finally! thinkpad 365xd in hand, now i have questions:

["Kevin W. Rudd" <kevin@umunhum.Stanford.EDU>]

[after two prior aborted attempts to get it through domestic purchasing,
i was finally able to "walk through" the order!]

first impressions: it isn't a macintosh (no surprise) nor is it unix
(but both could change, right???).

biggest disappointment:  the day it arrived, ibm announced the 380/385
products (it figures---but the price point was still unbeatable on the
365xd).

i didn't see anything major on this topic in the more recent archives
and thought that i'd ask and see if anyone out there had answers or
possible suggestions.  if these are faq's and i've missed them in the
archives somewhere, my apologies in advance.

now for the questions:

  * it appears (read:  looks like) that the hard disk is a standard and
    non-encased 2.5" drive.  is it possible to put a bigger "standard"
    drive in the machine (for example, fry's, for all of their many faults,
    had a 2.1GB drive for the mid-to-upper $300's that looked like a
    possibility---much cheaper than the mid-to-upper $700's that i saw
    on the pc-zone price list for 1.08GB...).

  * is the floppy disk/cd-rom port in the left drive bay a standard port
    that could conceivably support a hard disk with appropriate hardware?
    if so, could the cd-rom be used with the external cable/connector?

  * is there any chance that a second battery could be wired in to the
    left drive bay (with appropriate concern for the charging problems)?

i'm trying to figure out a way to use the beast as a linux box without
ruining its utility as the only pc in the house for those rare occaisions
when i might want to run something on a non-macintosh or non-unix machine.
it seems to be quite a problem with the 810MB drive as i can easily fill
that with stuff on any of my other machines....

anyway, it's nice to actually have one of these and be subscribed to the
list at the same time for a change!

cheers,
 ---K