digg

Join DiggAbout

Digg Townhall now online!
Check out the latest Digg Townhall, where Kevin and Jay answered the top questions from the Digg Community!

Lenovo Interested in Linux, Opens Poll for Distro

lenovoblogs.com — Lenovo is clearing interested in distributing Linux. Which distro? You vote. That we ’re spending way too much time on the enterprise market and not enough on the enthusiast market. Enterprises have been, and will continue to be, slow to adopt Linux for some of the reasons I outlined, b............

show profanity settings
expand all
  • samb0057, on 10/10/2007, -14/+60this is great, i voted for ubuntu
    • trenchfever, on 10/10/2007, -4/+28I don't see why you are being dugg down. But I voted for ubuntu too.
      Ubunut's primary target is the desktop. It is their focus. All these years, most distros gave up on the desktop of the average joe. It was ubuntu who took the game to an all new level. Bugs like "I see a lot of text and a blinking cursor" isn't ignored and scorned at anymore. The whole world is listening to your complaints. People are competing in the r IRC channels to fix problems like these. I remember a day, when linux meant hard work and hours reading man pages. "RTFM" was once elitist, now idiotic. Way to go free software, way to go linux. I have no one to thank but ubuntu. Way to go ubuntu.
      • HonoredMule, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I would have buried you, but after moment's pause, I see you're actually right. I'm on the fence with Ubuntu largely because it's so popular without really being particularly special, but focusing on really doing a desktop environment well IS special...it just shouldn't be. I do however hope that Ubuntu's popularity doesn't stifle competition.

        And elitist Linux users are just as damaging (probably more) as the equivalent Mac fanboy.
    • Langford, on 10/10/2007, -3/+17I was going to vote Ubuntu also, but that "Anyone that refuses to carry binary-only drivers..." one was too compelling to pass up. Ubuntu was so far ahead, it didn't really matter what i voted for.
    • tech42er, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3One of the 3,536?
    • shawnanigans, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2Wait until some newb tries to play an mp3 in Ubuntu.
      • Disfnord, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Yeah, then he'll enjoy some music. That'll learn him to be such a noob!
  • peppych, on 10/10/2007, -8/+34Some guys said the 2007-08 should be the Linux years. Looks like they were right ;)
    Ubuntu one up.
    • yoyar, on 10/10/2007, -2/+14Every next year for the past 5 years has been prognosticated to be the year of LInux. So, eventually, someone was going to be right.
    • over90000, on 10/10/2007, -11/+0"That we’re spending way too much time on the enterprise market and not enough on the enthusiast market."
      key point "enthusiast market". This is a niche market and will hardly have a dent on the overall market share.
      • YourDoom123, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8actually, the winds seem to be changing. non-tech savvy people have not only heard of linux, but are willing to try it all of a sudden. my friend for example whom i've never bothered to explain anything about linux to wants to try it because its "cool". i pretty much choked at that point...
        • over90000, on 10/10/2007, -11/+2I've tried Linux because I thought it was "cool" many times as well. Once the novelty value wore off, I quickly went back to Windows because there wasn't anything I could do on Linux that I couldn't do on Windows. And Windows does outdo Linux is certain aspects like games. So that's really the gist of it, people will try it because it sounds cool and different but once they find out that it's just another OS, they will just go back to windows again.
          • tech42er, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Yup. I love how Windows is based on ext3 and how the GUI is built on top of the shell. There is nothing you can do in Linux you can't do in Windows. ;)
          • Spr0k3t, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7over90000: Please remove the Linux/Unix section from your digg preferences... your posts are annoying.

            You != everyone
      • daftman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3You sound more and more ***** desperate to discredit anything that is linux. So much that you failed to even recognize your own ignorance. Do yourself and all of us a favor. Get over to whatever section in Digg where ***** like you can collectively gather around and bask in each other stupidity.
        Here, I'll even give you a link: http://digg.com/microsoft
    • niallabrown, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I really don't think there will be a year. Its just a matter of working away at it and slowly taking each win as it comes. Saying there will be a year of the Linux takeover just convinces windows fanboys it will never happen when it doesn't come true. Of course an open OS will dominate one day, it doesn't take a genus to see that. It may however be a while so for now I think we should focus on the wins and stop the Killer this and year of the that and get to work on making this the best OS.
      • peppych, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I fully agree with you. But I think that Linux has become a serious alternative for every day use since more or less a year. This is probably one reason why vendors decided to ship it. This makes me believe that Linux reaches an important turning point in 2007-08.
  • nickdot, on 10/10/2007, -10/+26Haha, they are jealous of the success of Dell. Long live Ubuntu! I hope they would sell it in the Netherlands as well. I am still waiting...
  • ubuntumatthew, on 10/10/2007, -2/+27I've been drooling over a new T61...this would likely push me over. I voted Ubuntu, but any of these would be great.
    • trenchfever, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2For the uninitiated.
      http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3708&review=ThinkPad+T61
      The T series is has almost cult like status among geeks. Known for its ruggedness and No nonsense design. Proud owner of one.
    • killerofkiller, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3The T Series defines the notebook computer
    • fluxion, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I have a t61 with the nvidia card, ubuntu is actually a bit of a pain to get setup....suspend doesnt work right with the current nvidia drivers (though the power management issues with the nvs 140m vid card should be fixed in the next release), nor does brightness control unless you're using vesa drivers for X instead of nvidia binaries. also have to tweak the acpi suspend scripts quite a bit to get suspend working with the nvidia drivers without freezing your ish, and you have to use a CVS version of alsa to get the sound working.

      but everything works...or kinda works...for the most part...and with decent nvidia driver support for the nvidia nvs 140m card everything will work pretty much perfectly.

      nothing really out of the ordinary as far as getting linux working on a fairly new laptop, but the T61 isnt exactly a shining example of linux compatible hardware at this point. I heard the T61p was supposed to be fully supported under SLES though
  • baalzebub, on 10/10/2007, -2/+24somebody had to vote for Slackware...
    • SteveMax, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4They should design it for Slackware. Really.

      Pat uses 100% unmodified kernels. This means that if something works in Slack, it will work with a kernel straight from kernel.org (so it will work in any distro, unless their patches included some bug). Design it for Slackware = desigh it for any conceivable Linux distro.
  • schestowitz, on 10/10/2007, -12/+39Just anything but SUSE, Xandros, and Linspire. No Linux PC should ever be sold with Microsoft 'tax'.

    Being a company as large as they are many they can make Levonix... a Debian derivative would do. They already sell RedFlag Linux in China and they certify for Fedora, Ubuntu, and SLED.
    • AnarkeIncarnate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14They don't give MS any money for copies sold. SUSE sales help Novell which is possibly one of the biggest contributors to open source out there. They were chosen by ATI to write their new open driver. They are major contributors to Gnome and KDE and one of the biggest to SAMBA. Go ahead, shoot yourself in the foot.
      • Mejogid, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4I think the issue here is differentiation between Novell's employees and Novell's management. From what I can tell, the management is double-crossing and has ulterior motives, while the employees are hard working and pationate about Linux. I'll support the programmers and the projects, but not the cooperation.
        • hexydes, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Do you seriously think that Novell as a corporation made the decision to support the aforementioned open-source projects without any support or recognition from management?

          I'm not sure why Novell decided to pay for the Microsoft patent protection thing, perhaps they have ulterior reasons that we don't know about. None the less, it should not take away from all of the other good work they have done, or will do, for open-standards and open-source.
        • AnarkeIncarnate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They are not back stabbing. They have become very OSS minded; opening up yast, etc. They worried about their customers (and I am betting money that this "MS Deal" was customer driven. A big licensee says "protect us" and you do it) They contradicted MS when MS tried to say that there was proof that Linux infringed on patents. They were the "GOOD GUYS" vs SCO. They are in the Open Invention Network, using their own patents to fight for OSS against patent trolls (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about_members.php).
          Understand the difference between them saying "MS, we won't sue your customers, you won't sue ours. We can sue each other left and right" and the idea that many erroneously have which is "We agree Linux is infringing, don't sue us and we will be your mouthpiece and your shill". The latter DID NOT HAPPEN.
      • Gavagai80, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0OpenSUSE is free, sales are SLED. Since both SUSE and SLED are in the poll, the SUSE option must mean OpenSUSE.
        • AnarkeIncarnate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0However, OpenSUSE is much like SLED. This is just like having "Windows" in the home making it good to have Windows in the workplace because training already exists. The more people who know how to use a product in general will lower retraining costs and make it more attractive to workplaces.
    • gotamd, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10AnarkeIncarnate has a point. Novell contributes a *lot* to open source development and SUSE (and SLED) is not a bad distribution at all. It's my favorite.
      • schestowitz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1There's a lot that people do not know because the press does not cover it. There's a lot more going on.
    • kretik, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2Your pathological hatred of Microsoft is starting to get to you.
    • kettlechips, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1SUSE is great, especially for business workstations, but the installation needs to be improved.
    • thepxc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5I think that the Novell-Microsoft agreement has rubbed a lot of open-source enthusiasts the wrong way (myself included), but I can't forget the contributions that Novell has made to Open Source and Linux. One in particular that seems to be popular here on Digg, for example, is Compiz.

      Besides that, even, (open)SUSE is just a damn good distro, and especially for the enterprise (fantastic Windows/domain integration and great management features).

      [Good God I used a lot of commas.]
  • dingleberry11, on 10/10/2007, -16/+1Yesssssssss.....Ubuntu Teesixtyone my prrrrrecious
  • purpmint008, on 10/10/2007, -6/+21Give me DEBIAN or give me DEATH!
    • niallabrown, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Debian polished enough for the general public. I think that would be a bad business move.
    • kettlechips, on 10/10/2007, -2/+11Debian is not for novices.
    • rockets, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3Death it is... death by ubuntu!!! :D
  • purpmint008, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2Shouldn't they concentrate more on getting drivers?
    • teknomunk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Doing this will bring about more drivers
  • GaiaAP, on 10/10/2007, -5/+16One more for Ubuntu.
  • ShootTheCore, on 10/10/2007, -1/+62FreeBSD in not a Linux distro...
    • tnoy, on 10/10/2007, -5/+6So?
      • ShootTheCore, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Nothing of it, just pointing out a mistake by a big technology company...
    • freebsdmike, on 10/10/2007, -10/+8You're right it's a real UNIX OS.
      • CAPSLOCKISCOOL, on 10/10/2007, -4/+14No, is BSD, which, like linux, is a posix-compatible unix clone
        • Papajohn56, on 10/10/2007, -10/+2it's more compliant with SUS and POSIX than any garbage linux distribution.

          BSD has a set of standards, linux doesn't.
      • freebsdmike, on 10/10/2007, -4/+7No it's nothing like Linux. Linux isn't even an OS. It's only a kernel. FreeBSD is a full OS.
      • xspinkickx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Actually as pointed out FreeBSD and the other BSDs are unix like, solaris however is unix.
    • Mejogid, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5It's an open source OS that typically comes with much of the same userland software. It's also rarely supported by PC manufacturers and has a following that would like to see it becoming so. It's technically incorrect, but judging by the fact he's referred to Linux rather than Linux distros he's using it in a vague sense anyway.

      Frankly, this is a very promising blog entry and I'm more inclined to focus on the message than the specifics.
  • D3koy, on 10/10/2007, -7/+10I may be the only one, but I always liked SUSE
    • AnarkeIncarnate, on 10/10/2007, -3/+10you're not the only one
    • stmiller, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5...you are one of two.
    • Chicken001, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3SUSE is related to Microsoft. Personally, I switched to Linux to get away from Microsoft, not to get closer.
      • AnarkeIncarnate, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4SUSE is related to Microsoft? Seriously, do you bother researching anything before you make up your comments? Novell got paid by MS so that Novell would not sue MS' customers and vice versa. They agreed not to sue each other's customers, and MS would release vouchers for "Linux" which would come from Novell. They would also allow Novell to help make Linux more interoperable with windows. DAMN them for that.... The last thing we need is interoperability.
  • ozid, on 10/10/2007, -6/+4I voted Fedora. I like and use Ubuntu quite often, but I feel like Fedora would be better for their target market. (Although, broadening their target market would be sweet. Although, although, using Ubuntu wouldn't really be the way to do that.)
    • Chicken001, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2I don't vouch for Fedora that much because of the reason that they have the backing of Red Hat.
    • jhodapp, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4No distro that is ever based on RPMs is ever better for any market. RPM is an old broken package format and Debian packages are so much better. Ever try upgrading an RPM based system? It's guess work whether it'll work. Debian-based systems are progressive in updating and just work. Debian systems follow the Linux Standards Base too which truly helps quite a bit. /me shivers at the thought of RPMs.
      • javaroast, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yeah, I've tried and succeeded on 2 separate distros (Fedora and Centos). Fedora from version 3 up to current and Centos version 2 -5. About the same issues as you would find on a Debian or Ubuntu upgrade, but nothing so terrible. I'm not even sure what your comment about the LSB has to do with your argument or if it's just a random sentence you added. But suffice it to say many distros follow the LSB.
      • init100, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1First, I'd like to explain how the DEB package format is superior to the RPM format. Second, I'd like to inform you that the standard package format specified in the LSB is RPM.
    • Greywhind, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I've tried Fedora and Ubuntu, and I currently use Ubuntu over Fedora because I had major issues nearly every time I updated something in Fedora for some reason or another. Also, I noticed that the process of updating/installing took longer on Fedora (especially checking for updates with the automatic, background checker, which I had to disable eventually because it seemed to take forever, blocking my ability to use any other installation/update program).

      That's not to say Fedora can't possibly have improved since FC6 (which is what I had). This may be out of date. But I personally will stick with Ubuntu, which has never given me trouble.
  • HayabusaRider, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2Ubuntu +1 hp
  • pentium4borg, on 10/10/2007, -7/+17I have no idea why Gentoo is even on that list. Sure, I run Gentoo on my own machines, but it's not for n00bs. Ubuntu is best here, in my opinion.
    • Urusai, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5A source distro on a laptop is bad news. All that compiling can really heat things up.
    • hadees, on 10/10/2007, -7/+3Screw the noobs I want my gentoo.
      • thepxc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3If you're really a Gentoo guy, chances are you have enough preferences that you'd rather do it yourself from scratch.
      • oliveroms, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It doesn't really matter what they ship with it then now does it? If it runs Ubuntu (which i think is the best idea, as your better off putting more resources towards 1 distro, other then all spreading them) it'll most very likly run Gentoo too. And That's all that matters to me then.
  • fuzzyping, on 10/10/2007, -1/+32OPEN DOCUMENTATION AND SPECIFICATIONS
    • Coded1, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Exactly how I voted, I couldn't believe it ranked so low. Wouldn't that be the best thing? That effectively means all operating systems regardless of origin could interface the laptop, isn't that what OSS is all about?
      • dimension128, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Yea, but most of the people voting don't care about (or even understand) that, they just want to see a shiny spinning cube and think only Ubuntu can do it.
  • DietMountainDew, on 10/10/2007, -1/+38I couldn't resist...

    http://image.bayimg.com/aagpmaabm.jpg
  • potterboy, on 10/10/2007, -13/+1As much as I love linux, I would take decent Vista drivers for the T43 first.
  • astra05, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8FreeBSD is a choice, which is good cause it is a very good operating system; however the support for FBSD would be alot higher than a option like Ubuntu. This is true as the amount of people highly knowledge of FBSD are fewer than Ubuntu/Linux
    • RockinRoel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I consider FreeBSD to be a very good server OS. If you're talking about desktop Linux, Ubuntu scores best. I've tried other stuff, but I came back to Ubuntu.
  • consoneo, on 10/10/2007, -5/+2Debian dammit.
    • xspinkickx, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1you would think people would be smart and vote that, considering if debian is supported pretty much every other debian distro including ubuntu would be supported, considering all debian based distros, duh take from debian.
  • Piedramente, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0They are *clearing* interested??? I'm sold!
  • trollzor, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21I voted for the "refuse binary drivers" option. Good quality GPLed drivers would mean you can run any GNU/Linux distro on the machines, satisfying everyone not just one distro. Binary laptop drivers would be lame, they wouldn't get updated and you'd be stuck with one certified version of one distro which would quickly get old.
    • jonshipman, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4but then the device would ship with no OS or Windows and ask the consumer to install linux themselves. Part of the problem is that customers want a computer to be an appliance. Take it out of the box and plug it in. Done. I vote for SUSE
  • iChainsaw, on 10/10/2007, -1/+14ubuntu is winning by a landslide
    • oobuntu, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1i think ubuntu's platform is the best hope for mass use of linux but its a shame that there will be a large bunch of users who will never see KDE...
  • Papajohn56, on 10/10/2007, -13/+1voted freeBSD because linux itself is a terrible operating system
    • Papajohn56, on 10/10/2007, -7/+2Prove to me why Linux is better than BSD. Real reasons
      • agaudet, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Prove to me why BSD is better than Linux? Real reasons.
        What is BSD going to provide that is not being driven by the GPL?
        • Papajohn56, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2quality control through a set of standards, and a choice in a microkernel.
        • agaudet, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4there is already a set of standards for linux,
          also if the hurd would finish sometime this century we would also have the choice between 2 different kernals
          but microkernal is important for what? security? stability?
          I believe that Torvalds kernal does alright on its own, your just bitching about nothing
          The difference between BSD is the liscence, so go let Microsoft and Apple steal more of your code and give nothing back
      • daftman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2When freebsd can power mobile phones, laptops, routers, SCADA systems, you can come back here and bitch.
    • mirror4u, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1linux is kewl...
    • stmiller, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6BSD is good for a server but Linux is better for the desktop.
  • jerryparid, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3+1 for Fedora
  • wooptoo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Voted for archlinux. ugh, it has only 8 votes. Oh well, I guess Ubuntu will win.
    • krizhere, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5That Ubuntu would win was almost certain. The good thing about linux though is that if one works (Ubuntu) in this case, then making another distro work as well shouldn't be that hard. Heck, we manage to make our laptops work even now, without any "official" (you can remove the quotes) linux support.
    • Xilon, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Heh so did I, just for fun, In reality it wouldn't make sense to put Gentoo or Archlinux (or even Slackware) on these laptops since those are the kinds of distros that are used to create the exact kind of system you want. It's obvious that Ubuntu would win, and fair enough it is a good distro, if slow.
  • Piedramente, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9I voted for ubuntu as well.

    I would also like to see gpl'd drivers.
    • oliveroms, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1totally agree with you on this one. though I voted Ubuntu, the 'no binary drivers to help us all' option was very tempting.
  • gotamd, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5SLED or OpenSUSE, though I lean towards SLED because of its longer release cycles and more professional support.
    • Chicken001, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2I take it you like to stay close to Microsoft?
      • gotamd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2No, I just don't have an irrational hatred of Novell.
  • FireForEffect47, on 10/10/2007, -3/+4PCLinuxOS only has 5 votes?
    • niallabrown, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Its low partly because it was added later by a user, its up to 130 at this time and rising. I like it but I'm not sure if it would be my choice.
  • niallabrown, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I would be happy with Ubuntu or Fedora but I think Ubuntu is the most polished and accessible for people who want to jump ship from windows. In the future I'm sure we will see more flavors through the big suppliers but for now I think Ubuntu is the best thing for Linux adoption and will ensure that linux over all becomes more popular in the mainstream market. People will lean about others as they get more exposure.
  • databoy, on 10/10/2007, -11/+0Idiots. How many ways can you invent the wheel? The wheel is round. Linux is just an operating system. The source code is the same. Distros are just different ways of doing the same job. Stability counts over the latest and greatest features. At the end of the day it does not matter which distro you use, it is technical support which counts. Centos which is based on Red Hat has the best community technical support and is used by people who do not need Red Hat support. Ubuntu may be popular but it is like running your car in second gear. If a computer manufacturer is going to pre-install Linux then optimise the distro for speed. The general public are not going to buy Linux because of a cute mascot or the free OS status. People buy computers to do a job. Anyone who buys a computer to save the cost of Windows lives in fairy land.
    • agaudet, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3People buy computers to do what a computer does. Just because the Windows desktop has coddled the half retarded people that call technical support to use FOXFIRE and MYSPACE does not mean that is what the computer is for. IT is stagnant and backwards in any windows corporation as well, refusing to upgrade or use anything new because it provides work that they dont want to do. Open Source allows people and corporations to move forward and not have to worry about closed sourced vendors taking months or years to fix a problem. If it affects you, report it and someone will fix it, or fix it yourself. The general public is not going to BUY Linux, they are going to USE Linux, Linux development will surpass every other OS, the more that join the community the stronger we all get.
      • over90000, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0"If it affects you, report it and someone will fix it, or fix it yourself."

        You're assuming the majority of the public are programmers, they are not. They just want something that works. As for "report it and someone will fix it", just look at the state of the file choose in gtk, it doesn't even have thumbnail view. Countless people have reported it and noone has yet bothered to fix it. What about the GIMP UI, how long have we been going on about it? 4-5 years? Why is it that only now have they got off their ass and started doing something about it. The beauty of closed source is that if they don't fix it, then noone will buy their products and they will go out of business. Since open source is free, there is no such incentive.
        • agaudet, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Developers develop windows software too, they just do it for a price
          The only thing that needs to be done is have a company that is interested in marketing a product take the dev lead
          If someone wanted to compete with Photoshop, they could take GIMP, redesign the UI and then sell the product under the GNU liscence and give back the changes to the community. The beauty of Open Source is that great programs only get better, and never die because someone went out of business.
        • daftman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2> Since open source is free, there is no such incentive.
          Open source is not necessarily free as in free beer. I'm sure you trolls so much that the idea of companies charging for open source software usually escape your brain but Red Hat, JBoss, MySQL, Trolltech do make business on open source.
          The problem with you is that you are extremely dumb and narrow minded. Although the majority of the public are not programmers, there are enough open source programmers in the world to take Linux to where it is today, a technologically direct competition against Windows.
          Furthermore, because you report something doesn't mean that it would be fixed by the team. Why? Because they don't see it as a bug. It might not be in their vision for the software. You are however free to implement your own unlike the proprietary alternative in which you are screwed. If you want a new feature in Photoshop, good luck going somewhere else especially when you are heavily invested in Photoshop.
          To put it in a simpler form. With open source you have the following options: 1. Fix it, 2. report it, 3. pay the maintainer to fix it, 4. use alternative software.
          With proprietary you have: 1. Report it, 2. use alternative software.



        • Spr0k3t, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Doesn't have a thumbnail view? What the hell... have you even used GTK?
  • Moriya, on 10/10/2007, -6/+1Got Ubuntu on my R52 Thinkpad right here, and theres plenty of documentation on how to install any linux distro on one (I've run Red Hat as well). Why does your PC manufacturer have to install your operating system for you? If you're going to be using Linux, and can't install it yourself, you're going to be in trouble no matter what distro you use.
    • Zap2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4The idea is to get people who don't install ther own OS, to run Linux. If only people who know there computer stuff use Linux, we're screwed. MS will win. We need the person who doesn't know what CRT vs LCD is.
      • Moriya, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Right, and it would be great if that were the case, but let's face it - if you're using Linux right now you're going to have to touch the command line sooner or later, linux just isn't at the point where you can do absolutely everything with a GUI just yet.
        • hexydes, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Sure, but a major problem with that is that Linux just doesn't have the mass-adoption, the sheer numbers that are required for it to get serious interest yet. It has been growing every year, first slowly, now more quickly, perhaps soon rapidly. The great thing about Dell, HP, Acer, and now Lenovo putting Linux (and hopefully Ubuntu, as a consumer distro to rally around) on their computers is that it just brings even more attention (in all manner, developers, money, publicity, industry support) to the platform, which will hopefully make it an even more capable solution for users.

          Just look, two years ago, corporations weren't willing to touch Linux with a ten-foot-pole. Now, Dell announces that it will start pre-installing Linux on systems, and within a year, many of the other major players have joined in. That's how it works, you have to build momentum. The more Linux becomes recognized and accepted as a platform, the more things like dropping to the command line and having to install things from source will get worked out for the masses (while still being available for those who need it).
        • burty89, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1OK, name something an end user would need to do using the command line, bearing in mind that the distro would have already been setup by the manufacturer.
    • oliveroms, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You forget that also:
      A) people usually use what's on it, they don't re-install
      B) If they install it for you, you know that the hardware is fully supported (hopefully anyway) And that, is the thing that would make me buy a System pre-installed with linux, just to be able to reformat and install my distro of choice, but haveing supported hardware.
  • victorc26, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Can't wait. Now I don't know if I should get a Lenovo or a Macbook. Jeebus.

    Maybe both? :)
    • stalefries, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Buy one, and send me the money for the other. :)
    • maybeway36, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Put Linux (dual-boot or VirtualBox) on a Mac, or just use Fink.
    • Xilon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'm running Archlinux on a first-gen Macbook without problems, if that's you're concern you shouldn't be worried. Though There might be some problems with the newest one, I don't know. The thing that sucks is that I'm using Bootcamp and BIOS, so I'm limited to 4 (-1 for efi) partitions, so I had to put LVM on it for Linux. Would be great is someone wrote up a How To for installing Linux on EFI natively.
    • Chicken001, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Don't get a Mac.
    • cryptodonkey, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0get both, only live once.
  • Garfunkel, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5wow, i wonder who won....it got 66% of the votes.

    but saying that, i think ubuntu really would be the best option for most who are new to linux, i mean gentoo and arch are great but for a new user there are some better options out there.
    • hadees, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1Screw the noobs I want my gentoo.
      • CATSCEO, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Gentoo SUCKS!
      • Xilon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5You want a preinstalled Gentoo? What about all the USE flag configuration, the compiling, the installing what-you-want...? It's a very bad distro for this type of thing.
    • niallabrown, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I agree, Gentoo would be a bad move. The market needs to be opened. If they tried Gentoo I don't think it would catch on past the hard core users.
  • jhshukla, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11I don't care as long as there is good support & open standards for hardware.
    • cryptodonkey, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0not while Linux devs keep signing NDA.
  • jacekpoplawski, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1Look at the poll results - 2000 votes for Ubuntu, few votes for other distros.
    I think that all this "Ubuntu noise" became really annoying.
    I am not against using Ubuntu, just stop talking about "Ubuntu applications" and now "making Lenovo Ubuntu friendly" (instead just Linux friendly).
    What if one day you will notice that one application requires Ubuntu to operate?
    • 1coreduo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1> What if one day you will notice that one application requires Ubuntu to operate?
      Sir, that is where you got it all wrong. Ubuntu is AFAIK open source and you can have source code -> compile it to your distro

      BTW, voted Fedora, since my T60 is running it.
      • over90000, on 10/10/2007, -5/+0I never understood why from the programs from gnome or kde suite were never ported to windows.
        • YourDoom123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3because theres no market for that? and isn't that a little off topic...?
        • babbling, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2First of all I'd like to point out that some of them are, and more are coming.

          Secondly I'd suggest that it's probably because most Free Software developers are interested primarily in making software for Free Software operating systems. Why would it be surprising that it doesn't get ported to proprietary operating systems?
        • Spr0k3t, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The solution is to port the ones you need. However, since you don't use Linux, why bother?
    • Sairgem, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5"What if one day you will notice that one application requires Ubuntu to operate?"
      You don't understand how open source works, do you?
      • jacekpoplawski, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1RedHat wasn't open source 8 years ago?
        Don't you remember RedHat only commercial products?
    • 3Den, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0This has been said of many distributions for years.

      The reality is, at some point, when trying to present a user experience that is really rich and apps are tied together, you have to provide certain functions, certain screen layouts, and so on. If every app is unique and an island unto itslef, every app behaves differnetly.

      Ubuntu provides a very nice, rich user experience.

      To back up (for what it's worth) what I say.. I don't say that lightly.
      I'm extremely technical. I'm happy with a VT100 terminal. I've been using unix since the 80's, and linux since it was barely coherent and had to be installed from a set of floppies on a 386. i GET unix. I really do.
      Everything ubuntu is based on is open source.. they just provide the configuration. If someone wants to fork and duplicate it, power to them. If more apps are made to work cleanly with ubuntu and nice one-click installs, good.

      I've seen a HUGE number of windows users convert to linux because of ubuntu, people I never expected to do so, because it worked so well.

      Will I say this 2 years from now? probably not, someone will take their place. that's the way of things.. but we need not just a kernel and some tools, but a coherent agreement on how things should work to make things really useable.
  • ttucp, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1I've been wondering what is taking the Chinese so long to come out with a cheep PC with Linux. Now that PCs are commodities, why aren't we seeing a "disposable" Chinese-made PC?
    • oobuntu, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1would a "cheep" PC be susceptible to the bird flu virus?
  • Zap2, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Ubuntu...if Lenovo goes Ubuntu, thats two major PC makers "supporting" Ubuntu, so as MS losing power, Ubuntu will over gain it! Now if we got HP behind Linux we'd be set!

    However I'd settle for Acer and/or Sony. If we got 3/5 PC makers shipping Ubuntu, I think we could avoid a splintered computer market.
    • hexydes, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Exactly. It's not that everyone dislikes the other distros, it's just that Ubuntu is the furthest along for new users, and has the support of Dell, which is huge. If all the manufacturers all support different distros of Linux, it will just cause confusion among consumers.

      Imagine walking into a store, looking at an HP computer, if you are a normal consumer:

      "Hi, I want a computer, but I don't want Windows Vista on it. I heard that some computers have something called 'Ooboonti' or something; is that what this (the HP) has?"

      "Oh, no, this particular computer has something called Fedora on it."

      "Oh, well...I don't know what that is. My friend told me to look for Ooboonti."

      "Well they're all just different distributions of something called Linux. They just have different underlying systems and have some other differences."

      "Well...I don't know. Nevermind, show me the computers you have with Windows."

      "Certainly sir (a sale's a sale)!"
      • daftman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1People who specifically said they don't want Windows are usually the ones that actually do some research. Furthermore, by the time big companies like Dell, HP, Lenovo widely support linux, tech magazine will be full of information educating people about it.
        Linux is a tech-magazine dream. There's only so much you can write about Windows without repeating yourself. But Linux is full of tips, customization, etc.
      • bowe, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I don't get why you wrote it "ooboonti". Phoenetically it is "oo-BOON-too". So if you wanted to make the illiterate user seem to pronounce the last syllable incorrectly, why didn't you just spell it ubunti? It's almost as if you are saying that the listener would not know how to spell. I just.......don't.......understand.
  • maybeway36, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1What distros besides Ubuntu have OEM install?
    • stmiller, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2IBM sells workstations and servers with AIX, Redhat, or Suse.
    • cryptodonkey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I think Mandriva and linspire have OEM Installs.
  • agaudet, on 10/10/2007, -4/+0PCLinuxOS is what I would choose for the new Linux user
    Its just as simple as Ubuntu, if not simpler
    remember, if you already use Linux, you know how to do that
    New people need a simple OS that they can use, most of the distros chosen are nto very user friendly yet
    Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS are the two best versions for mass adoption
  • glw119, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Ubuntu is at 2436 when I voted!~
    i'm using Ubuntu now!~ it's great!
  • nickdot, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6I am wondering why this poll is so different from distrowatch (last 30 days):
    Rang Distributie H.P.D*
    1 PCLinuxOS 2521>
    2 Ubuntu 2150<
    3 openSUSE 1446<
    4 Sabayon 1285>
    5 Mint 1063<
    6 Fedora 1037<
    7 Debian 920<
    8 MEPIS 796=
    9 Damn Small 688>
    10 Mandriva 681

    So where is the most popular distro "PCLinuxOS"? Also OpenSuse should have gotten much more votes. I think this illustrates where the power of Ubuntu is: in its active community. Jono can be happy. (Maybe it also illustrates that results of polls are questionable anyway.)
    • over90000, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2"I think this illustrates where the power of Ubuntu is: in its active community."

      Then wouldn't the poll from the distrowatch have the same outcome as well?
      • Spr0k3t, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The simple answer: Stop reading Linux/Unix posts if you are no longer interested.
        The correct answer: bash + tor + wget

        Xilon has it right.
    • Xilon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Uhh those stats say _nothing_. I could have *****'s page on auto-refresh and make it hit #1...
    • PhirePhly, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Even if I used Slackware day to day I would still vote for Ubuntu. Trying to get a noob to use Linux, Ubuntu is by far the best choice.
      • niallabrown, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Very true, maybe one day Slackware will be on option but its certainly not the one to lead. Nor is Debian over Ubuntu. That being said if Ubuntu breaks open the market I think its very likely we will see Debian later.
  • maybeway36, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5The three reasons I use Ubuntu: (I also posted this on Lenovo's comments, btw)
    1. KDE (i.e. Kubuntu)
    2. APT
    3. x11vnc

    I suppose I could be using PCLOS, but Kubuntu's worked out perfectly for me so far.
    • maybeway36, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1P.S. I don't use Debian etch because of some minor quirks that get on my nerves, like separate tabs in KTorrent and not being able to disable avatars in the default Kopete theme.
  • Sabretou, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Man, Ubuntu is in a 67% lead, followed by Debian at 10%. I wonder who'll win this heated competition.
  • asskicker32, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Then SUSE. I love KDE, and would love to have it on my thinkpad.

    Linux nub question, can you use kde with any linux os?
    • eatbeefjerky, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Yes, you can. However, some distros "come with" a certain desktop environment and therefore most of the included applications will be "for" that environment.
    • Xilon, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10Here it comes, the consequences of all the "* on Ubuntu", etc, stories...

      Any linux app can run on any linux distro. Of course there probably are some apps that need to work with some other specific software or configuration and hence it may be difficult to install, but in theory that statement stands.
    • srg13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2On Ubuntu, I think you can just do an 'apt-get install kde-desktop' in the terminal or something, and it'll install... It might be 'kubuntu-desktop' or something though.

      Of course, there's always the option of installing any other distro that supports KDE, and if the laptop works with Ubuntu, it should work with any major distribution.
  • Proctor, on 10/10/2007, -10/+2osx
  • RandaII, on 10/10/2007, -13/+1***** ubuntu
  • bugsie, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5I don't know if I'm biased because I work with it, but I still prefer Redhat.
  • InorganicMatter, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2None. They need to take a page out of Apple's book: heavily modify and improve an existing OS specifically for their hardware. I say a custom Linux distro similar to Ubuntu. Refine and polish it to perfection, and make it Lenovo-exclusive. This way they get speed and stability, but it is still Linux under the hood for compatibility.
    • xspinkickx, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1They could put AIX on it, which like BSD has a linux binary compatibility layer.
  • maybeway36, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Why can't you vote for multiple OSs?
    Also, FreeDOS could work too :P
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 75 of 75 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.