Thinkpads and future Windows 8 drivers?

I'm considering buying a Thinkpad. I know that Windows 8 is supposed to be out next year. Based on Lenovo's past, can anybody say if Lenovo will relese updated Windows 8 drivers for a Windows 7 based Thinkpad (e.g. the W520, X220)?

I ask because I've got an older Dell machine that originally shipped with XP. Dell never updated the drivers for Vista or Windows 7. The laptop runs Vista and 7, but there a number of quirks and a number of functions (e.g. one finger vertical scolling) that do not work due to a lack of specific drivers. The battery life has also been quite a bit worse than with XP. I assume this is because of a lack of some Dell specific power optimizations.

I just like to know in advance if I can expect the same if I buy a Thinkpad.

 

Absolutely. IBM/Lenovo support for older machines is fantastic, arguably better than any other mfr.

 

Dell basically ends driver support when the product gets phased out. If something came with Vista, the drivers should work with 7 as the driver model is near identical.

I'll second Lenovo's support is pretty good, and ThinkVantage Update is pretty nice (assuming you have LAN drivers that is )

Surprisingly HP's support has been far better than Dell's at providing up to date drivers for the newest OS's.

 

I think that just about sums up my worries with spending a lot of money on a laptop. New models seem to replace old models every 6 months, even when the updates are fairly minor, giving companies a reason to reduce or abandon support for "old" models. Desktops seem better in this regard since it's easier to switch out parts and use drivers from the original manufacturer (e.g. NVIDIA).

Thanks for the information. I'll also look in the HP models and consider my options. I prefer Lenovo because many models are smaller and lighter (in comparison to Dell and HP) and I can try the Thinkpads locally.

 

Both of my vista thinkpads work flawlessly with windows7 and linux. I also would think that windows 8 will too. But then again I dont think Ill be buying any M$ stuff anytime soon...

 

In many ways Windows 7 was more a service pack to Vista and so drivers typically worked without issue. I did see some occasionally driver quirkiness with some products back when Win 7 was first released and I was installing Vista drivers on it.

XP to Vista was a totally different situation since you needed new drivers that were specific to Vista. In the case of the Dell computer I have, new drivers were never released even through the computer had two years left of support on the warranty.

I don't know much about Windows 8 at this point. Microsoft has alluded to the Windows 8 situation being similar to the Vista->Win 7 situation, but MS seems more interested in demoing the Tablet functionality than anything else. I really hope the driver transition from Win 7->Win 8 is minor.

 

Look at the T60 drivers page if you want an idea of how strong legacy support is. That's a product four generations old.

Either way, it doesn't make sense to even bother mulling over this if you plan on switching to Win 8 next year. Resale value on Thinkpads is strong enough and Windows is expensive enough on it's own that I'll just sell my X220 and buy whatever the current model is if I want Win 8. Microsoft doesn't do $29 upgrades like with OSX.

 

" Based on Lenovo's past, can anybody say if Lenovo will relese updated Windows 8 drivers for a Windows 7 based Thinkpad (e.g. the W520, X220)?"

No. they wont. The word you are seeking is "retrofitted". A driver is privileged code that means two things.

A driver is privileged code and is built for a given major release. Code may be retrofitted into new realeases of older major releases when possible.

Renee

 

The OP was asking in the "forward" sense and some of the replies were given in the "backward" sense, i.e. about driver support for legacy (older) operating systems.

It makes no point for me to install Windows 7 32-bit on my ThinkPad T41 (which was running Windows XP very leisurely). At one point, I did it for fun, and the installation completed successfully on a Pentium CPU, 512MB RAM and 40GB 5400rpm hard drive. Of course, no Aero and no performance, but Windows recognized most of the devices and automatically installed drivers for them. I ended up installing Ubuntu 10.10.

On the other hand, I decide to keep my T61 running Windows XP because of certain application requirements. As vinuneuro rightly said, get the latest ThinkPad model to take advantage of the latest CPU/GPU, RAM, SSD and OS.

 

My ThinkPad T60 has got every single driver necessary for Windows 7. TBH, it's not easy to find other manufacturers that can give such long period support for EOL products.

HP may be offering great support as well, but I've been trying to avoid their laptops for overheating issues for years and have no idea about the cooling of their recent models.

Sony VAIO's support is definitely horrible - they don't even offer Windows 7 drivers to machines just sold before Windows 7 release, while the succeeding refresh with Windows 7 was essentially the same hardware.

 

FWIW, I installed Windows 7 on my 6 year-old T42 ThinkPad. Everything pretty much works - even Aero (I have the ATI Mobiity Radeon 9600 GPU). I got many Windows 7 drivers from Lenovo and other ones from Windows Update. Wired LAN, WLAN, Sound, Display - it all works. Did not find good drivers for Bluetooth until I installed Nokia Ovi Suite.

 

If you are seeking to future proof a purchase, the President of of the Windows division already said if it runs Windows 7, it will run Windows 8. How remains to be seen. A lot of details should get uncovered in September so if you are nervous, wait until the //BUILD conference.

 

"Running" has lost the sense of speed in its current computer usage! Yes, Microsoft executives want to claim that Windows 8 will not fail on today's hardware, but there is no guarantee that the user will enjoy the experience.

As you know, Internet Explorer 9 does not run on Windows XP (my T61). Not that I care.