4 ms·

Well supported by mainline kernels, thanks to reverse engineering undocumented proprietary Lenovo hardware. ThinkPads contain other components besides the GPU.

Well supported by mainline kernels, thanks to reverse engineering undocumented proprietary Lenovo hardware. ThinkPads contain other components besides the GPU. Apple is not in the business of selling GPUs to other hardware vendors and the fraction of customers demanding Linux support is miniscule. Intel supports Linux as a business decision based on profitability, not open source idealism.

smoldesu 4y ago
> Well supported by mainline kernels, thanks to reverse engineering undocumented proprietary Lenovo hardware. Such as? What "proprietary Lenovo hardware" is obfuscating my boot process, I'm really curious now. > Intel supports Linux as a business decision Yes. Intel supports Linux because the concept of selling Unix doesn't work. Take it from Apple, who gave up on selling their OS after realizing that people were really only in it for the hardware. If Intel is the begrudging neighbor to Open Source software, then Apple is holding them in a Mexican standoff with their userbase. Somehow, Intel's "business decision" manages to be the more civilized relationship between the two.
- Mike_12345 4y ago
  [dead]
goosedragons 4y ago
What components? Lenovo sells several ThinkPad models with Linux out of the box. The fingerprint reader is a source of trouble but it's not a Lenovo part.
- Mike_12345 4y ago
  Battery, BIOS, touchpad, power management, touch screen, fingerprint scanner, Nvidia GPU, etc. Believe it or not, they sell hardware with Linux OOTB thanks to others reverse engineering their proprietary subsystems.
- sliken 4y ago
  Over the years I've seen numerous thinkpad tweaks for wifi, sleeping with the lid closed, restarting wifi on lid open, numerous tweaks for the function keys (audio up/down/mute, brightness up/down), clock speed/thermal management, reading battery levels, etc. Seems like the #1 reason thinkpads are well supported is that they are relatively popular among the people who modify the OS and kernel for compatibility. I don't recall that Lenovo is a particularly big contributor to the linux kernel.

smoldesu 4y ago

> Well supported by mainline kernels, thanks to reverse engineering undocumented proprietary Lenovo hardware. Such as? What "proprietary Lenovo hardware" is obfuscating my boot process, I'm really curious now. > Intel supports Linux as a business decision Yes. Intel supports Linux because the concept of selling Unix doesn't work. Take it from Apple, who gave up on selling their OS after realizing that people were really only in it for the hardware. If Intel is the begrudging neighbor to Open Source software, then Apple is holding them in a Mexican standoff with their userbase. Somehow, Intel's "business decision" manages to be the more civilized relationship between the two.

Mike_12345 4y ago
[dead]

goosedragons 4y ago

What components? Lenovo sells several ThinkPad models with Linux out of the box. The fingerprint reader is a source of trouble but it's not a Lenovo part.

Mike_12345 4y ago
Battery, BIOS, touchpad, power management, touch screen, fingerprint scanner, Nvidia GPU, etc. Believe it or not, they sell hardware with Linux OOTB thanks to others reverse engineering their proprietary subsystems.
sliken 4y ago
Over the years I've seen numerous thinkpad tweaks for wifi, sleeping with the lid closed, restarting wifi on lid open, numerous tweaks for the function keys (audio up/down/mute, brightness up/down), clock speed/thermal management, reading battery levels, etc. Seems like the #1 reason thinkpads are well supported is that they are relatively popular among the people who modify the OS and kernel for compatibility. I don't recall that Lenovo is a particularly big contributor to the linux kernel.