Steven O’Grady is putting an X60s ultraportable Thinkpad through its paces with an installation of Gentoo Linux. He blogs some good advice for us:
Q: What do you think Lenovo could do to better support users like you that want to run Linux?
A: There’s been a lot of press about Lenovo and its support or lackthereof for Linux in recent months – see CRN here or News.com here. While I will not presume to speak for or on behalf of Lenovo in this context, as a user of desktop Linux I’ve been encouraged by Lenovo’s willingness to have a dialogue on the subject. Particularly when that dialogue results in me getting new hardware.But in all seriousness, based on the conversations that we’ve had and the fact that I’ve been given this machine for testing I’m relatively convinced that Lenovo does perceive in Linux an opportunity – and just as importantly, they’re willing to listen. What they’ll do with that remains to be seen, but I think a very nice start would be by assessing – via the community, if possible – the degree of Linux support for the various devices and peripherals, and delivering around that. It’s no secret that some hardware makers are serious about providing Linux drivers for their hardware (e.g. Intel), and some are much less so (e.g. ATI & Nvidia). It’d be nice to see a hardware manufacturer take that into account, centralize and make transparent the level of support available, then design a model or models accordingly. There’s a lot more that could be done, and we’re pushing in some other areas and trying to make certain conversations happen, but that’d be a great start.
I for once would like to see more Linux support on Lenovo. It is hard and it is a challenge. I like the recent developements on this regard, and I think it is a bold move. I see 2 advantages in getting linux: getting “good press” from the geek’s niche and, on developing countries, ther can be a cut in final retail price. In Argentina it is usual (when you buy on large electronic stores) to get computers with some free Linux distro.
Esteban is right.Lenovo should start thinking of bundling linux with some of its models in atleast the developing world.
Countries like India and china openly support FOSS technologies and Price being the main factor in gaining market share it should get some considerable gains after all
I had seen lenovo marketing some T 60’s with SLED10 some time back,are they still doing it?