Linux desktops in China

The subject of this BLOG is actually quite misleading because I am disappointed to report that out of the big 5 PC manufacturers and distributors in China (Lenovo, Founder, Acer, HP and Dell), none of them have Linux pre-installed on their desktops, nor laptops, and servers are another story. The biggest disappointment to me was Lenovo which, having taken over the IBM personal computing business, I would have thought it might stay sympathetic to Linux.

It was only 3 years ago I did see brands such as Acer, Dell, Founder, HP and Legend (now Lenovo) selling desktops in the local department stores with Red Flag pre installed. That ended pretty quickly. Lenovo 3 months ago irritated quite a few people with their miscommunication about supporting Linux on their Desktops and Laptops and surprisingly enough, Dell in China, who will offer Linux installed servers, will not go so far as to offer the software for Desktops and Laptops, though I had seen it before, and I even recall them offering an Open Source version of Office.

Even the smaller manufacturers such as Shen Zhou and Hedy don't offer a Linux installation. But hey, don't get too worried, one company has managed to still market and sell Preinstalled desktops, and the winner is Qinghua TingFang, using Hong Qi Linux as their preferred Distro.

Further good news is that at least Lenovo 3 months ago created a Linux team, I think it is more of a support component as what I understand is that they have installed Linux/Unix on their PCs and laptops, in a secure partition where they keep all the system tools. Zhang Feng appears to be the team leader and so far has his hands busy.

Perhaps Microsofts OEM license pricing might have something to do with this sudden disappearance of Linux in the Personal Computing market.