Some exciting news from beyond the orange bubble this weekend: Fedora Workstation is coming to Lenovo ThinkPad laptops!
We’re talking pre-installed operating system here, available across a fleet of the computer maker’s popular developer models including the ThinkPad P1, ThinkPad P53, and ThinkPad X1 (Gen 8) laptops.
To accompany the news there’s this cute little promo video:
Now, Lenovo isn’t exactly a stranger to Linux. It has, over the years, certified (select) hardware for use with specific Linux systems, and already distributes (select) firmware updates through the LVFS. And the Linux section on the Lenovo forums is fairly active.
But this announcement takes Lenovo’s Linux relationship further, with global availability of Lenovo Linux laptops running Fedora out-of-the-box.
This announcement takes Lenovo’s Linux relationship further with global availability of Lenovo Linux laptops running Fedora out-of-the-box
These laptops even get the exact same support offerings that their Windows-based devices do (meaning you can call them up if something doesn’t work) and will ship with open source drivers by default (though proprietary drivers will apparently be easy to install).
So when can you buy one? Well, not yet. The Linux models aren’t (to my understanding) available to purchase yet. But they are on the way as the plan is to ship Fedora 32 Workstation “ready to go” on the laptop.
“A major-brand laptop with Fedora pre-installed will help bring Fedora to a wider audience,” writes Matthew Miller, project leader for Fedora.
“That and Lenovo’s commitment to fixing issues as part of the community means that everyone benefits from their Linux engineering work in the true spirit of open source collaboration.”
Ubuntu users are spoilt for choice when it comes to preinstalled hardware options, with a wide range of devices sold from the big-names like Dell and HP, through to bespoke options from Slimbook, Entroware, System76, and others.
h/t Olcay