Lenovo Denies Claims It Plotted With Microsoft To Block Linux Installs (theregister.co.uk) 181
Reader kruug writes: Several users noted certain new Lenovo machines' SSDs are locked in a RAID mode, with AHCI removed from the BIOS. Windows is able to see the SSD while in RAID mode due to a proprietary driver, but the SSD is hidden from Linux installations -- for which such a driver is unavailable. Speaking to The Register today, a Lenovo spokesperson claimed the Chinese giant "does not intentionally block customers using other operating systems on its devices and is fully committed to providing Linux certifications and installation guidance on a wide range of products."
Complaints on Lenovo's forums suggest that users have been unable to install GNU/Linux operating systems on models from the Yoga 900S to the Ideapad 710S, with one 19-page thread going into detail about the BIOS issue and users' attempts to work around it.
Complaints on Lenovo's forums suggest that users have been unable to install GNU/Linux operating systems on models from the Yoga 900S to the Ideapad 710S, with one 19-page thread going into detail about the BIOS issue and users' attempts to work around it.
Link? (Score:5, Informative)
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interested in reading it
Please. Who are you kidding?
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Which is so odd, considering how friendly Intel is with the open source community...
Good news for me (Score:5, Interesting)
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You're nuts if you even consider Lenovo after the crapstorm they were caught doing on their systems. I spent the last 10 years of my sysadmin career supporting Dell corporate systems and now that I'm retired, thats is ALL I will buy/recommend.. Lenovo/HP/Asus all suck donkey balls.
Re:Good news for me (Score:5, Informative)
you don't know the whole story.
lenovo is many companies. their business laptop division is nothing like the 'yoga crap' that they sell consumers with crapware.
that said, there are issues you need to know about hp and lenovo (those are the 2 that come to mind). they both lock down the pci-e slot so that you can't install your own wifi mini-pcie card due to a blacklist/whitelist in the bios. I bought a t420s laptop a few years ago since it was what we used at work and they seemed very reliable and repairable, too. only after I tried to install an intel gig-wifi card (ac) did it refuse to boot on me. I did find a hacked bios on one of the forums and it works fine, but I have NO IDEA what is really going on and if there is spyware in that hacked bios due to the 'helpful user' who made the bios hack for me. I really cant be sure what was done to that hacked bios, but at least I do get to use the wifi card I want.
other than that, its been a good laptop, it has been repairable and its built pretty well.
the spyware and phone home stuff does not tend to exist on the business level lappies. business guys would not put up with that, generally; only 'yoga users' (lol, what a name!) would.
so, pick the right model of lenovo and be sure you get the right wifi card from purchase. oh, and I tried BUYING the 'right' wifi card after the sale. impossible to do. no one would sell me one and even lenovo would not. incredible. you have to configure it with the ac wifi you want when you buy it. or, take your chances with hacked bios, which I would not really want to do again.
Business Laptops (Score:4, Informative)
you don't know the whole story.
lenovo is many companies. their business laptop division is nothing like the 'yoga crap' that they sell consumers with crapware.
You mean the Thinkpad line that they acquired from IBM ? Yes, that one is an entirely different kind of beast.
- The good thing is that they are very easy to repair. (In addition to being very sturdy)
Whereas with some other constructors you can find two laptops that have the same official name, but different internals, to the point that their customer service actually asks you to give part of the serial number instead (HP, I'm looking at you...)
With Thinkpads, it's actually the opposite: plenty of different models share common parts (e.g.: the keyboard is usually the same across lots of models).
- The bad thing is all the BIOS / Firmware weirdness. Older laptops I've seen didn't have a full BIOS Setup. Only a couple of basic stuff could be change from the setup. Most of the settings where handled by DOS tools (like settings IO Ports and IRQs).
And the whole black/white list fiascos date back from IBM time - they "had to protect their business", i.e.: make sure you could only buy mini-PCI cards from their (expensive) shop, instead of any compatible after-market 3rd party part.
the spyware and phone home stuff does not tend to exist on the business level lappies. business guys would not put up with that
One of the main reason is that upon buying new equipment, the IT department of most business tends to reinstall a whole new OS from scratch (usually combined with all the necessary crypto-layers, remote-access tools, etc.) ..unless you manage to get it running on the "Intel ME" (The "lights-out" management engine from Intel : a separate low-power core that runs a small webserver that enables the IT department to do remote management on any corporate workstation or laptop, even when the main CPU is shut down, as long as the device is connected some how to the corporate network) or "IPMI" (the industry standard for the same functionnality used by anyone else beside Intel).
So trying to pre-install any crap on a business laptop is futile...
This firmware is currently NOT open, and can't be installed by anyone. It only comes together with the BIOS/EFI upgrades.
And researchers has already found tons of vulnerabilities in these firmwares. To the point that you don't actually need a real backdoor/spyware to spy on users, you just need to abuse one of the multiple exploit in the wild.
Current best practice :
- for servers : keep the management on a separate private network.
- for laptops : just kill the function, and ask the user to physically bring the laptop whenever you have maintenance to do. The remote access isn't worth the security risk.
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Um ...
As of September 2015: Lenovo systems may include software components that communicate with servers on the internet - All ThinkCentre, All ThinkStation, All Thi [lenovo.com]
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Um ...
As of September 2015: Lenovo systems may include software components that communicate with servers on the internet - All ThinkCentre, All ThinkStation, All ThinkPad [lenovo.com]
As of 1996 Apple, Microsoft and everybody else HAVE (not may) included software that communicate with servers on the internet. If they didn't they would kind of suck.
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AFAIK the superfish and other crapware debacles were centered around home Lenovo laptops. Their enterprise product lines never had this stuff on them.
All big manufacturers have many branches and all of them produce some level of junk.
I have had good and bad experiences with all of the manufacturers you mentioned.
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Surely you've worked out by now that Asus was making that Dell stuff until they decided to sell stuff on their own.
Who is making the Dell stuff this week? It's variable quality because it's rebadged stuff from a range of suppliers. Is SuperMicro crap because they were not on your radar since you were only supporting Dell stuff and not the high end of town?
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I have had serious overheating issues with Dell laptops. Of course, that was during a time when a lot of laptops had overheating issues.
Dell did also have some laptops that would burst into flames [slashdot.org]. But who hasn't?
Dell had a bad name in the reseller world for a long time because they snubbed the channel partners and sold direct to the end user. This meant that smaller shops would not sell Dell products because they couldn't. This also hurt Dell in the enterprise market since most companies buy their stuff th
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In my opinion, caring about the customer involves listening to them and deferring to their choices, not making choices for them.
If they need software that only runs on Windows, or they are most comfortable with Windows then the choice is clear. You lecturing them on their "bad" choices or making choices for them based on some ideal is not going to go over well.
Re:Good news for me (Score:4, Informative)
I was in the market for a new laptop a few years back. Lenovo had a good deal so I ordered it. They said the laptop would be ready to ship in 2 weeks. A day or so before the 2 week mark, they told me it would be delayed to 2 months. To ship it, mind you. It would take an additional week to actually get the laptop.
I called for an explanation and all they would say was that they were waiting on a shipment of some part. (They wouldn't say what part - just that it was a part.) I said I wanted to cancel the order, but they insisted I couldn't cancel it outright but could request to cancel the order. However, if the laptop shipped before the cancellation request was processed, they told me, I'd be charged for the laptop. I had them submit the form to cancel and ordered a Toshiba.
Luckily, they actually cancelled my order. Meanwhile, my Toshiba laptop was assembled, shipped, and arrived in under 2 weeks - before Lenovo cancelled the order and way before they claimed they would have shipped the laptop. I'd highly recommend steering clear of Lenovo.
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I've usually found that getting my credit-card company involved gets the problem fixed quickly.
For better or worse, the credit-card companies seem to (often) provide mafia-level protection against unreasonable sellers.
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That would have been where I would have turned had Lenovo not cancelled my order and refunded the money.
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I'm in the market for a new laptop, so I'll skip all of the Lenovos, and will pass that along to all of my clients. Thanks!
Don't tell us. Tell Levono.
Paranoia amongst the minority. (Score:3, Insightful)
Often a minority group thinks it is being persecuted against because the majority doesn't go out of its way to make the minority welcomed.
I expect Lenovo wasn't really actively stopping Linux however they weren't actively trying to make something that Linux will work on either. They were making sure it would work for Windows though.
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I seem to remember the last Lenovo laptop I used had a UEFI firmware bug http://xen.markmail.org/messag... [markmail.org] that made setting up zen more of a pita than it needed to be.
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But, in this case, they've needlessly (and probably maliciously) gone out of their way to make the minority unwelcome.
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because they made an irresistible deal to windows-based companies that bought them in droves.
Re:Paranoia amongst the minority. (Score:5, Interesting)
So you're saying that despite technology changing and different things being tried, two companies that don't care at all about linux didn't go out of their way to ensure compatibility with your essentially niche desire to install an unsupported os on their machines is somehow a conspiracy against you?
And yet, as far as I understand this, they disabled the option to turn off fakeraid in BIOS, an option that is present in all PCs that support fakeraid, including the older laptops. Disabling the option does not make Windows run better, so there had to be another reason for doing it. If the reason is not to screw Linux users, then what was it?
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Disabling the option does not make Windows run better
Actually an analysis in the other story said yes YES it does make windows run better. By forcing fake RAID Windows doesn't load it's AHCI driver which apparently has issues with power management and forces the Intel driver to be installed to get the system running.
Not an issue on the desktop but definitely something interesting in a laptop.
This may sound like some grand conspiracy to you, but the reality is that no one gives a crap about Linux compatibility including Intel themselves who rightly should foot
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Do you actually have to set it to AHCI or is the mere presence of the option to do so is enough to make Windows run worse?
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User: Oh, there's an option in my BIOS* that does something *change* - Now my desktop doesn't load on my HDD, DAMN Lenovo is crap - *uses another computer to spam the world that Lenovo are crooks selling crap*.
AKA reducing support costs and complaints by not exposing things normal users shouldn't change.
(* actually UEFI firmware with BIOS emulation)
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Yep. Given Microsoft's history, any and all conspiracy theories are well founded. They're assholes.
*cough* I've not nothing. I'm done.
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Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Never attribute to malice ... (Score:5, Informative)
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I see you've never talked to a customer service person before so let me give you a quick primer:
a) they don't know what they are talking about.
b) they don't know what you're talking about.
c) they will say anything that sounds fancy to say that their product should work an you're using it wrong.
Now the other answer we got from higher up is that Lenovo is working on a BIOS update have given a time frame from a couple of weeks to a few months. But really all of this is beside the point since the reason the lap
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Except that being a signature series laptop has zero to do with linux and there's plenty out there that run it just fine.
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Clearly, it is not a driver issue, it's a locked bios issue. The original customer support was correct and higher up levono exes are now lying to the press.
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Err it IS a driver issue. The RAID driver isn't present in Linux. No more no less. The fact that Lenovo's BIOS doesn't expose AHCI has nothing to do with Linux not running on hardware that doesn't have a driver for it. Reports are there were reasons to disable it as well due to buggy AHCI support in Windows.
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That's the answer, doesn't make it true. I've had many instances of being told many conflicting things, enough that I can't quote one response and consider it final.
What happened to critical thinking, or at least considering alternatives?
Taking a fact that matches your beliefs, yet is not actually true, is literally the whole problem of the current USA election cycle. And you are part of the problem, regardless of your country of citizenship.
In addition, sibling post is correct about customer service repeat
Linux has history of problems with laptops (Score:2)
Now, please let me load Linux onto any Chromebook. That's what I really want.
That is what I did when I wanted a Linux laptop, repurposed a Chromebook.
Why? Because Windows laptops are well know to have Linux compatibility problems. There is no existing reasonable expectation of Linux compatibility for laptops as there is for desktops. Laptop compatibility is still a Linux wish list item. Buyers still have to do their homework.
Re:Linux has history of problems with laptops (Score:5, Interesting)
Rather ironically, the Thinkpad series of laptops from Lenovo have excellent (in my experience) Linux compatibility. Lenovo even publishes compatibility certifications for them. I use Mint on a T450s and it worked nearly-perfectly out of the box (only issue I has is with the touchpad, but I prefer the nub mouse anyways and leave the touchpad disabled most of the time).
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Depends on the model. The second generation Thinkpad X1 Carbon didn't work with Linux *at all*.
If you want a Linux laptop, look for someone who actually supports Linux on the laptop. Dell has a few, including their XPS 13 developer edition. Purism's Librem laptops are a little more expensive, but specifically built for Linux. There are a handful of other vendors that primarily support Linux.
Lenovo has been hit-and-miss for a while now, and this isn't showing much that's recent:
https://support.lenovo.com [lenovo.com]
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You don't imagine the pressure the manufacturers undergo from giant corps, especially microsoft. In this case Lenovo should be considered an OEM of Microsoft (this alone would have interesting antitrust implications).
What'd be great if Lenovo wants to sell locked down Microsoft appliances and stay in the Linux business at the same time, would be them explicitely selling pre-installed Linux PCs and/or putting a penguin sticker on their fully Linux supported PCs.
I'd happily buy a pro high-end laptop from them
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What's stopping you?
Many chromebooks can have a seasbios legacy boot mode installed without risk at all.
Check this out, for instance.
https://johnlewis.ie/custom-ch... [johnlewis.ie]
I am posting this from a Celes right now.
Failing that, you could try Crouton:
https://www.linux.com/learn/ho... [linux.com]
The main issue with booting real linux on a chromebook is the use of the SPI bus instead of a legacy PCI bus. This makes for serious issues with getting SDCard slots, keyboards, and mice running.
Linux can fix that by adding better suppo
Re:Never attribute to malice ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the issue was only that Linux lacked drivers for their SSD configuration that wouldn't be a problem (even though a bit of a dick move from their side). The problem is that there was BIOS setting to change the configuration from RAID to AHCI, but this setting was locked down. The person had to go through some pretty heroic lengths [imgur.com] to unlock it.
Not having a Linux driver? That's explainable by stupidity.
Not having a legacy compatibility mode? Could have been explained by stupidity if it were the case.
Having a legacy compatibility mode, but making it inaccessible without a soldering iron? That's just malice.
And frankly, if the company is even considering locking down the BIOS like this, it shows that they have a very weird idea about who owns the damn laptop, and they're never getting my money.
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Having a legacy compatibility mode, but making it inaccessible without a soldering iron? That's just malice.
The other story had a link explaining the most likely cause of this was to force Windows to only use an Intel driver rather than allowing it to use AHCI, something which apparently has caused battery life issues on this chipset.
I'm inclined to believe this was done with good intentions but someone stupid enough to consider that the legacy option exists for a reason.
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This doesn't make any sense. This was a BIOS setting, Windows wouldn't be able to change it even it if wanted to.
And AHCI causing battery life issues, really? This standard is old, and widely used. It is extremely unlikely that the chipset would be made just to work with RAID and AHCI remain untested. Most likely they just took some chipset that had been working with AHCI for years and added RAID support. I'll believe your claims about battery life if I see a benchmark.
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This doesn't make any sense. This was a BIOS setting, Windows wouldn't be able to change it even it if wanted to.
My point exactly. The BIOS setting forces Windows to not load it's AHCI driver. In other news if you tried to do a vanilla install of Windows 10 on this laptop it will also fail to detect the SSD. This all comes down to attempting to force a host to use Intel's RAID driver which happens to not exist for Linux.
And AHCI causing battery life issues, really? This standard is old, and widely used.
Since when has the age of a standard had anything to do with the out-of-the-box driver working for it flawlessly with full functionality, and likewise the ability for a vendor to produce a 100% bug fre
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No, this is not your point exactly, it is exactly the opposite. If the BIOS was set to RAID Windows would simply fail to load. It wouldn't search through the BIOS to see whether there existed a AHCI setting and then flip it. Making the setting inaccessible only fucks the user, it doesn't change anything else.
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The person had to go through some pretty heroic lengths http://imgur.com/a/ox4Ey [imgur.com] to unlock it.
Now THAT was hacking. This is the EXACT definition of hacking. Thank you for linking that.
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You have never done support I see. Hint: you are so fucking wrong - people do things they have no fucking idea what it'll do with their system just because they are "so good" with computers. Low level formatting because (insert reason) and then complain their system doesn't load? Forcing an expansion card or memory stick into some place it shouldn't go? Flashing a new BIOS that is intended for another motherboard (requires forcing the process as checksums etc. doesn't match)?
Users do stupid things all the t
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Wow. We're going to start to use that weird mental gyration again? When will you learn that Android is not Linux. They use the same kernel, yes but they don't offer the same functionality. When are you people going to get with the program and not sound like some Fandroids or It n00bs?
There's a world of difference and if you can't see that then I guess you probably don't know much about Linux and all it entails.
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"Android is not Linux"
AINL
I can only pronounce this as "ANAL".
Love it.
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Is there a "Linux" OS? There's a Fedora OS and an Ubuntu OS, both of which use the Linux kernel, but are they any more "Linux" than ChromOS or Android? More GNU, certainly, but all the above are technically Linux.
It will be fixed in Hurd (Score:2, Funny)
"Security" (Score:5, Insightful)
Sarcasm aside, there is a lot of security-related motivation in attempts to lock down the BIOS, UEFI, etc. The problem is that much of this also has consequences, and we clearly can't rely on companies to simply keep our best interests at heart on their own - but that should come as a surprise to no one here.
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That's not a solution because it still relies on having someone other than the owner decide what's "allowed" to run on the owner's device.
A real solution would be to have a hardware switch allowing the owner, who has physical access to the machine, to turn the DRM off and replace the master encryption key with one of his own choosing.
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If they preload an OS, they're going to have to field support questions. Lots of people will get a Linux version without knowing what they're doing, and many of them will call with questions. Dell seems to hide its Linux systems where you won't find them if you're not looking for them, perhaps to avoid this (people who seek out the Linux versions are likely to know what they're doing).
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I just can't understand why this pointless compelxity is being added to BIOS for "security".
Put in a physical switch hooked to the WE/ (write-enable) or equivalent line of the BIO flash chip. Unit comes with this shipped in the disabled position, with security tape over it to prove it's never been enabled since factory. User can choose to flip the switch in order to load a UEFI user cert or whatever crap is required to install a new OS boot or BIOS update. Flip the switch back when done, presto, "security".
BIOS security and Flash (Score:5, Informative)
Former flash memory industry worker here. Flash does not work that way. Write Enable is attached to whatever logic circuitry is there - to be asserted following the sequence of address/data write cycles from the CPU or controller to the flash. Write Enable is a dynamic signal tied to the controlling circuitry and logic - it's not something connected to a switch that can be turned on or off by the system's owner.
What you are thinking about is something called Write Protect - which locks a flash, but this can't be a standard solution, b'cos no 2 vendors implement it the same way. Some lock the entire flash i.e. the entire BIOS. Some lock the entire top few sectors and/or bottom few sectors. Some allow the user to select which sectors are to be locked when Write Protect is asserted. Yet, some flash have no Write Protect pins at all. Motherboard vendors - meaning the Asusteks, Gigabytes, Quantas, Compals, Arimas, et al are always cutting deals w/ the likes of flash vendors for the cheapest flash out there, and their designers are required to have interchangeable parts so that they can pit their suppliers in a price pissing contest w/ each other. Since WP# varies, result is the designers would deliberately either make WP# a no-connect, or tie it high to make sure it's permanently disabled. Thereby defeating your solution.
The whole history of BIOS started w/ it first being on PROM/EPROMs. But then, as motherboards became more advanced and in-system re-programmability became necessary, flash memory started replacing them. Usually, it would lock the 'boot blocks' of the flash - meaning either the top few or bottom few sectors, depending on where the boot code of the OS was supposed to reside. However, the rest of the flash was still exposed and vulnerable to being corrupted, which is why the UEFI and the Core Boot conventions were developed.
The real solution to this whole boot thing is the respective projects - be it GRUB or Linux or BSD - coming out w/ a comprehensive solution to UEFI. I know that FreeBSD has come some way in that, but still doesn't allow it such that I can set UEFI protection while still booting from an USB drive (which is how TrueOS wants to distribute the OS). That would help a lot more than playing footsie w/ the default settings of the PC.
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RTFS, this has nothing to do with secure boot.
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Sarcasm aside, there is a lot of security-related motivation in attempts to lock down the BIOS, UEFI, etc. The problem is that much of this also has consequences, and we clearly can't rely on companies to simply keep our best interests at heart on their own - but that should come as a surprise to no one here.
In this case I don't believe there is any relationship either asserted or implied between taking affirmative action to deliberately disable AHCI and security.
People were still able to boot from live USB sticks and Lenovo spouted some incoherent PR nonsense "it's not our fault Linux doesn't support proprietary single disk RAID" .. yet they didn't say anything about security as near as I can tell.
Lenovo dev team working on it (Score:5, Informative)
A reddit poster offered this, in his link Lenovo says the dev team is working on it:
""[–]0xFFFFFF 89 points 7 hours ago*
Levono is aware of the issue and fixing it: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/L... [lenovo.com]
It is on hackernews, where people are being rational and theorizing that this is not microsofts fault. More like best-buy rep doesn't know what he talks about and the SSD doesn't have support drivers in linux kernal.. Or lenova messed up their bios implementation.
Luckily we have the reddit witchhunt in full force, so we can make uninformed rants!
Note: Every single previous similar scenario about linux being locked out has not been microsofts fault, which is why people are sceptical that this is the case this time..
I also have a Signature Edition laptop, it runs linux fine..""
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux... [reddit.com]
The Lenovo link has an official post saying:
"Re: Yoga 900-13ISK2 - BIOS update for setting RAID mode for missing hard drive on linux install Options
07-27-2016 10:04 AM
Thank you for confirming it is still not possible to install Linux on Yoga 900-13ISK2 systems.
This issue has been escalated to the Development team. I am unable to offer a timeframe for fix at this stage in the investigation. With previous cases, BIOS fixes have been delivered anywhere from several weeks to several months.
I will post again when I have more information on the investigation."
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/L... [lenovo.com]
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The previous AC is right about one thing. Microsoft is convicted of abusing monopoly power. You contradict yourself. The parent is talking about evidence. Evidence of Microsoft's activities. Simply saying "a Best Buy rep" nullifies this little incident doesn't make the overall picture untrue. I'm not particularly "anti" Microsoft (I have an XBox 360, well I've had 5, thanks MS QA!) but I do know they will do lots of shady shit to get the advantage. It's documented in trial transcripts. It seems your willi
Smells fishy... (Score:3)
When he complained that he was unable to install Linux, the answer he got was: "This system has a Signature Edition of Windows 10 Home installed. It is locked per our agreement with Microsoft."
Re:Smells fishy... (Score:4, Informative)
The first reply wasn't from a Lenovo representative. It was from a Best Buy "Lenovo product expert".
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This doesn't fit with the reply (from levono i assume) that the guy in the first story on /. said he got:
When he complained that he was unable to install Linux, the answer he got was: "This system has a Signature Edition of Windows 10 Home installed. It is locked per our agreement with Microsoft."
Sure it does. Just follow through the logical analysis of a typical communication with a customer service guy:
a) they don't know what they are talking about.
b) they don't know what you're talking about.
c) they will say anything that sounds fancy to say that their product should work an you're using it wrong.
He didn't even mention Linux and probably knows as much about it as a typical ISP customer support agent. I still lie to those people and tell them I'm running Windows. Then I make a coffee while I prete
Missed a step... (Score:1)
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Your assuming a 2.5 drive thats are getting to be a big space eater in notebooks and they are moving to pcie for speed in the m2 format. It's a bit harder when it's a pcie drive.
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Most motherboards (both desktop and laptop) have multiple modes for the disk controller.
"Legacy" mode emulates something similar enough to IDE for old operating systems (think winxp) to boot without additional drivers.
"AHCI" mode uses the AHCI standard to communicate with the OS. Older operating systems had trouble with this but all recent ones support it out ot the box.
"RAID" mode enables the use of the fakeraid support in the bios and requires a specific driver.
Note that being in "RAID" mode doesn't nessa
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_Crap (Score:2)
Lenovo is total crap
Time will show...and within the week. (Score:2)
If they haven't fixed this within the week, I'm going to consider this malicious intent. If they do, I'll consider it sloppy QA.
In either case Lenovo have lost considerable reputation in my eyes...and this isn't the first time they've walked the edge between malice and incompetence, so they were already sliding down. I doubt that I'll recommend them to anyone for any purpose after this, but new stories are always popping up, and this isn't yet egregious enough that I'm sure I'll remember them as "always a
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But what's important for long term public perception is "Time since it was widely known". Even that oversimplifies, as when someone new hears about it, their opinions will remain flexible for awhile, and then, as their attention shifts to something else, the opinions will solidify and become more difficult to change. New memories are easy to alter.
That I'm "late to the party" is no surprise as I don't regularly buy any computers, and it's been awhile since I've looked at buying a laptop. (And when I did
Linux support is important for diagnostics (Score:2)
For example, Kaspersky make a handy rescue disk that you can burn to CD or install on a USB drive for performing offline scans of computers. If these Lenovo computers have crippled access to their SSD drives (intentionally
yeah right. (Score:2)
>> today, a Lenovo spokesperson claimed the Chinese giant "does not intentionally block customers using other operating systems on its devices and is fully committed to providing Linux certifications and installation guidance on a wide range of products."
Thats great. I'm sure that Lenovo are right now working hard to rush a new unlocked version of the BIOS out that fixes all the issues.
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Re:so unbelievable its posted twice (Score:4, Funny)
Dear god, no. Can you imagine the horror of listening to Haselton explain the flaws in manishs decision process for determining which stories to dupe and how his weighted reader apathy algorithm is better at finding the articles people want to see duped? For fucks sake man, think of the children.
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Is this the second posting? I didn't read the first but it seemed to be accusing Lenovo and Microsoft, this one appears to be Lenovo denying the previous claims. That would seem to make them separate stories.
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This story is a couple of hours after the allegation story, if that story was updated with the denial and explanation now, there would be near zero discussion on the denial and explanation while the outrage about the allegation would stand in full.
That is why something as big as this is due two separate stories when the allegation and denial are that far apart - now go discuss the new "information" on the topic, does it change any viewpoints from the last story? Lets watch and find out.
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Personally, I've had pretty good experiences with ZAReason, vendor of Linux laptops, desktops, and servers.
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Precisely! There is System 76, that now offers a wide variety of choices. Go for those.
You can even get Dell Inspiron, Latitude and Precision laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed.
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I agree, but it spares one the pain of finding out - while or after installation - that WiFi does not work, or sound does not work, or whatever. With 76, since the business is selling Ubuntu, that's already taken care of. Plus, while talking to them, one can ask whether they can preload steam or whatever. Also, a System 76 would start at $700. Not the $250 that many would like to pay, but you know that what you are getting works w/ Linux OOTB
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I don't think the $300-$500 penalty is from lack of crapware. I think it is from the lack of economies of scale that other vendors have.
I like the idea of buying a laptop that has hardware chosen based on it's ability to run linux well, rather than simply hoping that linux works well on it after reading a bunch of forums, and I don't mind paying a premium for that.
I was actually about to buy a lemur, but recently determined I need to be able to run Autodesk Fusion 360, which only runs in windows, plus the
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Be sure to tell Stallman and his devotees
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Seems correct for me? 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, ...
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I'll agree with you on proprietary RAID, but not on PCIE SSD. That's one of a few fairly standard choices to either move beyond the speed of SATA or just shrink the interface and hardware.
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They aren't selling to Linux users, if you don't like it, take your business elsewhere.
System76 sells Linux laptops [system76.com]
And so does Dell [dell.com]
Just sayin'
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But if you read some of the AC's in this thread, being "Anti-Microsoft" clouds our ability to discern fact from fiction. :) Gotta love the Microsoft Astroturfing...