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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: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 23 2016, @08:04AM
Went to the Microsoft store today (the retail place) and looked at all the laptops on offer. Walked out disgusted...as hard as I tried, I just couldn't stomach Windows 10 and that high pressure sales bullshit. Walked over to Best Buy, was greeted but mostly left alone until I had a question. Walked out 10 minutes later with my first-ever Mac product. I used to mock Apple fanboys but holy shit this is a nice laptop. OSX is quirky and takes some getting used to after 20+ years of MS but it really is a pleasant experience compared with the Windows 10 clusterfuck. I never thought I'd give a dime to Apple, well done Microsoft...
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 23 2016, @10:08AM
From fire into frying pan... I guess every minute one iDiot is born.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday September 23 2016, @06:09PM
I recently ran into the same thing when my Lenovo Yoga (previous gen) died unexpected on me. Given its the second Lenovo I've owned that has committed suicide after a year, I replaced it with an HP OMEN which has an optical drive, an i7, and even a numeric keypad. Very happy with it.
What I would love is a modern update of the Thinkpad T400; that machine was an absolute beast and I was rather said when my old one gave up; I haven't had a laptop since I've liked as much as that one.
Still always moving
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 23 2016, @06:47PM
If you got it Tuesday or later, and the operating system that is pre-installed is called "OS X", you got the old stuff.
Search string:
google.com/search?q="macOS.Sierra"+"September.20-2016"
(The S/N comment engine is still UNNECESSARILY deleting instances of %22 in hyperlinks.)
.
Additionally, Jack Waller, as mentioned above under ''the conspiracy thing'', has noted that Dell and ASUS offer "Signature" laptops but don't have this lock-in.
It's obvious to him that there's a reason we're only hearing about Lenovo:
They're the only ones that screwed the pooch (this time around).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Hawkwind on Friday September 23 2016, @08:47PM
Yes. I'm still using a Lenovo (with Linux) but I have my wife on Mac products only. Tech support is now zero.