About "Lenovo applications," the first thing I think of is the apps for things like running diagnostics, installing new firmware and notifying users of updates

About "Lenovo applications," the first thing I think of is the apps for things like running diagnostics, installing new firmware and notifying users of updates from the manufacturer. These are a Thinkpad tradition going back many years. I think we should grant that these are reasonable and normal things for Lenovo to preinstall. On the other hand, (and I'm not sure whether Lenovo does this nowadays) almost every PC manufacturer typically ships Windows systems pre-installed with third-party crap like Norton Antivirus under the rubric of "security software," which really are crapware; these tend to harass clueless users with scary ads and solicit expensive subscriptions, they're hard to remove, they leave crap lying around after uninstallation. That's all indefensible when Microsoft itself is providing good free-of-charge alternatives like Windows Defender. It makes plenty of sense to complain about Superfish and on that basis to use Lenovo as an example to discourage the other manufacturers, but let's not pretend that there is no crapware on most other mainstream laptops (Dell, etc.) That is an industry problem.