Live data from Hacker News

Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

thenextweb.com

121–130 of 435 posts

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#123
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I dunno. In one case Superfish can see all your data and store it on their servers, in the other case _anyone on the internet_ can spoof any site (as soon as someone extracts the key). Either way is pretty bad. But proxying all traffic from all Lenovo laptop owners through a third-party server without someone immediately noticing a problem is just not feasible, so I think we can assume that's not what they're d…

Are you sure? Android Chrome proxies all non-HTTPS traffic through a third-party server, by default. So it isn't like the traffic volume is impossible.

It's not by default, you have to enable it.

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2392284

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#124
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I dunno. In one case Superfish can see all your data and store it on their servers, in the other case _anyone on the internet_ can spoof any site (as soon as someone extracts the key). Either way is pretty bad. But proxying all traffic from all Lenovo laptop owners through a third-party server without someone immediately noticing a problem is just not feasible, so I think we can assume that's not what they're d…

Are you sure? Android Chrome proxies all non-HTTPS traffic through a third-party server, by default. So it isn't like the traffic volume is impossible.

Wow, really? I never knew that and some googling didn't find any decent sources. do you have one?

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#125
About a week ago I was trying to troubleshoot Nitrous.io for a friend because she had complained that it wasn't establishing a connection. We discovered along the way that there was an odd line of Javascript on the page that immediately had me assume that her computer was infected with a virus.

A Google search on the filename had others saying that it was removable by uninstalling some Lenovo Utility preinstalled.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#126
Ugh.

So for "developer-tier" laptops, i.e. not a netbook, does that pretty much leave Apple as the sole non-shit laptop maker? Is there a chromebook out there that runs linux pretty well if you pull chromeOS off?

You pay a hefty premium for that backlit Apple logo on the lid, and I'd prefer to get something a little more down-to-earth.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#128

I don't see myself ever bothering to keep the default windows install on a thinkpad but this really hurts my impression of the company regardless. I've had my eye on the new X1s and had planned to upgrade my X201 this year but now I'm having second thoughts. Who if anyone has taken over the place of great laptop for linux / development?

I don't know about dev, but here are three linux computer/laptop companies in descending order of how nice their websites look:

https://system76.com/

https://zareason.com/shop/Laptops/

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#129

I don't see myself ever bothering to keep the default windows install on a thinkpad but this really hurts my impression of the company regardless. I've had my eye on the new X1s and had planned to upgrade my X201 this year but now I'm having second thoughts. Who if anyone has taken over the place of great laptop for linux / development?

The new Dell XPS 13 looks like a very nice laptop. I have the previous version and it works very well with Linux.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla discussion about what to do with the Superfish cert: Bug 1134506 - Mark "Superfish, Inc." root certificate as untrusted in NSS https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1134506

While it is akin to playing whack-a-mole, it's nice to see them seriously considering blocking this cert so users who get a theoretical update in Firefox would have it simply be removed. Granted Superfish could update and get around it but that would require effort and considering the PR nightmare Lenovo is going to be fielding I doubt they would do so.

Yea, this should get into the news which will hopefully help a lot.
Post reply on HN