My personal experience with the old thinkpads was really good. I haven't worked on one sense Lenovo bought the line from IMB though. Good to know they seem to have retained their build quality for the thinkpad line. I'll consider them when it's time to get a new laptop. I hope that's at least a couple of more years from now.
My current work experience is with HP Probooks and a few Eleite books. They're not up to what the think pads were several years ago, but they are a lot better then their shitty consumer line. I hate those fucking things.
My first laptop was a referb dell latitude c800 if i remember the model number right. It was decent and lasted me for about 7 years when the comm port got flaky and i needed it for the interface to my car's ecm. i bought a hp 6730b then through work and their discounts and that's what i'm typing this on now. I think it's been 5-6 years old now. old c2d cpu. I don't like the LEDs across the top of the keyboard, but other than that it's sturdy.