Lenovo's Response to Its Dangerous Adware Is Astonishingly Clueless

Post by devy » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

engendered wrote: post #50

devy wrote: post #45

I found this whole Lenovo Adware-gate very hypocritical. Why everyone blames the messenger Lenovo but not the source Superfish? Why? Is it because Lenovo is a Chinese company whereas Superfish is a Iserali-American company based in Silicon Valley? Before this adware-gate, EVERY PC manufacturer bundles adware, HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Asus to name a few top players(Apple perhaps is the only exception as I don't count t…

Why everyone blames the messenger Lenovo but not the source Superfish? Because Lenova is the one who took your hundreds to thousand+ dollars and in return compromised your experience (for what has to be pennies ). And in this case it caused a serious security compromise? "EVERY PC manufacturer bundles adware" Crapware/bloatware and adware are very different things. Dell installs some bloatware crap that I can uninsta…

Post by rcthompson » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 5:04 PM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #41

rcthompson wrote: post #10

I warned all my friends and colleagues who use Lenovos, and their answers were all the same. "Who'd be crazy enough to use the default install? First thing I did was (a fresh reinstall of Windows|install Linux)." (Edit: Obviously this is not representative of the general population, and I didn't mean to suggest it was. I was just noting that my efforts to warn people about the untrustworthiness of Lenovo were thwarte…

On that note, Microsoft seem to have taken down the windows digital downloads, OEM CD keys don't work. How would you do a fresh install now?

Post by nailer » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

mapleoin wrote: post #27

fown9 wrote: post #16

"Beijing-based computer maker Lenovo has reportedly been blacklisted for years by spy agencies worldwide, as concerns about government-sanctioned Chinese hacking persist. According to the Australian Financial Review, Australia, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and the US have all rejected Lenovo machines for their top-secret networks since the mid-2000s, though the computers can be used for lower-security tasks that don'…

Why buy a laptop from a company that has ties to the Chinese government [2], an authoritarian government that supports dictators in Africa and totalitarian government in Russia, oppressing women and children in those countries? I guess because they make good hardware.

Post by ufmace » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

eli wrote: post #39

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #19

While we're at it, Lenovo's statement that we might enjoy the adware: "The relationship with Superfish is not financially significant; our goal was to enhance the experience for users" is self-evidently bullshit.

The key word is significant . They're not claiming they didn't preload this software for money, they're just saying it wasn't for very much money. Such a small amount of money that they have no problem ending the relationship now that it's causing them problems. My wild guess would be they got in the ballpark of $0.25 an install.

Post by rogerbinns » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #62

rcthompson wrote: post #10

I warned all my friends and colleagues who use Lenovos, and their answers were all the same. "Who'd be crazy enough to use the default install? First thing I did was (a fresh reinstall of Windows|install Linux)." (Edit: Obviously this is not representative of the general population, and I didn't mean to suggest it was. I was just noting that my efforts to warn people about the untrustworthiness of Lenovo were thwarte…

This is repeatedly recommended, but I think it's overlooking that not all manufacturer customization is entirely evil. You then to hunt down all the drivers for bits of the motherboard. Are you sure your power consumption settings etc are optimal after you've done this? Have you installed all the drivers "manually" via their inf files? (e.g. Nvidia drivers come with their own pile of bloatware)