“Fully committed to providing Linux installation guidance”

Sep 21, 2016 18:03 GMT  ·  By

As we reported earlier today, Microsoft and Lenovo have both been accused of blocking the installation of Linux on devices labeled as “Signature Edition PCs” which are supposed to ship with a completely clean version of Windows 10.

And while Microsoft has remained tight-lipped for the time being, Lenovo was quick to reject these claims, explaining in a statement that it doesn’t block Linux on its Windows 10 PCs and there’s no deal with Microsoft in order to do this.

Linux would be supported with updated kernel and drivers

Here’s the full statement from Lenovo in which the company explains that it’s committed to supporting Linux on Windows 10 devices and all it takes is updated kernel and drivers to run the OS:

“To improve system performance, Lenovo is leading an industry trend of adopting RAID on the SSDs in certain product configurations. Lenovo does not intentionally block customers using other operating systems on its devices and is fully committed to providing Linux certifications and installation guidance on a wide range of products - https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd031426. Unsupported models will rely on Linux operating system vendors releasing new kernel and drivers to support features such as RAID on SSD.”

So, basically, Lenovo claims that in order to run Linux on machines that are using this new proprietary RAID system, vendors need to release new kernel and drivers and that the claims saying the company has an agreement with Microsoft to block its installation aren’t true.

As we warned, information posted by support staff once again proves to be inaccurate and whoever posted this online is very likely to have a few difficult days given the criticism Lenovo received following reports of a possible deal with Microsoft.

For the moment, however, we’re still waiting for Microsoft’s statement, but there’s no doubt that Redmond will say pretty much the same thing since it’s very clear that there’s no agreement in place to block Linux on Signature Edition PCs. And it wouldn’t even make sense given Microsoft’s increased focus on Linux.