Lenovo Linux systems online in Europe - and thank you Fedora community!

[Mark Pearson]

For anybody who went and left feedback on the web sales site asking for
Linux after my last email - a big thank you. I can't help but think it
must have been a factor in the below.

Linux systems (multiple!) are now available in Europe, including of
course Fedora:

I think the below is the full list currently:
  Carbon 10 (includes Fedora)
  Z13  (includes Fedora)
  Z16  (includes Fedora)
  P14s
  P16s
  X13 Yoga G3
  T14s G3
  T14 G3
  T16 G3
  P360 (tiny, tower, ultra)
(Missing from our completed platforms is the X1 Nano G2, and the
L-series strangely)

We have more coming and the best thing is that the EMEA team have made
it so if Linux is available it should just be added. How well that works
we'll see - but I'm optimistic I won't have to battle them going forwards.

I do have some notes of caution:

 - The user interface is not perfect, especially around invalid
configurations (e.g. if you select the MIPI camera on the X1 Carbon).
The invalid config will get flagged, but it's kinda annoying.
They are looking at how to improve it so please don't beat them up about
it - the alternative was to not have Linux online (for potentially a
long time). We'll make it better - and the ultimate aim is to have no
Linux limitations!

 - In Europe they also have the 'no-OS' option and that is still
(usually) cheaper than the Linux option. Realistically - there is no
good technical reason not to buy no-OS as the Fedora (or Ubuntu) image
is not modified by Lenovo. But please consider:

 1) Some of the proceeds from that extra goes to the Lenovo Linux team
directly. We're quite a small team and I'd like us to grow and in
particular get more engineering experience so we can contribute more
directly to projects upstream - we don't do enough of it. It's also the
best way I'm likely going to be able to grow the team to take on more
platforms - we're pretty swamped with what we currently have.

 2) This is the *only* way we have of measuring real consumer demand for
Linux. This will drive the web teams to keep doing (and hopefully do
more) Linux; and it gets the product teams to think about it and
recognise the market for Linux is really there.

We should have some more AMD platforms in the next few weeks. The mobile
workstations are proving to be challenging so are still a bit out. I
have concerns about the Fedora offering there because of the Nvidia
driver - but we'll do what we can.

I'm still working on the other geo's but will be using Europe as an
example of what can be done (and hopefully we get the sales that make it
meaningful and act as an extra carrot). Please spread the word in the
Linux community (I'm not allowed to contact any media outlets directly -
I'm working with the marketing team...but they don't understand Linux).

If the system you want isn't available in your geo - let the web team
know through the feedback form :)

Thanks
Mark

[Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2022 at 10:51:12AM -0400, Mark Pearson wrote:
>  For anybody who went and left feedback on the web sales site asking
> for
>  Linux after my last email - a big thank you. I can't help but think it
>  must have been a factor in the below.
>  
>  Linux systems (multiple!) are now available in Europe, including of
>  course Fedora:
>  
>  I think the below is the full list currently:
>    Carbon 10 (includes Fedora)
>    Z13  (includes Fedora)
>    Z16  (includes Fedora)
>    P14s
>    P16s
>    X13 Yoga G3
>    T14s G3
>    T14 G3
>    T16 G3
>    P360 (tiny, tower, ultra)
>  (Missing from our completed platforms is the X1 Nano G2, and the
>  L-series strangely) 
Nice!

Zbyszek