Lenovo confirms inability of some Laptops to install Linux

Lenovo is one of the biggest manufacturers of laptops and with the introduction of its yoga series it has gained more popularity. With this comes a bad news for Linux Installers as the company confirms that few Lenovo laptops  will not be able to install Linux at all. This news also confirms that there were no official tie-ups between Microsoft and Lenovo regarding the installation of Linux.

The problem of inability of Lenovo to support Linux came to light when one of the Reddit users reported that he is not able to install Linux on his Lenovo Yoga 900 ISK Laptop and this gets the laptop locked to Windows 10 Home Signature Edition. Lenovo on inquiring said “This system has a Signature Edition of Windows 10 Home installed. It is locked per our agreement with Microsoft.” There have been lot of unanswered questions ever since but it is confirmed by both Lenovo and Microsoft that Linux installation is not intentionally blocked.

Disappointment of Linux Users:

Last year Microsoft unveiled its Signature Edition PC program and ensured that PC with such program will not suffer bloatware from OEMs. The issue of inability to install Linux was brought into focus by BaronHK and maximum seen in Yoga Series of Lenovo. This incompatibility has left many fans disappointed as they are unable to install Linux and pin pointing at Lenovo’s faulty configuration. According to Baron HK , the technology of Lenovo of locking the BIOS into RAID mode for SSD storage onboard and disabling of AHCI support stops installation of Linux.

Technology and System Change:

Lenovo said they have been implementing certain changes for Lenovo but that doesn’t involve intentional blocking of Linux installation. On making a progress about the technology Lenovo informed Tech Republic – “To improve performance, the industry is moving to RAID on the SSDs and Lenovo is leading with this change. Lenovo does not block customers using other operating systems on its devices but relies on the alternative operating system vendors to release appropriate drivers.”

Conclusion:

Lenovo has spoken to many gadget media house and informed them about the status of Linux installation on Lenovo computers. But however in one of the statement given to Engadget they clearly mentioned – “Lenovo does not intentionally block customers using other operating systems such as Linux on Yoga or any of its devices and is fully committed to providing Linux certifications and installation guidance on a wide range of suitable products. These products are listed on our support page: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd031426″ This clearly indicates that Linux is not supported by all Lenovo products but is only limited to few.