Lenovo announced that it is certifying its entire ThinkPad and ThinkStation series laptops with the Linux Operating system.
Lenovo says they are targetting the niche IT users consists of Developers, data scientists, application engineers, and scientists with their Linux offerings pre-installed in ThinkPad and ThikStation desktop systems.
This is huge news for the Linux community as there are very few OEMs who pre-install or certify their commercial Laptop/Desktop lines with mainstream Linux distributions. Dell, System76 is among the few who work for those users who want Linux in their system pre-installed for better hardware and configuration support.
Lenovo also announced that they are certifying the top Linux distributions in terms of the user base, popularity – and they are Ubuntu (LTS version) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
Today, if you are a Linux user or a beginner, the typical way of installing Linux is to wipe out pre-loaded Windows 10 from your Lenovo machine then do a fresh install Or, if you are tech-savvy enough to do a dual boot system. This is a kind of time-consuming process for users as you can not use the system straightway after purchase. Moreover, even if you install, you may end up with (which is very rare – thanks to more support) lack of hardware supports in Wifi, graphics, etc. For example, I know some of the latest Lenovo ThinkPad, Ideapad series laptop’s fingerprint scanner still doesn’t support Linux.
This is a piece of very good news for small to large scale enterprises who can now reduce costs in their infrastructure with Lenovo. Because this will drastically reduce cost from Windows10 professional edition license, antivirus, Office 365 which is per installation based license model.
Not only that, when you buy Lenovo series devices, Lenovo also promises after-sales support for your Linux devices for the enterprises and customers.
The primary reason for choosing the Ubuntu LTS version and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the stability of these two Linux distributions. Ubuntu LTS has a five-year life span where users can get maintenance and security updates and Ubuntu is currently the most widely used Linux OS in use today.
It is worth noting that Lenovo a while back announced their partnership with the Fedora project which includes a pilot program to preload Fedora image as default Operating system in ThinkPad P53 and P1 Gen 2 systems.
“By certifying our entire portfolio of ThinkStation and ThinkPad P Series workstations, we are prioritizing the needs of specialized end-users and helping to ensure our workstations will deliver the best possible out-of-the-box Linux experience – increasing the flexibility of users across all industries.”
– Lenovo
Lenovo also introduced two community forums dedicated to Linux users which is a great advantage for its users. You can access them here:
When it would be available? As per the press release, by end of this month, the Linux certified portfolio of workstations will roll out. The ThinkStation series will follow them and most likely around Q3 2020.
So, if you are a Linux user and planning to upgrade/ buy a Laptop from Lenovo and of course an avid Linux fan, you should wait a couple of more days to check out the pricing and offerings from Lenovo with preloaded Ubuntu Linux.
Via news.lenovo.com; Image credit: Lenovo
