Linux support laptop

General Discussion
1

Lenovo thinkbook g16 ryzen 5 has Linux support or not. Does it have bios/uefi? Does every laptop has Linux compatibility?

2

Hi 911,

When you say “Linux support”, what exactly are you asking?

  • Will a Linux Distribution work on a G16?
    • Almost certainly, although which one(s) and whether the G16 has any unsupported hardware, I don’t know.
  • Can you buy a G16 with Linux pre-loaded?
    • Again, this the answer is “almost certainly”, the question is “which Linux” and "from who. I have seen mention of Lenovo selling pre-loaded Linux, but as with other manufacturers this will probably vary depending on the country you’re in.
  • Does every laptop have Linux compatibility?
    • No. Most Intel or AMD based Laptops will run Linux to varying extents, however there are “other” chips out there. You will probably find these days that “most” laptops will run Linux, and “most” of the hardware within the Laptop will be supported.
    • That being said, unless I saw something horrible via Google about a specific laptop and Linux, I wouldn’t worry about buying a machine then finding problems.

Manufacturers choosing to pre-install Linux have a number of issues to deal with. For a start there’s support - who is going to provide support for machines with Linux on them? Whereas the idea of calling M$ and paying lots of money to open a support ticket is not necessarily attractive, the feature exists.

Then there is “which Linux”, if you approach say the likes of “Ubuntu” with a view to pre-installing “Ubuntu” on computers, you may not like the response (which is why for example I’ve moved everything to Debian)

3

Thanks for reply.
One customer review says- Linux users must avoid, no bios support for us.
Here is the product specs page:
https://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/ThinkBook_16_G6_ABP?M=21KK009MSP
Also customer support said this device won’t be compatible with Linux. Pl clear my doubt.

4

Erm, Ok, so here’s the caveat, I’ve not used one so I don’t “know”.

However.

Looking at the spec it looks pretty normal, and afaik Lenovo (and IBM before them) have a long history of providing hardware that Linux runs well on. I would be shocked (and horrified) if this machine didn’t run well with a mainstream Linux distro.

If you want to be absolutely sure before you buy one, find somewhere on the high street with one on display, walk into the shop with a Linux USB key and ask if you can boot it up from the key.

Failing that, make sure you can return it within (n) days if you decide you don’t want it. When you take delivery, boot it up from a Linux USB key before you do anything to the hard drive … then if there is a problem and you want to send it back it should effectively be “untouched”. (just make sure you read and abide by the return conditions…) :slight_smile:

hth