Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

IBM Dropping Laptop Linux Support

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-that-just-sucks dept.

Bjarne Bula writes "In a message to the linux-thinkpad mailing list, Keith Frechette, former (as of Monday, June 24th) lead developer of Linux support on ThinkPads, reported that IBM has decided to no longer fund that project." I've been using Linux on a ThinkPad for some time now. If it stops being compatible, my next laptop won't be a ThinkPad. Too bad, because the machines are solid. Update: In an interesting counter-point, Information Week tells us that IBM will be opening a manhattan based "Linux Center of Competence" to show off Linux. Go figure.

7 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. tekisama Confirms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Linux is sleeping.

  2. WHO MODDED THIS DOWN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Seriously, what the hell? Why are all the decent posts at 0 these days?

  3. Re:OSX pretty much decided the laptop game for me. by tps12 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Why the fuck are you ssh'ing and ls'ing /usr/bin? Got to make sure no one stole your grep or something?

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  4. *** MOD PARENT OF PARENT UP !!! *** by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Right. If the poster had included the phrase "Dude, you're getting a Dell", I'm sure the moderators would have been more responsive.

  5. String em up by WellHungYungWun · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You get the rope, I'll provide the tree. Remember in the South Park Movie when they brought in Bill Gates? "But Windows 98 is faster it has..."(machine guns rattling). : ) Guess people will actually have to search the net for an answer to their problem instead of crying to Peter, the lethargic, put you on hold while he talks to someone who has a clue, minimum wage, outsourced, retard of a CSR. Sorry, was on the phone with a "tech d00d earlier, and had to vent"

    --
    "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."
  6. ancidotal evidence showing otherwise by lingqi · · Score: 0, Offtopic


    I have a T21: man has it got problems...

    battery died (really, holds like 20 min of juice)
    video card craps out *every* time i do a driver update
    USB keyboard does not have a) BIOS support, b) even with drivers properly installed, holding a key down does not auto-repeat - which sucks for backspace
    Ultra bay jams (now and then)
    pointing nipple drifts if i breath on it.

    and more

    NONE of the above IBM was willing to fix: every time i call with a problem, they say -- sorry pal, nothing i can do for ya.

    otherwise a nice machine -- but since this is at least 20% more than a similar machine from, say, dell, i would have expected more out of it.

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

  7. lack of easy encryption by tuoppi · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    There are encryption systems for windows which are rather straightforward to install and use. For Linux, that is whole different case. It might be because of U.S. export limitations, I'm not sure, but there just is no easy to install and use encryption available for Linux.

    I have been happy user of international linux kernel patches and encrypted loopback mounts. It is just rather difficult to set up, and I wouldn't recommend it to beginners, as it might scare them off. PPDD project seems to be developing interestingly again, though.