up. And, of course, IBM refuses to release the technical information that would let anyone develop a better driver or one for BSD. The modem -- in fact, the entire MWave -- is useless under BSD. The service I've gotten on this ThinkPad has likewise been horrendous, in part because it's outsourced to a chop shop called "Solectron." I suspect that IBM has lost money on the 760 laptops because they so frequently need repair. I do not know if this is why they try to charge users who send their machines in for warranty repair. Repair of my unit was held up for several days because their billing department wanted to charge me $300 -- for two tiny pieces of plastic which were dented but did not affect operation. (During the delay, they didn't order parts for the repairs which WERE covered by the warranty, even though they knew that those repairs were to be made even if I declined to pay for overpriced ones it did not need.) And I've already mentioned that the machine was TWICE not fixed properly. It's been back and forth to Memphis three times since the beginning of December, and FINALLY seems to be stable enough for me to reload my data onto it. >IBM may be many things, but in the seven months since they >purchased Whistle, it's bleedingly obvious to me that they have >a very strong service philosophy. It's hard to generalize about an organization as large as IBM. The IBM PC Company seems not to have such a strong service philosophy. IBM PC Direct, their sales division, once sent me an obviously used laptop when I ordered a new one. (The packaging was not intact, the AC adapter cord had a knot in the middle, and the previous user had already selected an OS -- so I could not choose OS/2 instead of Windows. >PS: Just so that people know my bias, I still have a bad taste >in my mouth from the last time I was swallowed by a very large >company, back when Novell bought USL, and I can still say nice >things about both Novell and IBM. Novell and IBM both have good sides and bad sides. But this is certainly the last time I'm buying a ThinkPad. Their PC Company seems to be one of the bad sides. --Brett P.S. -- I am currently working on a BSD driver for a Lexmark inkjet printer for which they only furnish Microsoft drivers. Alas, Lexmark (another IBM company) will only release the information required to write drivers under NDA. (I'm not sure why; there's nothing terribly unique about the way ANY of the major manufacturers' inkjets work.) I'd be willing to give away the source, but due to the NDA I won't be able to. (Sigh.) I will, however, publish binaries if I can. For the life of me, I don't understand why Lexmark wouldn't want the UNIX market to use their products. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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