[GTALUG] brands matter; Lenovo's brands

[Evan Leibovitch]

The more this thread continues the more I am reminded about the role of
inertia in branding and marketing.

Gaining a new customer (ie, getting them to switch brands) is a lot harder
than keeping existing ones, especially in mature markets. It's why many big
scummy companies treat you like dirt until the moment you threaten to
switch, at which point they shunt you to "retention" departments that
sometimes offer the only situations one could call competitive. Maybe.

I'd say that now HP, <https://hpdevone.com/linux-laptop> Dell
<https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-ca/000138246/linux-on-dell-desktops-and-laptops>
and Lenovo
<https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/faqs/operating-systems/what-is-linux/> all
expend the minimum necessary effort to support Linux, though that support
takes different forms. All know that you can't sell servers that won't
support Linux, and we don't have the compatibility issues of the early days
(where support meant not just PC markers but those of add-on interfaces
such as Adaptec and Digitech). Now most compatibility issues are either
BIOS related (mostly solved, and the fault of Microsoft rather than
hardware makers) graphics card and USB dongles (not an issue for servers
and not actually the fault of the laptop makers).

The "Thinkpad love" I see here IMO appears to reflect the age and
experiences of the discussion participants. Early in the days of PCs there
was way more diversity in hardware that could be explicitly Linux friendly
or hostile, and IBM was friendlier from the start when not all were.
Recall that in the 90s and 00s, HP, IBM and Dell (well DEC which was
eventually consumed by Dell via Compaq) all had big legacy
Unix/minicomputer businesses to protect, plus under Ballmer Microsoft was
overtly and aggressively hostile. IBM probably did the best job in not
letting all this get in the way of providing Linux support early on its
high-end PCs, and that reputation has stuck to the Thinkpad brand to this
day.

It would be interesting to see how anyone here who has only started buying
computers in the last 15 years or so regards this reverence for Lenovo.

- Evan
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