Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Tuesday 9 September 2008, 3:35 PM
What's Lenovo's Linux stance?
"Lenovo is not abandoning its commitment to choice of operating system, and actually is increasing the role of the Linux operating system in Lenovo's product portfolio, Gorman is quoted as saying. "We will continue to certify Novell and Red Hat Linux on our ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops. Additionally, we will be offering Linux on our Think servers, an area we are seeing a greater demand for Linux."
Jolly good! So how come a visit to Lenovo's UK website offers no Linux options whatsoever?
PreviousComments on this post
Aha - thanks Lenovo! The manufacturer just got back to me with a bunch of links to Linux-toting machines on their UK website. They certainly weren't immediately apparent when I visited yesterday, but here they are. Lenovo does sell Linux machines here.
ThinkPad T Series:
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NH3EBUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NC12UUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NI09VUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NC12TUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_ND13LUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NI09WUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NH0DXUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_ND13KUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
ThinkPad R Series:
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NB0NCUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NB22KUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
ThinkPad W Series:
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NRK6ZUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
Oh no it doesn't! Lenovo does not sell a Linux laptop on any one of those links!
They all show a spec for a laptop with SUSE on it, sure. But only two of them have a Buy Now button.
The rest have a link to "Find a dealer", which takes you straight to a page which explains Lenovo's increasing commitment to Linux in the following terms:
"Lenovo recommends Windows Vista® Business for Business Computing. Lenovo recommends Windows Vista® Home Premium for Personal Computing."
But two of the laptops have a Buy Now button - what about those? The first link does it - click it and you get a new window, where Lenovo says it can't find a dealer for that spec, and sends you on to the page recommending Vista.
The only link in that list that goes anywhere is for an R61
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.nsf/$wwwPartNumLookup/_NB0NCUK?open&OpenDocument&epi=web_express
It's got a Buy Now button. That takes you to a list of four dealers (so no, Lenovo is not selling you the laptop).
Has Lenovo really found four dealers for it? No, of course not. As I'm sure you are expecting by now, if you click on two of those dealer links, you actually get directed to Windows machines.
One of the remaining links gives you a basket which upsells you to two laptops. They're R61 builds with LNX in the name, so probably Linux, but the basket doesn't give a link to check the actual spec. No-one's going to click Buy on that basis.
And finally, there is one link, to a real Linux laptop at a company called Toye Computers.
So, that's Lenovo's Linux support, and that's half an hour of my life I'll never get back.
yes. Thanks Lenovo!
