PC fans will soon be able to buy ThinkStation desktops and ThinkPad P series laptops with Linux pre-installed, Chinese computer firm Lenovo announced on Tuesday.
The company previously certified products with a "limited subset of hardware configurations", the company said, adding that the new certification process would "assure users their workstation investment is tried, tested and officially verified."
"To ensure an effortless Linux experience, Lenovo workstations will work intuitively with the host Linux OS and offer full end-to-end support – from security patches and updates to better secure and verify hardware drivers, firmware and bios optimizations. What’s more, Lenovo will also upstream device drivers directly to the Linux kernel, to help maintain stability and compatibility throughout the life of the workstation", Rob Herman, General Manager, Executive Director Workstation & Client AI Group said.
Several models from Lenovo are sold with Red Hat Enterprise Edition, but the vendor also announced recently it would sell laptops with Ubuntu and Fedora with firmware updates from Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS), OMG! Ubuntu! reported.
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The news comes after Linux's market share on desktop PCs jumped to 3.17 percent in May, up from 2.87 the month before, according to reports citing data from NetMarketShare.
The surprise trend evidences growing interest in the open-source operating system, which has seen a rise in popularity after UK software firm Canonical released Ubuntu's latest LTS version, named 'Focal Fossa' in late April.
