wait a minute, I thought Microsoft loved linux?
Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
351–360 of 494 posts
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except windows 10s drivers are compatible with windows 8 and 7, since the driver model haven't changed since then. So using that install media you can extract the drivers and install older windows versions anyway. So it's a pretty crappy conspiracy :)
To clarify, the extracted drivers will load for 7/8/8.1 without editing an inf file?
I'm speaking of Windows drivers in general. I can't make any specific guarantees for these particular drivers, but I don't see why they should be different.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#353Sounds like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_lending
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#354The other HN thread suggests this not actually a dark conspiracy by Microsoft but simply a case of missing linux drivers for the storage devices. This sounds believable to me. But I'll put my tinfoil hat on just for fun and pretend it was an intentional move. Could this make sense as a new twist on the old strategy, making it "Embrace, Extinguish, Extend"? With the WSL, they made it theoretically possible to run Linu…
>locking existing users out of Linux
A serious question: What gives Linux users the right to expect that Linux will run on any given PC / laptop?
Think about it. These PCs/laptops are designed to adhere to Microsoft's Windows PC hardware standards doc (which was never, ever an open standard) and, with few exceptions, only tested against various versions of Windows. Linux users are failing to receive a feature that they were never promised in the first place so it's unclear that they have any valid cause for complaint.
Perhaps Linux, BSD, etc. users should be creating their own PC standards doc and asking OEMs to adhere to it instead?
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, and I'm a long-time ThinkPad advocate with a stack of older models in my closet going back to the R31. I've always thought they had superior keyboards and pointing devices, and every one of my old ThinkPads runs Arch beautifully. (Granted, I didn't bother installing X on the R31.) Given the opportunity to pick out a new laptop for work last week, I passed them by, and that was before I was aware of this news.…
Honest question: what is the alternative? Apple is not. Dell has finicky hardware. HP has crappy laptops. Asus is hit and miss. When my x1 dies, I think I'll just continue and get the then current generation x1...
Idk of the reliability, but I recommend looking at the recent build quality of HP laptops in person. It's pretty impressive. Still need to see that they're good for the long run, but they look like they're getting better.
Also Dells being finicky? Never heard of that, but wouldn't doubt it either. I think the XPS line works well with Linux. I know someone who used Ubuntu exclusively on it for a long time.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're probably only allowed to install windows at factory. Doesn't mean they've blocked it.
Are you saying the story is wrong and they haven't "locked [the SSD] in a proprietary RAID mode that Linux doesn't understand"?
Theres a difference between explicitly locking out linux, and using a piece of hardware that doesn't have linux driver.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#357...until Linux supports the new hardware modes.
Linux always lags in new hardware support. Other than the appallingly bad way Lenovo handled the questions on their site, is this news?
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you read the original reddit thread, you would understand that this is not just a drivers issue. Lenovo intentionally programmed their BIOS so that it reverts any changes to RAID mode making it impossible to install Linux.
True - but as the other HN thread (that I can't seem to find anymore > will write one. On the other hand, Microsoft could have easily gotten a much more "robust" lockdown - by simply demanding mandatory, unchangeable Secure Boot like on the ARM tablets. But they didn't do that.
One guy has done a nice work decompiling the BIOS and found that skipping over the hidden BIOS pages is hard-coded into the firmware. See this https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Discussion/Installing-Ubu...
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#359The other HN thread suggests this not actually a dark conspiracy by Microsoft but simply a case of missing linux drivers for the storage devices. This sounds believable to me. But I'll put my tinfoil hat on just for fun and pretend it was an intentional move. Could this make sense as a new twist on the old strategy, making it "Embrace, Extinguish, Extend"? With the WSL, they made it theoretically possible to run Linu…
>locking existing users out of Linux A serious question: What gives Linux users the right to expect that Linux will run on any given PC / laptop? Think about it. These PCs/laptops are designed to adhere to Microsoft's Windows PC hardware standards doc (which was never, ever an open standard) and, with few exceptions, only tested against various versions of Windows. Linux users are failing to receive a feature that th…
I get your point; I don't buy an iPhone and then complain when it won't load android. however, I've been able to load linux on almost any laptop I've bought for the last 20 years, so they are making a significant change here, and haven't made it particularly widely publicized.
Re: Linux can’t be installed on a recent Lenovo laptop
#360The community's reaction seems absurd to me. For whatever reason, the device only exposes some sort of RAID controller to the OS, and for whatever reason, there's no working option for exposing a more standard AHCI interface instead. The problem is that Linux doesn't (yet) have a driver for that RAID controller. Okay, great. Linux doesn't yet support particular piece of hardware. News at 11. Just like usual, if you w…
ThinkPad and IdeaPad are notionally just two product lines with different target markets, but everything I've seen related to them suggests that the difference is more like buying from two separate companies.