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Lenovo has confirmed that several of its Yoga laptops are refusing to install Linux-based operating systems. The Chinese firm said the issue had been caused by its switch to a new storage system, which reads and records data faster than normal.
There had been confusion after one of its employees posted that Linux was blocked because of an "agreement with Microsoft". However, Lenovo has denied enforcing a deliberate ban.
The restriction affects PCs sold with the "signature edition" of Windows 10. The term refers to a promise that "junk" software is not pre-installed alongside the OS to avoid slowing down its operation.
The Lenovo rep's response (linked to in the excerpt) seems to have been given before the company PR people got involved.
Hot Hardware , offers an alternative perspective:
Yesterday, Lenovo confirmed that Linux cannot be installed on the machine because there are no OS-specific drivers for the device's proprietary RAID configuration. Given that this machine has been designed to work with Windows 10, it should come as no surprise that Lenovo probably didn't want to devote too much of its resources to developing alternative drivers for this particular model.
To be more specific, Lenovo had this to say:
To support our Yoga products and our industry-leading 360-hinge design in the best way possible we have used a storage controller mode that is unfortunately not supported by Linux and as a result, does not allow Linux to be installed. Beyond the controller setup limitation, other advanced capabilities of the Yoga design would likely not work with current Linux offerings.
Lenovo does not intentionally block customers using other operating systems such as Linux on Yoga or any of its devices and is fully committed to providing Linux certifications and installation guidance on a wide range of suitable products.
In a statement provided to The Register , Lenovo further clarified its position on RAID support in Linux for the Yoga 900, writing, "Unsupported models will rely on Linux operating system vendors releasing new kernel and drivers to support features such as RAID on SSD."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 23 2016, @04:25AM
> they didn't ADD raid; they spent time/money/engineering on REMOVING ahci! and that's fucking evil.
To be fair it is probably just a build flag. So really minimal effort required.
And if you think about from a mindset of forgetting that linux exists, it makes sense.
Its one less knob for an unsophisticated user to fiddle with and end up causing a support call.
Think of it as systemic racism against linux, nobody is out to hurt linux, they just don't consider linux when making their decisions and the end result is that linux ends up fucked.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 23 2016, @05:48AM
nobody is out to hurt linux
Do some reading pal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 23 2016, @01:36PM
Aspie literalism for the fail.
(1) Those are nearly 20 years old now
(2) Hyperbole learn how it works.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 23 2016, @02:37PM
Microsoft Loves Linux
And . . .
Sharks Love Fish
Foxes Love Chickens
etc.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 23 2016, @03:47PM
Its your kind of stupid that guarantees ineffectiveness in actually combating the problems of being the underdog.
Far easier to believe in conspiracy than banality. But banality is endemic and automatic and is thus the far greater threat.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 23 2016, @10:16PM
Believing in conspiracy? this is WITNESSING it.
Account abandoned.