8 ms·

Linux support on Lenovo personal systems

84 points by ashitlerferad 7y ago

ginko 7y ago
Will those also come preinstalled with Lenovo "productivity apps"?
- number-sequence 7y ago
  and spyware, don’t forget the spyware.
ecmascript 7y ago
I don't get it, when I try to configure a laptop I cannot select linux. Also, it's a lot of older versions? I have installed Ubuntu on my Thinkpad t460 and it worked great out of the box.
- mruts 7y ago
  I think they just mean you get a blank laptop and save money on the windows license. And that they tested it with Linux.
- ivl 7y ago
  This page has existed for quite a long time, actually. I feel like I had used it more than two years ago for a quick reference on which distro had the highest chance of just working without much effort on my part. I don't think there's anything here that suggests Lenovo is now shipping with Linux installed.
- ashitlerferad 7y ago
  https://youtu.be/yIflLxNyPBo https://youtu.be/yIflLxNyPBo
bitlax 7y ago
What benefit am I getting here over doing a fresh install?
- squarefoot 7y ago
  None, but probably it sends the message "all hardware is supported" to users who can't find the information for themselves and wouldn't buy otherwise.
  - dTal 7y ago
    All hardware is not supported. There is no working Linux driver for the latest generation of fingerprint readers, for instance. All they promise is "most of the basic functions work". https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht082374 https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht082374
    - BonesJustice 7y ago
      That was my first question: "do the latest fingerprint readers work?" Because I definitely have not found a driver that supports the reader on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme.
      - om3n 7y ago
        I have an X1 Extreme, and have been really wrestling with moving over to Ubuntu. Other than the fingerprint reader have you had any other problems? Do you think Ubuntu is safe/stable/performant on this machine, or would you recommend others avoid it?
        isodude 7y ago
        We use X1 Extreme with a mixed bag of Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch. There are problems sometimes, like the thunderbolt works after updating to the latest BIOS. All in all people are pretty pleased with the experience. My coworker is running Arch with Sway/Wayland and is pretty pleased :) There are some problems with adding a second screens but I think it's related to i3/Sway and our monitors.
        BonesJustice 7y ago
        Should be okay now. There were several BIOS updates early on that made it possible to brick your machine by toggling seemingly innocuous settings, like discrete/hybrid graphics or thunderbolt support. As far as the Linux experience goes, I’m not aware of any issues apart from the fingerprint reader. I have never attempted to use thunderbolt connectivity or charge anything over USB.
feluso 7y ago
I'm a little confused by the link, seems more like it is "they support linux" than "I can buy one with linux preinstalled"
- dorfsmay 7y ago
  The advantage of computers that you can buy without a pre-installed OS or with a free OS (freedos! Linus, etc...), is that you don't pay the Windows tax.
  - teh_klev 7y ago
    I don't think that's the point the parent poster was making.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dorfsmay 7y ago
No. This link is about which distros and versions of Linux were tested on these models.
revicon 7y ago
Is there any benefit to ordering a thinkpad pre-installed with Linux vs re-imaging it myself after purchasing (besides cost)? I’d have a few one-off cases where it’d be nice to boot into a windows environment but would otherwise love a dedicated Linux laptop. I’m wondering if there is any special configurations that Lenovo adds to their Linux installs that I would be missing if I just reimaged a windows one.
- api 7y ago
  I can imagine two things. One is that if they're willing to ship with Linux it's an attestation to the fact that it definitely has good Linux support. Second is that you could examine the image they ship with it to solve any driver issues. Make a backup of it before reinstalling with your distro of choice.
  - farisjarrah 7y ago
    This is exactly right. My company gave me a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 carbon for work that originally had windows on it, and the IT dept slapped Ubuntu on there. I have a fingerprint scanner on this device that I don't bother to fiddle with to get working, so basically its this really expensive laptop with a non functional part on it staring me in the face. If you buy the thing from lenovo with linux preinstalled, you know that the parts you are getting are going to work with that machine, and if they don't you can actually complain to someone and they are forced to deal with you.
- kdmccormick 7y ago
  I can see a benefit in companies that provide their employees with laptops. If a subset of their employees want to run Linux, I can imagine that they'd be more willing to provide them with a ThinkPad with Linux pre-installed than allow employees to re-image the company laptop.
  - Nullabillity 7y ago
    Presumably any company that cares about this would have standard corporate images that they apply anyway?
isodude 7y ago
We talked about reporting bugs to Lenovo just last week but didn't since it was running Ubuntu. This is a welcomed change!
monnad 7y ago
You should also add Suse Linux as lenovo laptops now come with pre installed RH, Ubuntu and Suse Linux.
m23khan 7y ago
after using linux (even those with GUIs) for over 13 years, I would personally still buy laptop with windows installed as primary OS. The ease of day-to-day apps such as Microsoft Office, especially Word and Excel is unparalleled. If you are into DB and work in place that has MS SQL, MS SQL combined with SQL Studio is a very powerful feature. IDE selection is somewhat better because you have more options available -- things like Visual Studio (even for non Microsoft programming languages) are available. If you go down Linux route and you need GUI, a portion of your time would be consumed by hunting for and finding analyzing options available for you on Linux -- for GUI stuff, Windows seem to be default. In my opinion, if I am buying a non-Apple laptop, unless Microsoft rolls out a Linux distro with emphasis on GUI and which they will support and develop, I won't bother with Linux as my default OS on my machine.
- reustle 7y ago
  It seems like most of those are a non-issue if you aren't working on a Microsoft stack.
  - sl1ck731 7y ago
    Word and Excel are probably worth running Windows/Mac over Linux GUI alone if you have to spend any time in them, which I do in a non-Microsoft stack for business-related things. I'd imagine most people have to spend some non-negligible time in these. O365/open source office products come nowhere close.
    - ACS_Solver 7y ago
      I read often on HN how Excel is used a lot, but I don't really understand the use cases. If you're a software developer, what would you use Excel for? Maybe it's because I work for small companies, but I've almost never had Excel come up at work, and in the few cases where it did, LibreOffice was sufficient because those were very small and simple sheets. 95% of my work has always been in the source tree (so git), some kind of ticket or project software (Jira, redmine, etc), and a wiki-like documentation system (Confluence, mediawiki). And of the remaining 5% most would be some kind of stuff with a Web interface on the network. I'm pretty sure I haven't edited a Word doc for 5 years. Is this really the exception I get to encounter because of avoiding "corporate" companies?
haunter 7y ago
I live in Hungary, EU and most of the retail stores sells laptops with FreeDOS. Or you can choose that you want FeeDOS or Windows. But most people goes with FreeDOS obviously as you pay less and you get Windows on your "own way" Why FreeDOS tho? Good question I never thought about it but I also never seen Linux on retail store laptops
- narag 7y ago
  If it's going to be uninstalled anyway, they don't bother to configure a Linux and take care of drivers, etc.
- joecot 7y ago
  Because FreeDOS is the easiest and lightest OS to put on, since it doesn't even have a graphical interface. It sounds like they literally put the most basic OS possible on so they can sell it and claim to Microsoft the person won't turn around and pirate Windows immediately. If they actually wanted them to use an OS that's not Windows, they'd preinstall Linux on it. But that's not the point.

84 points by ashitlerferad 7y ago

ginko 7y ago

Will those also come preinstalled with Lenovo "productivity apps"?

number-sequence 7y ago
and spyware, don’t forget the spyware.

ecmascript 7y ago

I don't get it, when I try to configure a laptop I cannot select linux. Also, it's a lot of older versions? I have installed Ubuntu on my Thinkpad t460 and it worked great out of the box.

mruts 7y ago
I think they just mean you get a blank laptop and save money on the windows license. And that they tested it with Linux.
ivl 7y ago
This page has existed for quite a long time, actually. I feel like I had used it more than two years ago for a quick reference on which distro had the highest chance of just working without much effort on my part. I don't think there's anything here that suggests Lenovo is now shipping with Linux installed.
ashitlerferad 7y ago
https://youtu.be/yIflLxNyPBo https://youtu.be/yIflLxNyPBo

bitlax 7y ago

What benefit am I getting here over doing a fresh install?

squarefoot 7y ago
None, but probably it sends the message "all hardware is supported" to users who can't find the information for themselves and wouldn't buy otherwise.
- dTal 7y ago
  All hardware is not supported. There is no working Linux driver for the latest generation of fingerprint readers, for instance. All they promise is "most of the basic functions work". https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht082374 https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht082374
  - BonesJustice 7y ago
    That was my first question: "do the latest fingerprint readers work?" Because I definitely have not found a driver that supports the reader on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme.
    - om3n 7y ago
      I have an X1 Extreme, and have been really wrestling with moving over to Ubuntu. Other than the fingerprint reader have you had any other problems? Do you think Ubuntu is safe/stable/performant on this machine, or would you recommend others avoid it?
      - isodude 7y ago
        We use X1 Extreme with a mixed bag of Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch. There are problems sometimes, like the thunderbolt works after updating to the latest BIOS. All in all people are pretty pleased with the experience. My coworker is running Arch with Sway/Wayland and is pretty pleased :) There are some problems with adding a second screens but I think it's related to i3/Sway and our monitors.
      - BonesJustice 7y ago
        Should be okay now. There were several BIOS updates early on that made it possible to brick your machine by toggling seemingly innocuous settings, like discrete/hybrid graphics or thunderbolt support. As far as the Linux experience goes, I’m not aware of any issues apart from the fingerprint reader. I have never attempted to use thunderbolt connectivity or charge anything over USB.

feluso 7y ago

I'm a little confused by the link, seems more like it is "they support linux" than "I can buy one with linux preinstalled"

dorfsmay 7y ago
The advantage of computers that you can buy without a pre-installed OS or with a free OS (freedos! Linus, etc...), is that you don't pay the Windows tax.
- teh_klev 7y ago
  I don't think that's the point the parent poster was making.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dorfsmay 7y ago

No. This link is about which distros and versions of Linux were tested on these models.

revicon 7y ago

Is there any benefit to ordering a thinkpad pre-installed with Linux vs re-imaging it myself after purchasing (besides cost)? I’d have a few one-off cases where it’d be nice to boot into a windows environment but would otherwise love a dedicated Linux laptop. I’m wondering if there is any special configurations that Lenovo adds to their Linux installs that I would be missing if I just reimaged a windows one.

api 7y ago
I can imagine two things. One is that if they're willing to ship with Linux it's an attestation to the fact that it definitely has good Linux support. Second is that you could examine the image they ship with it to solve any driver issues. Make a backup of it before reinstalling with your distro of choice.
- farisjarrah 7y ago
  This is exactly right. My company gave me a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 carbon for work that originally had windows on it, and the IT dept slapped Ubuntu on there. I have a fingerprint scanner on this device that I don't bother to fiddle with to get working, so basically its this really expensive laptop with a non functional part on it staring me in the face. If you buy the thing from lenovo with linux preinstalled, you know that the parts you are getting are going to work with that machine, and if they don't you can actually complain to someone and they are forced to deal with you.
kdmccormick 7y ago
I can see a benefit in companies that provide their employees with laptops. If a subset of their employees want to run Linux, I can imagine that they'd be more willing to provide them with a ThinkPad with Linux pre-installed than allow employees to re-image the company laptop.
- Nullabillity 7y ago
  Presumably any company that cares about this would have standard corporate images that they apply anyway?

isodude 7y ago

We talked about reporting bugs to Lenovo just last week but didn't since it was running Ubuntu. This is a welcomed change!

monnad 7y ago

You should also add Suse Linux as lenovo laptops now come with pre installed RH, Ubuntu and Suse Linux.

m23khan 7y ago

after using linux (even those with GUIs) for over 13 years, I would personally still buy laptop with windows installed as primary OS. The ease of day-to-day apps such as Microsoft Office, especially Word and Excel is unparalleled. If you are into DB and work in place that has MS SQL, MS SQL combined with SQL Studio is a very powerful feature. IDE selection is somewhat better because you have more options available -- things like Visual Studio (even for non Microsoft programming languages) are available. If you go down Linux route and you need GUI, a portion of your time would be consumed by hunting for and finding analyzing options available for you on Linux -- for GUI stuff, Windows seem to be default. In my opinion, if I am buying a non-Apple laptop, unless Microsoft rolls out a Linux distro with emphasis on GUI and which they will support and develop, I won't bother with Linux as my default OS on my machine.

reustle 7y ago
It seems like most of those are a non-issue if you aren't working on a Microsoft stack.
- sl1ck731 7y ago
  Word and Excel are probably worth running Windows/Mac over Linux GUI alone if you have to spend any time in them, which I do in a non-Microsoft stack for business-related things. I'd imagine most people have to spend some non-negligible time in these. O365/open source office products come nowhere close.
  - ACS_Solver 7y ago
    I read often on HN how Excel is used a lot, but I don't really understand the use cases. If you're a software developer, what would you use Excel for? Maybe it's because I work for small companies, but I've almost never had Excel come up at work, and in the few cases where it did, LibreOffice was sufficient because those were very small and simple sheets. 95% of my work has always been in the source tree (so git), some kind of ticket or project software (Jira, redmine, etc), and a wiki-like documentation system (Confluence, mediawiki). And of the remaining 5% most would be some kind of stuff with a Web interface on the network. I'm pretty sure I haven't edited a Word doc for 5 years. Is this really the exception I get to encounter because of avoiding "corporate" companies?

haunter 7y ago

I live in Hungary, EU and most of the retail stores sells laptops with FreeDOS. Or you can choose that you want FeeDOS or Windows. But most people goes with FreeDOS obviously as you pay less and you get Windows on your "own way" Why FreeDOS tho? Good question I never thought about it but I also never seen Linux on retail store laptops

narag 7y ago
If it's going to be uninstalled anyway, they don't bother to configure a Linux and take care of drivers, etc.
joecot 7y ago
Because FreeDOS is the easiest and lightest OS to put on, since it doesn't even have a graphical interface. It sounds like they literally put the most basic OS possible on so they can sell it and claim to Microsoft the person won't turn around and pirate Windows immediately. If they actually wanted them to use an OS that's not Windows, they'd preinstall Linux on it. But that's not the point.