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Comment by INTPenis | Hacker News Reader

Is windows tax really that bad? I mean I can get an OEM license for 12 dollars most of the time because of promotions.

So if I as a consumer pay 12 dollars for an OEM version, I would expect Lenovo to pay much less.

Also my first observation is that these laptops are far too big and powerful for my work with Linux.

I work full time in Linux but I focus more on weight and form factor than CPU and GPU because all my work is done in terminals.

The X280 or X1 are perfect for me. No dedicated GPU means slim form factor, light weight, and everything I need for my type of work in Gnome and Terminal.

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Besides the windows tax aspect there is also the aspect of a vendor taking a bit of responsibility around what the user experience (hardware support etc) is like when running linux on their hardware. Offering an option for shipping with linux seems to serve as a catalyst for that.

I'd be a little surprised if that actually happens. Most likely they're shipping Linux for webdevs and people who want to avoid the Windows tax, neither of which they'll care much about supporting.

Personally I have no desire to buy a license which is being shoved down my throat against my will. It's a matter of principle, not of the sum involved.

I mean, there's a substantial effort to developing the gaming platform on Linux. Maybe that's their audience?

From what I've seen that effort seems to be going into proprietary platforms like Stadia. There no guarantee that will trickle down to the open source community.

A Stadia lock-is is preferable to a Windows lock-in since there's no reason for Stadia to not run on Linux.

Stadia uses Linux and Vulkan so games ported to run on Stadia should work on the Linux desktop too.

I'm responding to the mention of Stadia, but I'm not sure what this has to do with Lenovo.

I can't speak for Stadia but Steam have been shipping open source projects like Proton and pushing Vulkan. If anything, Stadia will increase pressure on Steam to keep improving desktop Linux compatibility.

Valve has contributed a tremendous amount of open source work in order make Linux an even remotely viable gaming platform. I'm actually pretty impressed at how well they've done.

Also my first observation is that these laptops are far too big and powerful for my work with Linux.

I don't need an 18-wheeler for my commute to work.

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