I am a huge ThinkPad fan. The MacBook Pro may be sexier, but if you shot a ThinkPad and a MacBook Pro out of cannons at each other, the ThinkPad would destroy the MacBook Pro and still boot up the pre-installed SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (or Vista, I guess, if you swing that way) in a jiffy.

And just spotted on Lenovo’s website is the next-generation line of ThinkPad laptops.

The naming convention is new, the specs are beefy, and the form factor is pretty much the same black brick. Perfect.

My four-year-old T43 is still going strong, but I am awfully tempted by the ultra-portable X300.

We bought my wife a Macbook a couple of weeks ago after she finally agreed that her broken-screened, dead-USB, no-battery laptop was nearly unusable. (Most of those conditions were my fault, albeit by accident.) So we picked up a $1,099 white Macbook.

My wife is not a technophobe, but she is no geek, either. She was up and running, on her own, in minutes. The Macbook is ready to go right out of the box. She especially loves the size, long battery life, and the fast recovery from suspend when you open the case—seriously valuable features for wired litigators. And OSX Leopard is just beautiful. It makes Windows look clumsy, and Ubuntu dowdy, by comparison.

Of course, it works just fine with her Outlook Web Access and file access for her work, and she has no problem opening Word and Powerpoint documents in iWork, which, at $80, is a steal when compared with Microsoft Office.

As some know, the three other attorneys and one law clerk I share office space with also use Macs. I am the lone rebel in the office, using Windows until recently, and now Ubuntu, but always a PC. Playing with my wife’s computer, I am wavering. I am definitely going to get us a Mac Mini for a living room computer—once they include a Blu-Ray player, anyway—but I may just get myself a black Macbook when it comes time to upgrade my trusty ThinkPad T43.

A story of my love for my old laptop, an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T43, and my disappointment with the “updated” version, the Lenovo T61

I bought my ThinkPad T43 in August 2005. I love this computer. It is thin, light, powerful, and tough as nails. It may not be as pretty as an iBook or MacBook, but in size and weight, it compares favorably. Until a few weeks ago, I only replaced a trackpad button (too many video games) and the optical drive. Both were replaced nearly instantaneously by Lenovo’s outstanding on-site support (I am not kidding, they are awesome, both then and now).

It came with Windows XP Pro, but I started using Ubuntu Linux with it about a year ago, as well, and it works nearly perfectly with both operating systems.

A few weeks ago, the motherboard on my T43 fizzled. I was certain my warranty had expired, so in a fit of impulsivity, I ordered a new ThinkPad T61 with all the bells and whistles. I was even thrilled to order it with SLED Linux pre-installed instead of Windows.

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My beloved ThinkPad died of USB-controller-induced vomiting last Thursday. One minute it was suspended, the next I tried to plug in a USB mouse and it went out like a light. It was four years old, though, so it has had a good life: coffee shops, courtrooms, the front porch . . .

The problem seems to be related to the Intel chipset, not the IBM/Lenovo hardware, so I fearlessly ordered a brand new ThinkPad T61. This time, I went with full-disk encryption so that my entire hard drive will be safe if I lose the computer.

Also, Lenovo offers Linux, so I bought a laptop with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. I’ll be throwing Ubuntu on there, as well, but I am looking forward to trying SUSE, as well. No more Windows for me!

Even though my old T43 was out of warranty, this seems to be related to a known defect, so I have some hope that Lenovo will replace the motherboard so I can squeeze some more life out of that laptop. In the past, I have experienced incredible customer service from Lenovo, so I have high hopes.