> And let's not forget the excellent Linux support on the thinkpad line (partially thanks to Ubuntu?).
From what I heard, mostly thanks to thankless employees at Red Hat who get these machines for work and batter them into submission (by reverse-engineering the hardware and writing device drivers). Lenovo only deserves the middle finger here.
That relationship has become a lot better over the years. We get early access to new hardware, Lenovo did a lot to get fwupd integrated, etc.
No OEM preload necessary on the business line machines. RHEL/Fedora installs just fine OOTB. Some problems remain, especially with Thunderbolt (docking stations) but that’s not just Lenovos fault, IMHO.
It's not a monolithic solid entity, is it? As I see it, those doing actual work deserve praise and respect (Red Hat does a lot of kernel and low-level plumbing work), while management is… typical management. Same as Mozilla and some other companies.
And let's not forget the excellent Linux support on the thinkpad line (partially thanks to Ubuntu?).