Lenovo To Shun Linux

dominique_cimafranca writes "CRN reports that Lenovo will not install or support the Linux operating system on any of its PCs. Lenovo is positioning itself as an exclusive partner of Microsoft, several weeks after the companies announced they were 'reaffirming' global market development and cooperation agreements." From the article: "A Lenovo spokesman later said the non-Linux strategy is also applicable for the company's Thinkpad brand of notebooks, although Lenovo will provide advice to customers who insist on deploying desktop Linux systems in some fashion. While Lenovo and Microsoft have had a long OEM relationship that pre-dates Lenovo's takeover last year of the former IBM PC Co., IBM had been supportive of Linux throughout its product line -- including preloading it on Thinkpads -- before the sale to Lenovo."

Comments

Lenovo - IBM transition

[unixwin]

My 2c as a Thinkpad owner (T43:IBM & now a T60:Lenovo)
Hardware: T60 sucks. Latch is loose when it came, "extended" battery doesn't fit snugly into the slot.
Its not defective.. its just like how the Dell's and others used to be a few years ago.
Their quality has gone up and the Lenovo has sunk to new depths. Note its not cheap. Its 2-300 above a similar Dell/Toshiba. Summary: They lost all my future business.

Linux (Fedora,RHEL,Suse,Gentoo),Solaris on intel,FreeBSD: T43 no sweat

Havn't bothered with Lin/Sol/BSD on the T60 as yet. Have thought a couple of times about just returning this.

Re:They don't have to

[arivanov]

I will second that.

As a matter of fact IBM used to make similar noises 2-3 years ago especially regarding the Stinkpad including disbanding completely the desktop/laptop Linux team on at least one occasion (and it quietly reappearing later on).

So as far as policy - nothing new here, move along. We 've all seen that.

As far as business development they will get steamrolled into supporting Red Flag Linux by the Chinese Govt do they like it or not for a similar reason to the one quoted by many other posters: "Windows is much easier to bug".

If they do not they will lose on their home market and it is growing at much higher rate compared to the US.