Comment by bayindirh
4 years ago
Thinkpad was one of the first laptop series which supported Linux explicitly.
Their competitor was Compaq NX series (HP EliteBook of today). Dell was late to the party and closed the gap by actively developing software for Linux (DKMS, Privacy Drivers, etc.).
I don't think you can conflate classic Thinkpad and current "Thinkpad".
Are they doing anything to prevent Linux from running well on them? As far as I can tell, since all big three (XPS, EliteBook and Thinkpad) are considered enterprise devices and their BIOS, IO tables and hardware layouts are crafted with Linux compatibility in mind.
They're explicitly sold with FreeDOS option to imply that you can directly install Linux on them.
Even my run on off the mill desktop shows more soft-errors about IO layout and memory mapped devices on board.
Why not?
Lenovo's ThinkPad line is still quite differentiated from their other offerings. What are your objections to it?
When IBM didn't like the panels they could source for Thinkpads, they started a new company called International Display Technology to manufacture panels they did like. Thinkpads used to be special.
While it's entirely possible there's a connection between decisions like that and IBM's PC division being unprofitable enough they sold it to Lenovo, it might be reasonable to hope that Lenovo would make the effort to offer competitive panels when it's obviously possible for their competitors to source them.