All the time & effort used trying to accomplish something so normal on that branded PC presents a very good case to avoid buying ALL lenovo branded products !!! Now that I think of it - there was also the spyware debacle and maybe a few other anti-user moves by that same brand in recent times.
Actually, I bought it because at the time it was cheap $100 and I was only going to use it for suspicious websites / emails and whatnot, good for testing stuff out instead of using my main PCs.... But, I do agree Lenovo does suck... IBM was much better
One upside is there is a glut of "old" laptops available now, thanks to mass corporate upgrades. Check your favorite auction sites.
A very interesting point Piers Patxi - thanks for that idea !! Is there any particular make/model which you have found to be a very desirable deal for use with Linux lately ?? From what has been posted here lately it is certain that anything with the Lenovo name on it is likely best avoided. I personally have found that some of the Toshiba or HP branded ones can be set up very successfully in recent times.
I can't speak to 'ones to be avoided' because I've always bought name-brand with decent/common hardware, but in addition to HP and Dell I've also had success with Lenovo's ThinkPad. Find a version which needs a RAM upgrade usually very cheap...then just buy an extra stick of RAM to go with it. On your favorite auction site, you might enter "laptop bulk" and see what comes up...I just saw a set of 6 Dell Latitude E5510's for less than 200USD (not incl.shipping). The company I work for had a stack of about 100 Dell Precisions last year (which went quickly) I run a massive server now with all the VM's I'll ever need, but I still keep some boxes on-hand for lab/test purposes. Hope it helps.
^^ I believe because the other day I also bought a Wi-Fi USB adapter for only the equivalent @US$ 8 and this is what I'm using now
Most likely depends upon the base h/w & OS in question... In all cases I always prefer to use an ethernet cable rather than wifi whenever possible. In my very new HP NB, Ubuntu Mate doesn't use the in-built adapter, so I just ignore it - there was no need to disable it. When I had a krappy Lenovo NB before, it's own adapter was junk, so I disabled it & used a dongle instead. IMO most built-in ones tend to always be very weak, vs. a good (but tiny) dongle,so that is my normal preference.
Lots & lots of anti-m$ replies lately in the 'impossible' thread - which ARE good to see, BUT: Perhaps some folks who are pro-Linux mght consider pitching in here as well ?? Thanks.
Been happily M$-free my entire life. Blessedly started as a 68k Mac user, moved on to PowerPC Mac, switched to Linux after graduating, now enjoying a systemd-free BSD experience. I do love MDL for letting me activate win10 for my friends tho!
We need 2 things to overtake Microsoft Windows. 1] Users that are willing to learn Linux. 2] Developers that are willing to develop apps for linux and develop linux itself.
Is there really anything to learn any more? Most Linux Distros are just as easy to use as Windows these days. I agree the App side of things is poor but that is improving all the time.
I agree that more/similar apps would be a great improvement, and...: As to the 'learning' angle - there are those so caught up in the mainstream baloney that they are quite immune to ALL learning - unless it is in a TV commercial or the like. What there IS to learn, is=> That Linux exists AND that most folks are already using a relative of it on their smartphones. If HP or Dull (dell...) would add little things to their ads saying: 'Now available with Linux !' Tthen lots more folks would likely start using it. Getting back to apps - in my own, personal transition to being a devoted Linux user there ARE leftover windoze apps which I refuse to do without. I will be adding to my thread here about Linux user-friendliness upon this very subject - next.
What do people need? 1. Better live distro support. I have still not been able to run a Linux live CD/USB stick on my laptop. It is a fairly recent laptop - just 2 1/2 years old, and all the live cds I have tried have failed during setup itself. 2. A guide to Linux that is written by a former Windows user, NOT a Linux geek. A database/ collection of all the tasks Windows users usually do, and the Linux equivalent of the same task, explained in terms that are intelligible to Windows users. Say I want to try a different graphics driver. In Windows I'll download the new driver as an exe and run it. What do I do in Linux? After hours of searching I'll be looking at stuff like sudo get apt blah blah blah. No one bothers to explain how it all works. FFS I'm not new to the command line interface - I've used DOS - but the Linux syntax is different, and there is no Windows way vs. Linux way reference guide. 2a In Windows, if the new display driver doesn't install, I'll run DDU in safe mode, clean the old driver, disable driver signature enforcement if needed, then install the new driver, all the while staying disconnected from the internet so that Windows Update doesn't automatically install a driver on its own. What to do in Linux? 3. More patience when dealing with people new to Linux, or computing in general. Linux forums are the most unhelpful places on the internet. The sick, sadistic bastards get their jollies making fun of newbies, most likely masturbating in delight at every successful put down of a simple question asked by a newbie who doesn't know any better. If you can't be bothered to help, just give the poor fellow a link and tell him to ask there.