Hardware support in Linux is pretty good these days. But support for the exotic devices and features found in laptops tends to lag that of desktops. Accordingly, it can be hard to find a laptop that is well-supported by Linux, since hardware manufacturers have a nasty tendency to refuse to publish specifications that would allow FLOSS developers to write their own device drivers.
Historically, IBM has largely been a better community member than most in providing support for their excellent ThinkPad range. While not every model or feature was supported, there has been plenty of information, drivers and utilities provided for various models.
IBM's ThinkPad range was also renowned for its quality and engineering, which explains why historically it has been an extremely popular choice among FLOSS developers. A high percentage of laptops seen at FLOSS conventions in recent years by your humble author would be ThinkPads (and now it seems that Apple kit is surprisingly popular, but that's another story).
However - since the acquisition of the ThinkPad range by Lenovo, many things have changed. And due to certain "strategic agreements" with Microsoft, it seems that Lenovo plans to actively shun Linux users:
"What you see is what you get. And at this point, it's Windows."
Linux is ascending: hardware support, ISV support and community support are all increasing. Linux is now making a lot of companies a lot of money. Linux has proven its mettle in many environments, and is demonstrably useful.
Now Lenovo didn't have to actively exclude Linux, they could have chosen to simply release docs and specs, without ever committing major development time on their own ticket. But this latest move, an attempt to sidle up to Microsoft as an "exclusive" partner (see main article), may be seen by many as as an offensive move, one that is uncalled for.
The Linux laptop market share when viewed as a percentage may be small, but that is not the complete picture. Alpha-geeks, the talented techies who are involved in the FLOSS community, can be very influential in purchasing and technology decisions. And now their beloved ThinkPads are being turned against them, forcing once-faithful customers to find another supplier. One who respects their wishes, and their right to choose what they run on their hardware. This may end up costing Lenovo more than they think.
Update (15-Jun-2005): Some good news, Lenovo now denies ditching Linux. A spokesperson claims the original statements were incorrect, and that while they would not be providing Linux licenses, they would continue to support Linux. Let's hope they are good to their word, and also provide the necessary information on hardware so the community can write drivers to properly support them.
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