That's pretty good. I'm going to try that app myself.

Got the X200. Loaded AWG, OpenOffice, Chrome browser, RitePen.

Ritepen's HWR seems inferior to the built in MSFT HWR recognized, and it doesn't have correction gestures. Correct? Or user error?

OneNote will use the built in recognizer? I'm going to pay $65 for that - worth it? Get 2007 or 2010? Just checking.

Or should I use Evernote instead? It seems to synch info between devices, so daughter could use the same notes across PC, iPhone, Mac? Island, have you tried both?

I'm going to put the SSD in this next week.

My review of Evernote vs Onenote is likely dated. At the time, I wanted to go with Evernote, but it really didn't compete well with Onenote 2010.

Ritepen: I like it better than TIP (Touch Input Panel) - it's faster for me. You're right that it doesn't have a correction gesture.(other than an undo gesture) Rather you tap the check mark to bring up the correction box. The "help" has a very indepth review of the product - it does a lot. ...is very configurable.

That said, they (Evernote) is not bringing this forward to Win8. :( I noticed today that they are not even offering the product anymore. Instead, they've split out various functions, as separate products ..repackaging the code.

Ah, okay, OneNote it is then.

If I can ever get Windows Update to install the Service Pack. What seemed like a routine "run Windows Update and say okay to whatever Microsoft recommends" has turned into an hour of PITA. Installing the SP and configuring it took something like six reboots. And then I boot into a black screen with a "personalizing Windows Media Player" message (? WTF ?) and an otherwise unresponsive computer, can't even Ctrl-Alt-Del, have to hard restart and boot into Safe Mode. I'm about to reboot in Normal mode and see if the problem is gone.

At least the reboots are fast with the SSD.

Edit: safe mode, remove media center component, reboot, add media center component, that fixed it. Taking about 45 sec per restart w/ the SSD.

MSFT makes it hard to get One Note. The official "One Note Blog" says you can download a trial of One Note standalone (w/o Office) but their link to the Office site is broken. The Office site offers a trial download of the entire Office Home/Student Edition, but it, or rather Digital River, says "trade restrictions" prohibit my download. So I figure, okay, I'll just see what One Note on its own costs, but the "One Note" link on the office.microsoft.com front page is broken. Broken? How can multiple links on an official Microsoft site be broken? Don't they use automated tools to check links? After another ten minutes of wandering around, my conclusion is that One Note cannot be bought on its own from the Office website. But, oddly, the microsoftstore.com site seems happy to sell a standalone One Note, for $80. Why are two parts of MSFT handling this differently?

I dunno about their site. I usually go to their physical store (better pricing.)

Amazon has Onenote for as little as $66.24

or the full Home & Student suite for $100 Link

Or with disks at $129 Amazon.com: Microsoft Office Home & Student 2010 - 3PC/1User (Disc Version): Software

maybe
portland all for sale / wanted classifieds "office 2010" - craigslist

or maybe
portland all for sale / wanted classifieds "Onenote" - craigslist

fwiw, I noticed today that the latest Win8 machines are running OneNote 2013. ...I have yet to see that version for sale.

What I'm thinking is that many more 2010 versions may become available for cheap. ...maybe.

Good idea. I'm going to find a used copy. Trying to keep to my budget. So far: notebook $300, SSD $120, pretty awesome machine for $420. The other kids make fun of her boxy black business machine. Eww, its so thick, its not a MacBook . . . Then she shows them the tablet mode. And the HWR. And the fingerprint swipe login. And that Chrome launches in 3 seconds. And the TI84 emulator. And . . . Wait until I set up the speech recognition, chinese character mode, audio and video class recording, note taking . . .

Don't get me wrong, I love MacBooks, but a Thinkpad is a bit like coming home.