cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/165736
At least in the U.S. and Canada, that is.
This was brought to my attention thanks to a Reddit post where a user (presumably a resident of Canada), had posted how Lenovo was shipping laptops with Fedora and Ubuntu at a cheaper price compared to their Windows-equipped counterparts.
Others then chimed in, saying that Lenovo has been doing this since at least 2020 and that the big price difference shows how ridiculous Windows’ pricing is.
Cutting the Windows Tax
When I dug in further, I found out that the US and Canadian websites for Lenovo offered U.S. $140 and CAD $211 off on the same ThinkPad X1 Carbon model when choosing any one of the Linux-based alternatives.
US pricing on left, Canadian pricing on right.
Interestingly, while the difference in pricing is noticeable, your mileage may vary if you are looking for such laptops on the official website. Not all models from their laptop lineup, like ThinkPad, Yoga, Legion, LOQ, etc., feature an option to get Linux pre-installed during the checkout process.
Luckily, there is an easy way to filter through the numerous laptops. Just go to the laptops section (U.S.) on the Lenovo website and turn on the “Operating System” filter under the Filter by specs sidebar menu.
Yes, it’s as simple as that. You can do the same for the various official online regional storefronts that Lenovo runs to see whether Linux-based operating systems are being offered on their laptops in your country.
Closing Thoughts
It is good to see that Lenovo is offering Linux in its laptops. In fact, there is another big-name laptop manufacturer, Dell, who also does something similar with its Ubuntu-certified laptops, but both have the same constraint of having limited options for buyers.
Also, as far as I know, Dell doesn’t reduce the pricing if you choose Linux instead of Windows. Correct me if I am wrong in the comments.
Nonetheless, I think these manufacturers could do a better job in marketing these Linux-based alternative operating systems to general consumers, showing them how they can save big when opting for these instead of the pricey and bloated Windows.
Otherwise, we might have to start observing Windows Refund Day again.
💬 Your take on this? Would mainstream users benefit from having Linux pre-installed on their laptops?
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This is awesome and I love it. Maybe they could even take a few more dollars off by not having any OS installed (bypassing the labor costs of imaging an SSD). I’ll be installing my own copy anyway, so I’m fine with a blank SSD.
Those manufacturers where you can select either Linux or no OS don’t charge extra for Linux.
I mean it’s like maybe a dollar or two for the labor costs, so that’s understandable. I’d still prefer just a blank SSD anyway.
It’s likely done in an automated way by the same equipment that tests the hardware, so costs are probably more along the lines of a few fractions of a penny, and imo shipping any device without an os at all is a bit silly as they could very likely end up in the hands of someone without the capability or equipment to image them.
The cost is actually negative given that they get to pre-install whatever software they want into it.
It kinda blows my mind that “no OS” isn’t the cheapest option
It’s the same reason that you have to pay more to stream videos without ads…
Yeah, smart TVs with no OS are way more expensive than the ones riddled with ads as well.
I changed to the projectivity launcher on my Android TV and it was night and day in terms of performance. No ads. The UI doesn’t change every other week to make me look at some new show I don’t care about. I can literally just hide everything I don’t want to see.
I should probably look into actual entire OS swaps available for my TV but I don’t have the time. Changing the launcher and using ADB (over lan) to disable updates and apply some optimizations was worth the day it took me.
Turns out the hardware on the TV is fine. The software was just complete garbage and got worse with every update.
Now if only I could fix the UI in the actual apps like YouTube. But still it’s a lot better. I’ll probably install the YouTube alternative app one day when I have time.
My wife started using the TV over her tablet after I changed it. She said she hated how slow it was to just turn on and start that she just would go to her tablet instead.
Yeah, out of the box experience is terrible. I wish we could’ve installed custom ROMs on TVs too but most of them are vendor-locked. Projectivity Launcher is a life saver. Default everything is just bad. I did a similar thing and removed many apps via ADB.
For Youtube alternative, SmartTube is the best. You can sideload it via ADB.
Nice. I don’t think I saw SmartTube before. Will check it out. Thanks.
Sometimes it might not work, and when that happens just check out a new update. It will also notify you when there is an update.
You’re welcome!
So… Windows is an ad delivery system.hmm, it makes sense, because as an operating system that’s the only thing it does well is show ads.
Stremio doesn’t charge me more. I dont know why anyone would pay to stream. Or not block ads.
Well, these services do require money to run. If everyone were as ‘clever’ as you are then we’d have little content indeed.
I seem to recall in the past Microsoft pressured manufacturers to not sell computers without an operating system, arguing that unscrupulous consumers would install pirated copies of Windows on them. A ridiculous argument, but it was the excuse they used.
2025 is the year of the Linux
desktoplaptop!Since installing Linux, my battery life has more than doubled.
That alone is reason enough to switch to Linux
Yeah, while I don’t have a laptop myself, I installed Fedora on my desktop and it idles quieter. I suspect it’s not doing as much in the background as Windows was.
I thought OEMs only paid like $10 for Windows?
they tend to make money off it due to the bundle deals and commissions and what-not.
a major oem charging $140-200 is all profit.
Perhaps it’s a direct response to the tarrifs, as well as an instance of a Chinese company finding a way to fuck over an American company now that trade relations across the board between the US and PRC are juddering to a halt.
It says they’ve been offering this since 2020
It’s usually 10% of the device MSRP for windows pro.
There are some very low cost devices that get it for $10 for windows home…
Looks like this was Windows home. Windows pro was a $ upgrade.
I think you misunderstood what’s being discussed. In this post, all Windows versions cost money. It’s just they bake it into the advertised price and say Linux is a reduction, which means you’re paying the difference if you choose to go with the default. It isn’t free, no matter how they display it.
Seriously? Go back and read carefully.
In the post, Linux has a “negative” cost. In reality this means it’s closer to the base cost and the “free” Windows is baked into the price, not actually free. Both versions of windows have a cost. One is higher than the other though.
Just for you and your misreading: the previous guy said Windows Pro is 10% of MSRP. Well you open the pic in the original post and surprise it’s ~10% for Windows Home version. Aka just for you; you pay 10% for Windows HOME edition, aka everyone knows it’s not free because you just paid 10% for it. Windows Pro edition is a $ upgrade from the HOME edition, which for this offer puts Windows Pro closer to ~15%. Not the 10% the previous guy thought. The only person that misread and couldn’t follow the post is you.
OK, just so you’re aware, since you are being condescending, there’s two pictures. One of them Windows Home is ~10%, one Windows Pro is ~10%.
Both cost money. I don’t know what $ upgrade means, but I’m assuming you mean they cost extra, which both do no matter what, which is what I was talking about at first. It’s not only one that costs extra.
I wonder what the labor is to install it. Well I guess it’s the same labor as Linux.
Anyone know how they do it? Do they plug the drive into a cloning machine before installing it in the computer?
They have an image of the OS that they copy on the SSD for each machine.
Here in Europe it was possible to buy almost all laptops and desktops from Lenovo without OS preinstalled since long time, saved a lot of money that way. It’s nice that they officially offer Linux now.
I bought a laptop without a Windows license from Lenovo years ago. It came with FreeDOS, if I remember correctly. I wanted to install Linux, so I didn’t care. In some areas they’ve been offering this for a while now.
I got an ASUS laptop with FreeDOS back in 2015 for the same reason. Had to upgrade the HDD and RAM, but It still works like a champ.
That is awesome
More manufacturers need to do this!
Some do! Or at least, they give you a choice of OS at different price points. NovaCustom, Eurocom, and AVA Direct come to mind. Of course, there are also plenty of vendors that ONLY offer GNU/Linux pre-installed…
Dell used to. Not sure of they still do.
Only on North America, you say?
pity.
For at least the last decade, Europe has been abandoning Microsoft in droves.
I suspect soon Microsoft will be unknown in Europe except as “That system they use over there.”
Then they will unironically call it the freedom OS
Or the European OS.
The system that should not be named!
I have been running popos on my x1 for some years now. Only had problems with audio not working from one day to another, but other than that it has great support from Lenovo. Even the 4G modem has official drivers.
Similar experience with Fedora on a P14s. Everything just works, including the fingerprint reader.
Now they need to make the BIOS updates installable from Linux or ability to flash them from the BIOS. But I like this move, hope more start doing so.
It already is, via https://fwupd.org/
which is integrated into the app store on fedora, at least
kde’s discover app store supports it too
i figured, but since i wasn’t 100% sure i didn’t wanna spread misinformation
I can confirm this too for kubuntu.
I’m very new to Linux and a very casual user but I’m really loving it. I also can’t afford the existing Linux laptops, and I am on the market for a new machine. So yeah I’d buy a cheap laptop that ships with Linux. If it comes with a discount, that’s even better!
The new framework 12 starts at $700. Cheaper if you BYO RAM and storage.
I would personally get a second hand cheap laptop off ebay or a local 2nd hand electronics store, and then just install the distro of your choice on it. Can’t really think of an instance where a computer would come with an OS and I’d just use it as-is rather than installing my own, but I guess if you want a fairly generic eg Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Mint, etc setup then it could work. But definitely don’t limit yourself to preinstalled laptops, since installing an OS only takes an afternoon if you pick an OS with a more fine-grained install like Arch or Gentoo, and about the same time as installing user software for distros that have more streamlined installs.
Free rainbow socks or no deal!
Year of the Linux desktop is here! /s
I quite like their laptops but they put the most horrible keyboards I’ve ever used. I’ve had chronic rsi and my fingers physically hurt less than 8h of use.
Do they have high end laptops (32g RAM, top i7 or similar, for Android development) at reasonable prices with good keyboards? I’ve been on Xps for a while.
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my shop uses HP Elitebooks and Lenovo ThinkPads and users typically prefer the Elitebook keyboard but this is a comparison of only 2 midrange models with a sample size of a few hundred so your milage may vary.
I have an elitebook g450 and a yogo 380L. They’re both nice in their own ways but the g450 has a better short travel.
I actually prefer the Lenovo keyboard to any other laptop keyboard in existence. Be it HP, Dell, Microsoft, Asus, Acer or otherwise.
Fantastic development. I got the “last year’s” model of a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop for work a few years ago bc it was one of the few affordable models that I could find at the time with a second m.2 slot. Expandable memory was a nice bonus. Love the keyboard, too. Been really happy with it. I run Kinoite on it.
