Today, hardware vendor Lenovo announced something quite huge for the Linux community with the addition of more Linux devices becoming easily available.
Back in April, it was announced that Lenovo and Fedora were teaming up to bring Fedora Linux to a few different ThinkPad models. That by itself was quite big. Now they're going a massive step further by announcing both Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu LTS will be certified and available across their entire ThinkStation and ThinkPad P Series workstations.
When will it be available? Lenovo said to expect it to begin rolling out this month, and they will be fully customizable too. On top of that, Lenovo aim to build a bit of a community around it. Since this is a proper vendor-run effort, you get the whole package of support too including "security patches and updates to better secure and verify hardware drivers, firmware and bios optimizations".
This isn't a vendor just adding it as an option, they're clearly investing into it. We're going to see "full" web support, dedicated Linux forums, config guidance and so on. Lenovo say they will also "upstream device drivers directly to the Linux kernel, to help maintain stability and compatibility throughout the life of the workstation".
This is awesome. Hope to see more hardware vendors follow and eventually roll it out across more lines. See the original announcement here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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da_habakuk 2 Jun 2020
now give me a xps 13 2-1 like thinkpad with ryzen 4000 and no compromises and i will be the first lenovo groupie ;) promise ;)
2 Likes, Who?
Would be good to extend it to all their Thinkpads. I'd appreciate this more than adding more distros.
5 Likes, Who?
Nice... I have a refurbished thinkpad T430 from a second hand store... It feels like the best PC linux system I've ever had at home, except for the supermicro's.
Everything works. Except of course that nvidia crap.
Added an eGPU using express card. RX580. The system feels a lot faster than my zotac sn970.
Everything works. Except of course that nvidia crap.
Added an eGPU using express card. RX580. The system feels a lot faster than my zotac sn970.
0 Likes
This is going to be the best "year of Linux on the Desktop" yet! :D
8 Likes, Who?
So Microsoft finally stopped the vendor strongarming, or at least Lenovo must feel big enough for them to take the risk.
5 Likes, Who?
Getting a community going is a wise move, I certainly hope this works out.
Might be time to upgrade my x200 :)
Might be time to upgrade my x200 :)
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Mohandevir 2 Jun 2020
So Microsoft finally stopped the vendor strongarming, or at least Lenovo must feel big enough for them to take the risk.
IBM being the owners of RedHat, it makes sense...
I don't know how to formulate it... I'm wondering about the impact of Microsoft's creation of it's own line of laptops (Surface) in this "strongarming" strategy. Did they just switched focus?
Last edited by Mohandevir on 2 Jun 2020 at 8:32 pm UTC
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I was looking at the IdeaPad 5 as a good budget AMD laptop, I hope they expand the support to other lines. I like the Thinkpad's, but they're more business orientated.
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rustybroomhandle 2 Jun 2020
Nice. I'm rocking a Lenovo Legion Y540 myself. No problems with it so far.
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CatKiller was just mentioning the announced Chinese government policy of replacing foreign computers/software (probably with an unspoken emphasis on Microsoft) starting this year. Now we have a major Chinese computer company announcing availability of a bunch of computers with Linux on 'em. Co-incidence or is something going on?
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 2 Jun 2020 at 10:58 pm UTC
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 2 Jun 2020 at 10:58 pm UTC
7 Likes, Who?
nattydread 2 Jun 2020
now give me a xps 13 2-1 like thinkpad with ryzen 4000 and no compromises and i will be the first lenovo groupie ;) promise ;)
I just got an HP spectre 360 13 2-in-1 it runs ubuntu linux flawlessly out of the box, Function keys, screen brightness, backlit key brightness, screen rotation, everything. I don't think you can say that about the Dells. It's not got ryzen though... :(
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Arehandoro 2 Jun 2020
Great move. If they expand the support to other thinkpad models will be even bigger news. However, I believe we should still support companies like tuxedo, purism or system 76 instead. For the same reason that we should buy our groceries from the local shop :)
2 Likes, Who?
Nice... I have a refurbished thinkpad T430 from a second hand store... It feels like the best PC linux system I've ever had at home, except for the supermicro's.
Everything works. Except of course that nvidia crap.
Added an eGPU using express card. RX580. The system feels a lot faster than my zotac sn970.
Dude, this sounds fun! Which express card do you have? Can you send a pic of what this looks like?
I have a T530 with Nvidia NVS5400. It works fine in FreeBSD, but it's not a whole lot better performance than Intel IGP. Just upgraded ram to 16GB and an RX580 would make really make it complete :)
0 Likes
oldrocker99 3 Jun 2020
I bought a lemon Lenovo L340 Touch, on which Manjaro was a garbled screen, and I could install EndeavourOS only, and then it started hanging during boot. I returned it and got another laptop. It had, of course, come with Win10.
Lenovo:'( was the last company I would have expected a lemon from.
Lenovo:'( was the last company I would have expected a lemon from.
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I wonder when we'll start seeing linux preloaded on the more mainstream budget conscious models of laptops. With how much tech has advanced the vast majority of users are comfortable with laptops in the sub $500 range and it'd be neat if you could pick up one of these already low cost models and then save an extra little bit on sticker by opting for a linux distro pre-installed. Although to be honest I imagine OEM's probably only pay $10-20, or less, per install so it'd be a really insignificant savings for users.
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Many Thinkpads and ThinkStations have had Red Hat certification for a while, but you did have to check if you wanted to be sure. In my experience, the ones that had Red Hat certification always seemed to work well with Ubuntu and Debian variations as well. I'd guess they would work well with just about any x86/AMD64 distribution.
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So Microsoft finally stopped the vendor strongarming, or at least Lenovo must feel big enough for them to take the risk.
The anti-trust cases pretty much ended direct strongarming (exclusive Microsoft contracts or nothing) a long time ago. More recently, they've shifted to deals that require Windows recommendations be on every page of your Web site for discounts on Windows licensing, which tends to make the vendors not bother to sell anything else, so it's just a milder form of strongarming.
1 Likes, Who?
Glorious - been eyeing the ideapad 5 4700u for work, but the entire 5 line up is out of stock.
Wonder what it will cost though, in the ideadpad 3 configurator the "free dos" option is about -59€ which incidentally is also the price difference between the 4500u and 4700u :D
Wonder what it will cost though, in the ideadpad 3 configurator the "free dos" option is about -59€ which incidentally is also the price difference between the 4500u and 4700u :D
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I just got an HP spectre 360 13 2-in-1 it runs ubuntu linux flawlessly out of the box, Function keys, screen brightness, backlit key brightness, screen rotation, everything. I don't think you can say that about the Dells. It's not got ryzen though... :(
Odd, I have had 3 Dells in a on Linux, and the first one only had the issue of the touchpad not working right until the next kernel release. The others have been fine?
Firmware updates, every hardware feature they had, all native support from Linux.
Whereas the HP Elitebook was a trainwreck on Linux.
It probably has to do with the models. I know the Dell Vostros are not made by Dell, so they are very different.
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/FzwqyjZwn4S3JB2Z9Nice... I have a refurbished thinkpad T430 from a second hand store... It feels like the best PC linux system I've ever had at home, except for the supermicro's.
Everything works. Except of course that nvidia crap.
Added an eGPU using express card. RX580. The system feels a lot faster than my zotac sn970.
Dude, this sounds fun! Which express card do you have? Can you send a pic of what this looks like?
I have a T530 with Nvidia NVS5400. It works fine in FreeBSD, but it's not a whole lot better performance than Intel IGP. Just upgraded ram to 16GB and an RX580 would make really make it complete :)
It's a bit messy since I use a lot of tissues (for my nose!), and I am reworking some led lighting.
I had 2 weeks to make that DDJ-SX3 work on linux: make it work, or send it back under consumer law. That screen is a 4k 40" screen.
I've divided my laptop in 2 seats: the DJ console and my (new) desktop. My other desktop is an exynos 5422. I don't really like PC's, because there is a lot of things wrong in the design due to legacy. And an arm is cheaper and doesn't need a fan. And mmc drivers on PC's are always crap, especially on a GPD WIN(2). But not on this T430.
The biggest crap is the Nvidia, the same as in your system. I had to return my pure intel T430 for repairs, and I got back a T430 with a better screen, but also with that nvidia. Really... The intel has better support, and still gets TLC. The best thing to do with the Nvidia is to turn it off in the bios. When I turn it on, but actually of using prime, it still uses more power, and the fans run higher than normal.
Also the replacement got a different CPU, a high end i7 with a tdp of 45W, but by limiting the CPU to 60% it was fast and usable.
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