• typhoon@lemmy.world
    16 hours

    Looking for the day that Lenovo will make Thinkbook firmware updates available via fwupd like it does for Thinkpad.

  • sakphul@discuss.tchncs.de
    1 day

    This is a good very good thing! Let’s hope that Dell & Lenovo will also cover their more Consumer oriented devices (Lenovo Yoga, Lenovo Ideapad or Dell Non-Pro or XPS models) instead of just their Business oriented Models (like Dell Latitudes and Thinkpads/Thinkstation)

    • Libre Extremist@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2 hours

      Broadly speaking what are they key differences between the consumer oriented devices and business oriented ones? Better battery life on the latter?

      • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
        39 minutes

        Generally build quality and repairability. Any IT department will favour devices that can have common failure points (battery, SSD, screen) replaced with a single screwdriver, and with that comes the need for stronger chassis and modular designs because you can’t rely on glueing everything in. Also, with the exception of Apple fanbois, IT techs are quick to condemn manufacturers who let pro grade kit standards slip, which could mean a few years of lost sales.

    • viov@lemmy.world
      19 hours

      Let’s push for it to happen!! Collectively we make it happen! Also, for more companies to jump on board. Imagine Samsung jumping on board to make a Linux phone!

        • non_burglar@lemmy.world
          17 hours

          Those are considered firmware, yes. And these can vary in their installation as being updated via the firmware interface itself or some other update mechanism.

          Some firmwares like on certain IBM thinkpads, my surface pro 6 and others can be updated directly via a Linux command called fwupd, but the firmwares must live in specifics public repositories.

          This news means we’ll all have a much better time using fwupd to update these on dell and lenovo machines, but the firmwares themselves will remain proprietary blobs.

          Coreboot replaces the bios/firmware altogether, and it’s not an easy task to get new ones, unfortunately.

          • quick_snail@feddit.nl
            13 hours

            Ah, thanks. So this is just an open source tool for closed source crap.

            • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
              13 hours

              the alternative is manually (and somewhat regularly during your hardware’s support period) searching a manufacturer’s web site for a bios update, hoping that your bios has a built-in flasher or there being at least a boot disk or ‘dos’ flasher you can slap on a usb to do it… lvfs is a good thing.

              • quick_snail@feddit.nl
                11 hours

                Oh, surely it is a good thing.

                But I think we can demand lenovo to just source hardware with libre firmware. That’s a better thing.

  • warmaster@lemmy.world
    2 days

    Holy moly, $100k a year each. I hope this more than covers LVFS’ costs and give them enough headroom to keep improving it.

    For these companies it must be pocket change, but that can be a lot of money if the LVFS is efficient enough.

    • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 days

      Dell and Lenovo both sell Chromebooks, which technically run a variant of Linux. Those laptops are especially popular in schools.

      It’s smart investment on their part and broadens their options longer term.

      All in all a net positive on all fronts.

      • urushitan 漆たん@kakera.kintsugi.moe
        24 hours

        Plus dell sells a decent amount of servers, the majority of which likely are Linux provisioned. Not sure about Lenovo’s server market share though

      • skarn@discuss.tchncs.de
        1 day

        My Thinkpad from 2017 keep getting firmware updates through lvfs for like 7 or 8 years. I was pretty impressed actually.

      • methodicalaspect@midwest.socialEnglish
        2 days

        They also sell laptops and desktops, mostly workstation-class, with Linux preinstalled. I’ve always had great results with fwupd on Lenovo laptops, great to see them sponsoring something useful.

    • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
      2 days

      as large hardware vendors, i’m pretty sure they were to getting to the point where they would lose features or even access to the service if they didn’t start paying-in.

  • placebo@piefed.zipEnglish
    1 day

    Can I update bios on my laptop with this? On the website, Lenovo only offers an exe file for Windows - can’t even install it manually in BIOS like I’d normally do on a desktop PC.

  • SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml
    2 days

    Lenovo and Dell laptops are the best for Linux for some time already. Thinkpads get the spotlight but the Latitudes are no hassle too.

    • Da Oeuf@slrpnk.net
      17 hours

      I even have a Latitude running with the Linux-libre kernel 👍

    • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works
      1 day

      Thinkpads are supposed to be good (never tried), but i have a normal lenovo ideapad, and there’s no firmware update on LVFS…

      I had to update the bios using a windows boot disk, and one time it screwed up grub and debian couldnt boot until i fixed it with a liveCD

      • aim_at_me@lemmy.nzEnglish
        11 hours

        I must have had 6 thinkpads by now. All have been excellent linux machines.

        • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3 hours

          I’ve had more drama getting clean Windows ISOs to install on modern Thinkpads than I’ve ever had issues with Linux.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
      1 day

      Lenovo and Dell laptops are the best for Linux for some time already. Thinkpads get the spotlight but the Latitudes are no hassle too.

      A costco HP I grabbed in a pinch has been rocking linux without any issues from day one.

      • sudoer777@lemmy.mlEnglish
        21 hours

        I have an HP Envy from several years ago and the BIOS is super locked down so I can’t enable secure boot on it. With my previous HP laptop, I had a ton of trouble getting the WiFi to work

        • notthebees@reddthat.com
          21 hours

          That’s really odd. I have a pavilion of similar age and I enabled secureboot without issue. Old HP and wifi is pain and suffering.

          • sudoer777@lemmy.mlEnglish
            21 hours

            Maybe there’s a way, but I looked all over the settings and internet and even had an AI agent do a search for how to enroll my keys and couldn’t figure it out