Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications • Hacker News Board

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#181

Post by dredmorbius » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 9:50 PM UTC

spaniard89277 wrote: post #168

dredmorbius wrote: post #151

With alternatives such as System76 and the modular Framework laptop emerging, as well as low-cost systems from Pine, Lenovo's claim as the default preferred choice of the Linux/*BSD and power-user set is very rapidly evaporating. I've bought Thinkpads personally and professionally for 20 years. Idiotic cunning stunts such as this and Superfish have removed it from any future consideration.

If they get similar build quality, then yes. I know I'll miss the track point, as it seems I'm the only one to use it a lot.

I'm right with you on the trackpoint. That'll be sorely mised.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#182

Post by mrtweetyhack » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 9:58 PM UTC

Good. Lenovo owners deserve it

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#183

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 9:59 PM UTC

linguae wrote: post #78

This is despicable, and it's indicative of a trend I've been noticing over the years. Personal computing used to be about user empowerment. Today it seems to me that many tech companies treat their users as nothing more than either "eyeballs" to show ads to or as cows to be milked through vendor lock-in and subscription services. Either way, I feel the user experience has degraded in recent years, and I feel we incre…

[deleted]

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#184

Post by asddubs » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

linguae wrote: post #78

This is despicable, and it's indicative of a trend I've been noticing over the years. Personal computing used to be about user empowerment. Today it seems to me that many tech companies treat their users as nothing more than either "eyeballs" to show ads to or as cows to be milked through vendor lock-in and subscription services. Either way, I feel the user experience has degraded in recent years, and I feel we incre…

For any software I may need, I'll always look for open source first, and strongly prefer it even if it has significant disadvantages to commercial offerings, as long as it's somewhat tenable to use. Not for ideological reasons, just because I don't like having the rug yanked out under me. Although I guess you could argue those are ideological reasons

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#185

Post by _ph_ » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 10:05 PM UTC

salgernon wrote: post #158

_ph_ wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a couple of German paperbacks which had one ad in the middle of a book, often for an instant soup or something like that. But at least it was easy to skip :).

This happened to one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books[1] - he changed publishers after this. [1] https://www.dianeduane.com/outofambit/2015/02/14/whats-rihan...

Yes, that is exactly the kind of ads I was remembering, haven't seen them in a while. But it is funny how the ad text refers to the story it interrupts to pitch the soup :)

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#186

Post by gambiting » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 10:07 PM UTC

DocTomoe wrote: post #161

sneak wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sad thing is that they're still better than everything else out there. They haven't ever been better than Apple laptop hardware, even in Intel-land. There seems to be this common bias in PC laptop evaluation that excludes Apple machines from consideration when doing comparisons. Apple makes the best x64 laptops, and has for years. Sadly, they will stop soon.

None of my PC laptops ever had parts of the keyboard randomly die on me. None of my PC laptops, ever, had self-inflating batteries. I experienced both on employer-provided MacBooks. Now, I may have been particularly unlucky here, but I think Apple hardware quality never having been surpassed is a bit of an optimistic statement.

>>None of my PC laptops, ever, had self-inflating batteries.

Lucky you then, I literally just replaced an inflated battery on a Dell latitude, can send some cool pics of the thing being swollen like a wet nappy if you want.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#187

Post by stalfosknight » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

speed_spread wrote: post #93

acchow wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an invisible advantage that Apple has. Because Macs don't have a long tail of combinations of hardware, BIOS, firmware, etc they can actually recognize bugs and acknowledge them. This gives a better customer experience.

But because the hardware is proprietary, the length of that simpler tail still depends entirely on Apple's willingness to support it's legacy products.

Apple’s policy is to support all hardware models for at least 5 years, 7 in some jurisdictions.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#188

Post by GekkePrutser » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 10:12 PM UTC

poetaster wrote: post #170

sneak wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sad thing is that they're still better than everything else out there. They haven't ever been better than Apple laptop hardware, even in Intel-land. There seems to be this common bias in PC laptop evaluation that excludes Apple machines from consideration when doing comparisons. Apple makes the best x64 laptops, and has for years. Sadly, they will stop soon.

After 30 years of buying Apple, I gave up when it became common for the powerbooks to subject you to DC in the wrists, kill perfectly serviceable panasonic dvd drives and send HDs to nirvana on the clock. The number of recovery jobs I had to run for musicians and filmmakers between 2003 and 2010 was hair raising. Never again. My mac classic runs just fine.

It's not DC actually, it's leaking AC.

I think the shielding of the power adaptor picks up some induction (or capacitance?) and you can feel that when you brush over it with your hand. If you use a grounded lead (the 3-prong cable that comes with the adaptor instead of the 2-prong duckhead) it doesn't happen. Because the voltage that will flow to ground and won't build up.

You can indeed feel it very clearly because it makes the surface feel rough and tickly. I'm also sensitive to it.

A lot of computers do this, my PC-XT did this back in the 80s. But Apple is one of the few with an all metal case. A lot of other makes have metal but it's usually just a sheet and not connected to the actual ground.

What I hate about Apple's current laptops is the sharp edges that cut into my wrists, and the keyboards that are too shallow to have real feedback. They seem made more to please the eyes, not the hands.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#189

Post by asddubs » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 10:13 PM UTC

HelixEndeavor wrote: post #19

mysterydip wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the response would be something like "oh we gave you a discount on it when you purchased it for $399 instead of $1399. It's all in the EULA you agreed to when you first got your device."

That's exactly the logic Amazon uses for their Fire tablets. You can get them cheaper if you agree to have ads baked into the lock screen at a firmware level.

incidentally I've found that if you don't activate the device and just add books via calibre, they don't actually show any ads on the reduced price version

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#190

Post by GekkePrutser » Wed, Sep 01, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

morpheuskafka wrote: post #4

908B64B197 wrote: post #2

Does anyone actually buy Lenovos after what happened with SuperFish? [0] [0] https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/superfish-to...

ThinkPads are still the name of the game for enterprise laptop deployments. AFAIK, they don't contain any preloaded stuff beyond the OEM app (Lenovo Vantage). Some enterprises prefer the more stripped down Lenovo System Update instead, although I think users may need Vantage to change some hotkey, etc. settings. Still, for a business with stricter security standards, it would be ideal to do a clean reimage of all new…

Thinkpads are actually from a completely different factory than the Ideapads.

We have a lot of Thinkpads at work and we just can't even order an Ideapad or other consumer models like Legion if we wanted to. They just won't sell them to us. We've tried to get some because some developers needed GTX cards.

It's like there's 2 Lenovo companies just having the same name. I'd trust the B2B Lenovo not to put spyware on their systems (even though I'd reinstall them just in case). At work they even preinstall our images for us.

But the B2C Lenovo is a totally different beast and this is where the Superfish rootkit appeared. The total build of the machines is also very different. Cheap plastic feel, lacking the amazing keyboards etc. I love the thinkpad look and feel and hate the Ideapad ones (and the Thinkpads that are really ideapads, I think the E series (Or is it the L? I always mix those up)