Yep, IBM 600E is what I have and Direct Scan works great with it. When you start running Win 2000 is when things start acting funny as you no longer can go into DOS mode...and with XP you can forget it....so you want an older laptop for it.
Me too. I had 3 of them until my brother crushed the LCD screen on one of them. Two 600Es and a 600. They work great and are durable (except in the hands of said brother).
That is definitely true of the old IBM laptops. I traveled for 10 years with work, I've had them knocked around and even had the trunk fly open on a huge pot hole and the entire laptop and carrying case bounced out of the trunk and landed on the street in NY City, and it didn't hurt it
The newer ones aren't so tough though.