Lenovo Backtracks on Linux Support Statement

After a report that the company would not install or support the Linux operating system on any of its PCs, morcego writes "Looks like Lenovo decided Linux is a good idea after all. From the article: 'Lenovo executives Monday backtracked from remarks last week that the company would not support Linux on its PCs, saying it would continue to pre-load Linux onto ThinkPads on a custom-order basis for customers who purchase licenses on their own. In addition, they said, the Raleigh, N.C.-based company was working behind the scenes to boost its Linux support in conjunction with the expected July release of the next version of Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.'"

Comments

Their Logic

[eldavojohn]

According to IDC Research, there may be a rise in mobile operating system use and Linux will probably retain around 15% of the market share. Granted, this isn't for laptops but instead for things like phones or tablet PCs, it still probably holds some weight.

I doubt Lenovo would be changing their tune because it seems to be that (as of 2004), Linux runs on something like 2.4% of desktops and probably less laptops. Lenovo probably is imagining their products getting smaller and competing with cell phones & PDAs. In order to do that, they're going to need to support applications written for Linux or maybe even Symbian OSs so that they can steal users from the other side of the market.

Plain and simple: Laptops, PDAs, cell phones & tablet PCs are all about to vie for the "must have" device that does it all. Any manufacturer needs to be sure they can support the other side's applications if they want a piece of the market share. I think Lenovo knows the winds are changing and they are trying to support as much to satisfy their consumer. It's only natural that a buyer wants as many options as possible even though they have no intent whatsoever to utilize said options.

Re:Their Logic

[strider44]

I doubt Lenovo would be changing their tune because it seems to be that (as of 2004), Linux runs on something like 2.4% of desktops and probably less laptops. Lenovo probably is imagining their products getting smaller and competing with cell phones & PDAs. In order to do that, they're going to need to support applications written for Linux or maybe even Symbian OSs so that they can steal users from the other side of the market.

That's not very good logic. Dismissing that your link said 2.8% in 2002 and taking your stats as true, not only was 2004 a long time ago in the Linux world (it was before Ubuntu took off even) so probably the real figure would be even higher now but 2.4% itself is an amazing amount of desktops. There are, what, a few hundred million desktops in the world? At least tens of millions sold each year? 2.4% of this could be perhaps a million desktops each year, being conservative. As many people have said before, a million customers would be an entire market for most companies, so it's not something a sane corperation would shrug off lightly.

Not what I'd call enthusiastic....

[DoraLives]

pre-load Linux onto ThinkPads on a custom-order basis for customers who purchase licenses on their own.

Pretty tepid "support" if you ask me.

The Great Swarm isn't going to be doing much special requesting, which means there's not going to be all that many machines that actually wind up with linux on the hard drive.

Better than nothing, I guess. Sigh.

Re:Not what I'd call enthusiastic....

[flosofl]

But where can I purchase a Debian license? I've been trying to buy one, but no one will sell me one.

I'm sure SCO will sell you one that will cover all distributions. Cheap, too!

I guess this means...

[gEvil (beta)]

I guess this just means that there aren't Linux drivers for all those snazzy spytools that Lenovo's been putting in their machines...

It may have gone like this...

[thebdj]

Lenovo: "We will not support Linux."

IBM: "We won't let you keep using the names and trademarks we made famous if you do not support Linux."

Lenovo: "We will support Linux."

The only thing missing is a little ass kissing...

Re:It may have gone like this...

[vrwarp]

I thought the announcement that Lenovo was going to drop linux support was odd since they are a China based company after all. The last time I checked, the chinese government wanted to move away from windows and instead, back linux.