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Comment by Apreche | Hacker News Reader

Since Lenovo preinstalled spyware/malware they can no longer be trusted.

I can sort of understand this sentiment, which is why I would instead encourage people to support https://minifree.org. Same hardware, but you know the software is under your control.

Want everything Lenovo laptops have to offer, but with software you the user can read and control? I don't have one myself, but I've heard good things, and X200s are not so old as to be unusable, especially with Linux.

>> Since Lenovo preinstalled spyware/malware they can no longer be trusted.

> support https://minifree.org. Same hardware, but you know the software is under your control.

Maybe this is purely my own sentiment, but the manufacturer can install whatever it wants, so long as it's just on the disk. I buy the laptop for the hardware, not the software.

If their behavior in doing this implicates them doing worse things, such as malware on device firmware or in the BIOS, or system management mode code, then one would be right to avoid this.

Exactly that happened on Lenovo laptops. There was BIOS level code that re-installed malware/spyware on your laptop even if you formatted and reinstalled from scratch or used an entirely new hard drive.

Yes because Lenovo is the only major vendor to install spyware, break ssl, or any other things.

Dell has never done that... ohh wait

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/11/superfish-20-now-dell-...

Then add Dell to the list as well. What is your point?

If I look deep enough I can find where every manufacturer has done this... that is my point.

Dont use OEM Images, or better yet dont use Windows... that is my point

The Dell case at least was a honest mistake. Superfish actually did MITM to show ads and Lenovo was trying to make money from it.

Personally, since I have no plans of running Windows in the first place, Lenovo's spyware has effectively zero effect for me.

That said, I'm quite happy with my Dell Latitude D830 and my PowerBook G4 :)

They didn't do that on Thinkpads, though.

It's the same company though. I have two Thinkpads (I'm typing on a T520 right now) and today I wouldn't buy another.

Even if you want to give them a pass for unethical behavior, Lenovo still installs a lot of extra software that you don't really need. If you do buy a Thinkpad, I recommend reformatting the machine and doing a stock Windows install.

Why not Linux?

Worse battery life. Really though, the applications you need should dictate the OS you use. If Linux works for you, by all means, use it.

I didn't downvote you, but even my Macbook friends were jealous of my 20+ hours on a Thinkpad x250 (9-cell).

The default power settings on Linux are pretty bad, though. Anyone with Linux on their laptop should create a boot service that runs this command:

    powertop --auto-tune

...and observe battery time increase by ~25%.

>>>If you do buy a Thinkpad, I recommend reformatting the machine and doing a stock Windows install.

that should be done with all computers no matter who you buy it from

Personally, I've found the Thinkpad windows build to work better for me by far than a vanilla one (especially the projector stuff, which generally makes me a very happy bunny at conferences).

However, given there's a recovery partition and you don't wipe it while doing a stock install, "try both and see which you prefer" is clearly an option.

That's good advice.

If you don't want to wipe, you can selectively install and uninstall the Lenovo software. I have a 12.5" Thinkpad Yoga that I've uninstalled lots of stuff and it works great now. Some things, like Lenovo's power management tools, didn't get along very well with the standard Windows tools.

Sadly this is becoming very hard with lenovo ideapad and yoga. I fear this is coming for the thinkpads as well.

They seem to claim performance/battery improvements with their magic single disk "RAID" interface. Doubly dubious because said device just binds with the windows software raid driver.

What is worse is lenovo disables the included AHCI (breaking both Linux and Windows), so you have to use their install media to install the OS. Which of course installs whatever crap the original laptop came with.

the problem with this argument is that any manufacturer can be preinstalling spyware in the future and you won't know until it becomes public. Lenovo did but apparently stopped after it got caught. My point is that all OEM's are on the same boat.

There's still a pretty big difference between "did install spyware" and "could install spyware". Everyone is a potential criminal; I'm still going to exercise more caution around convicted felons.

Lenovo seems pretty unique and adding ugly hacks to their hardware (like disabling ACHI), and then changing the PCI ID of a "fake raid" chip. So not only does this break linux, but it also breaks the standard release of windows.

So even if you want to install MS Windows from official microsoft media, you can't.

Why would lenovo would disable AHCI (which breaks windows and linux), then mess with a fake RAID (despite having a single storage device).

Seems like Lenovo REALLY doesn't want consumers reinstalling the OS.... makes one wonder.

Wasn't it concluded that it was to reduce power usage, and it was Intel that didn't provide a Linux driver?

Edit: http://lwn.net/Articles/701635/

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