Linux-friendly laptops

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>

| The shift to
| Lenovo is a non-event because they were always made by Lenovo even when they
| had the IBM logo on them.

I always thought that too.  But who actually makes notebooks is not
easy to figure out.

(Almost?) All notebooks are made by ODMs
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Design_Manufacturer
Few people know this, but I'm sure many TLUGers do.

For example, the largest is Quanta and they got visibility in the Linux 
world as the manufacturer of the OLPC.

Often the same brand will be placed on products made by different
ODMs.  So the brand-name companies are not monogomous.

I always thought that Lenovo was an ODM, but I'm not sure at this
point.

This article says that Lenovo uses Compal for (some?) mainstream
notebooks, Wistron for X-series notebooks, and Pegatron for IdeaPads.

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20080730PD209.html

How much engineering is done by the brand and how much is done by the
ODM is not clear to me.

(Since I just got an ThinkPad x61t, I'm rather interested in this.
This is the first notebook that I've had that does "sleep" and
"wakeup" under Linux since APM went out of style.)

(The article suggests (but does not exactly say) that the ODM hasn't
been selected for a product to be introduced in two months.  I find
that very hard to imagine.)
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