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Portables Windows Linux

Lenovo May Be Avoiding the 'Windows Tax' By Offering Cheaper Laptops With Pre-Installed Linux (itsfoss.com) 40

Posted by EditorDavid from the Windows-refund-day dept.
"The U.S. and Canadian websites for Lenovo offered U.S. $140 and CAD $211 off on the same ThinkPad X1 Carbon model when choosing any one of the Linux-based alternatives," reports It's FOSS News: This was brought to my attention thanks to a Reddit post... Others then chimed in, saying that Lenovo has been doing this since at least 2020 and that the big price difference shows how ridiculous Windows' pricing is...

Not all models from their laptop lineup, like ThinkPad, Yoga, Legion, LOQ, etc., feature an option to get Linux pre-installed during the checkout process. Luckily, there is an easy way to filter through the numerous laptops. Just go to the laptops section (U.S.) on the Lenovo website and turn on the "Operating System" filter under the Filter by specs sidebar menu.
The article end with an embedded YouTube video showing a VCR playing a videotape of a 1999 local TV news report... about the legendary "Windows Refund Day" protests.

Slashdot ran numerous stories about the event — including one by Jon Katz...

Lenovo May Be Avoiding the 'Windows Tax' By Offering Cheaper Laptops With Pre-Installed Linux More | Reply

Lenovo May Be Avoiding the 'Windows Tax' By Offering Cheaper Laptops With Pre-Installed Linux

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  • But when normal people go to the store they want the Oreos. This will go like every previous attempt- poorly

    • Re:Hydrox cookies are fine I guess (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Junta ( 36770 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @10:58AM (#65334687)

      Note that Oreos are actually the knockoff, Hydrox was the original. So in that analogy, one would expect the novel option to supersede the original.

      For the common user, this can probably work better than it did way back in the day. With weird dial-up network access, particularly funky devices with goofy support more of a thing of the past, as well as applications being more of a "bring your browser, nothing else matters", a canned Linux setup is more viable for a common user.

      If they have an extensive steam library, or want to do a lot of competitive gaming, this may hurt (though even Valve themselves is trying to normalize Linux as a gaming platform).

      If they are just absolutely, positively locked into some proprietary application (Adobe comes to mind), then this could be a problem too.

      Generally those are the points I see sited in modern "I tried linux and I came back" reviews. Notably, most of them nowadays admit that the user experience is broadly nice, but some game and professional applications that haven't gone web based are lacking.

      • In the minds of the consumer the hydrox are the knockoff. Fine it is the Signature Series Acme store brand. People with no other religion will take the name they know. You have had this symbolic victory before and will only win when it truly does not matter anymore

    • As was mentioned, Oreos were basically a stolen design from the original Hydrox cookies. So you are correct in that sense that Oreos resemble Microsoft.

      Whatâ(TM)s crazy is the similarities donâ(TM)t end there. Hydrox uses significant quantities of cocoa. They use real cane sugar. They taste better. Nabisco engaged in anticompetitive behavior, including reseller lock in, and it has been credibly alleged that their distribution system included the practice of attempting to hide their competitor

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Misagon ( 1135 )

        Oreos are owned by Mondelez, and there are a lot of people (at least in Europe) who are boycotting its brands now because of how they are still active doing business in Russia.

        • Curious, how many of those brave cookie-boycotters are buying their oil & natural gas from Russia? [highnorthnews.com] But they are boycotting Oreos? Wow, bold move - help Putin fund the war, try to drive a cookie maker out of business...

          Europe is a confusing place.

          • >Europe is a confusing place

            It is weird how US has had both huge Defund the Police rallies and demands for more security on streets. US is a confusing place..

            That is just a random example, Europe is a huge place with many people, about double the population of US, that is a lot of people with different opinions..

            But if you find it weird that more than 700 million people might have different ideas or opinnions about things, well, I do suggest you read a bit more broadly to be exposed to other viewpoints.

    • Not sure laptop usage has changed especially in low end laptops, they are basically can just run a web browser. ChromeOS has proven that you can sell laptops without windows. Will this succeed? I don't know but it is possible.

      • I *suspect* (note, I said "suspect") that the vast majority of Chromebook laptops are sold by the pallet, not individually at a big box retailer, and, I again *suspect* that the vast majority of individual Chromebook sales are to tech-savvy folks interested in dropping Linux on the (mostly) low-price chromebooks.

        It is pure fantasy to think that average computer users are heading into Target and Best Buy to pick up a Chromebook for home use as a Chromebook.

        People aren't stupid - they know employers use and w

    • I've never met anyone who has had both and thought Oreos were better.

  • How is this news? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jay age ( 757446 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @10:52AM (#65334679)

    Since 2011 I was buying Thinkpads, because they worked great with Linux, and could be got either without OS (for pedants: with FreeDOS) or with Linux.

    • Since 2011 I was buying Thinkpads, because they worked great with Linux, and could be got either without OS (for pedants: with FreeDOS) or with Linux.

      One thing that Lenovo has done is to try to select components for their device that are either already supported by the Linux kernel, or themselves work/assist to get hardware support upstreamed into the kernel. As long as you don't purchase the latest greatest newly introduced model before the hardware support gets upstreamed and your distro makes it available to you linux support is typically rather good.

      • My experience as well. More specifically with the Yoga and Ideapad product lines of Lenovo laptops, in combination with Pop!_OS and Linux Mint. Everything worked just as well in Linux as it did in Windows. I assume the main (modern) Red Hat derivative Linux distributions will be just as problem-free. Didn't test that though, it is a Debian-based shop over here.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dargaud ( 518470 )
      Same with Dell. They have (had?) a fairly hidden way to order *any* laptops with Linux (ubuntu). I've bought a few this way, both personal and for work. But last month I tried and couldn't find where they'd hidden the option.
  • Is the message that is given here. How many people still put themselves in the Adobe subscription prison after all these years? The same reason why people shell out thousands for college instead of just reading Wikipedia as well.

    • I mean if you're a business then the price of Adobe Creative Suite can be easily justified and considered even a bargain.

      $660 a year for the 5 "big" programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, After Effects, Premiere) and the 15-ish supporting ones? Chances are your users generate way in excess of that $660 in a given year with all those tools. Sure they could use many of the alternatives but when you have a business to run is re-training or interrupting your employees workflow worth $660 a year? (or less i

    • I'm not sure that an encyclopedia, while a useful collection of information, is a substitute for a college education. Which should involve more than rote learning, and includes processes and first principles.

  • Please give us an option to remove the Windows button next, and to replace it with a penguin, or at least a generic action key.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ffkom ( 3519199 )
      I don't think keyboards should be branded to any operating system, and "inventing new keys" has only ever annoyed users accustomed to the existing keyboards (which really do not suffer from a lack of keys). I for one still use keyboards that have no "windows key" or such at all... luckily, some keyboards from the 1980s were built like tanks, and DIN / PS2 / USB adapters were sold when this became relevant.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Misagon ( 1135 )

        There was one good thing with the new keys in '95 for us in Europe. Many of our layouts use the right Alt a lot, as the Alt Gr, and it being moved one unit to the left means that it is easier to reach with the right thumb.

        For users of the Japanese keyboard however, which already had more keys to the left and right oft he space bar ... it meant that the space bar shrunk and became more difficult to reach.

        As to what's on the key: I've never had a Windows-logo on a keyboard I've used at home, ever since my fir

      • I mean there have never been more options for quality keyboards and massive collections of easy to get custom keysets available than today, it's a keyboard renaissance out there. [reddit.com]

  • Good (Score:3)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @01:06PM (#65334899)

    >"Lenovo May Be Avoiding the 'Windows Tax' By Offering Cheaper Laptops With Pre-Installed Linux"

    Good. This is the way it *should* be, but with all computers and models of them. It is ridiculous that we allow Microsoft to strong-arm almost all [non-Apple] manufacturers to pay for MS-Windows and pass on that cost to consumers, some of whom don't want it. They do this by punishing companies that try to offer other (or no pre-installed) operating systems.

    If more companies would simply give buyers the *choice* and also SHOW the price they pass on for including MS-Windows, perhaps there would be lots more Linux desktops/laptops.

    One of the reasons I exclusively buy and recommend Lenovo Thinkpads is precisely because they work so well under Linux... the only OS I have on any of them. Unfortunately, I have yet to select a model that meets my needs and on which I had the option to omit the unwanted MS-Windows and the cost that goes with it. Offering a few, "select" models is nice, but it should be all of them.

    And I don't care which distro they offer, because I will just wipe it and install what I want, anyway (which for quite a while now has been Mint).

    • > One of the reasons I exclusively buy and recommend Lenovo Thinkpads is precisely because they work so well under Linux... the only OS I have on any of them. I have a 12th gen. And the camera situation is still a mess

      • >"I have a 12th gen. And the camera situation is still a mess"

        Works fine on my recent Thinkpad X13 Gen 3 AMD. As does everything on it under Linux.

        Same at work with recent Thinkpad E14 Gen 6 AMD laptops.

  • I avoid the tax by building my own computers, not only for myself, but for friends and family too. As a bonus I often use off-leased 3 year old systems as a starting point saving another massive chunk of change for everyone. As another bonus those off-lease systems usually come with a Windows license for those that still want to feed the beast. For the rest of us, Mint, Zorin, or Ubuntu, take your pick.

    • That sort of thing used to be standard among Slashdotters because it works so well.

      Building a fast standard form-factor desktop with room for expansion while using off-lease machine for portable work is easy as is using the remote desktop software to use any from any.

      There is no need these days limit a PC to a single OS since VMs are easy to deal with. I use Linux hosts and Linux and Windows guests.

  • That's not news.... but (Score:3)

    by gQuigs ( 913879 ) on Sunday April 27, 2025 @01:53PM (#65335003) Homepage

    You can actually get a Linux laptop from Lenovo for $553.70. That is the cheapest I've ever seen (with not totally horrible specs):
    https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/c... [lenovo.com]

  • Filter by operation system: "Linux".
    After the last product in the list you get the ad: "You're going to need Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Add Microsoft 365 to your PC when checking out."

  • The os should be optional.

  • Slashdot reports it as "news". HP is the only major without any Linux offering as far as I can tell.

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