Textbook anticompetitive behviour worthy of a EU fine.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2022
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"Libre software" means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.
In particular, four freedoms define Free Software:
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
Placing restrictions on the use of Free Software, such as time ("30 days trial period", "license expires January 1st, 2004") purpose ("permission granted for research and non-commercial use", "may not be used for benchmarking") or geographic area ("must not be used in country X") makes a program non-free.
The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs.
Placing legal or practical restrictions on the comprehension or modification of a program, such as mandatory purchase of special licenses, signing of a Non-Disclosure-Agreement (NDA) or - for programming languages that have multiple forms or representation - making the preferred human way of comprehending and editing a program ("source code") inaccessible also makes it proprietary (non-free). Without the freedom to modify a program, people will remain at the mercy of a single vendor.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
Software can be copied/distributed at virtually no cost. If you are not allowed to give a program to a person in need, that makes a program non-free. This can be done for a charge, if you so choose.
The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
Not everyone is an equally good programmer in all fields. Some people don't know how to program at all. This freedom allows those who do not have the time or skills to solve a problem to indirectly access the freedom to modify. This can be done for a charge.
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Not accurate. You just have to disable secure boot and/or whatever the new Microsoft feature is in the firmware. You can still install Linux just fine or even use your own secure boot keys (or the Debian/Ubuntu keys) or just run it with secure boot disabled.
The laptop even has an option to ship with Linux as an OS. This is a lot of outrage over nothing.
https://psref.lenovo.com/Product/ThinkPad_Z13_Gen_1?tab=spec
Lately it feels like the computer enthusiasts have been losing their ability to think critically and just react to whatever shit story fills their void of outrage.
There is a silver lining though as folks who wish to run Linux on a Lenovo laptop with Secure Boot can do so by enabling the “Allow Microsoft 3rd Party UEFI CA” option in the BIOS. Here are the steps:
Boot into the BIOS setup menu. Reboot your PC and when the “To interrupt normal startup, press Enter” message is displayed press the F1 key
In the BIOS menu select the “Security” option and the “Secure Boot” sub-menu. Toggle the “Allow Microsoft 3rd party UEFI CA” to be “On”
Press F10 to save and reboot
I don't think the concern raised is a technical one though, and some people think there's a lock-in strategy, which you might or might not overcome depending on your skills.
https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/59931.html
Though it's clear technically you can always look for ways to overcome those, whether totally disabling secure boot, when possible, or looking for using 3rd party certificates. Whatever it is. Definitely not as straight forward as it used to be.
https://libredd.it/r/linux/comments/vu8uqk/new_laptops_that_only_boot_windows_by_default
Just disregarding the lock-in strategy, because there are ways, doesn't seem fair. But in the end it's up to anyone to agree or not to agree.
My suggestion for those not looking for dual boot computers, is to go for gnu+linux pre-installed computers, that might save you some time, and frustration before being able to get your computer to do what you really want.