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View Full Version : Ordered Thinkpad T420 without windows.



donniezazen
May 25th, 2011, 07:32 PM
Just ordered Lenovo Thinkpad T420 without Windows. While the difference was worth stones but it just feels good to go completely Ubuntu.

This collegehumor line cracks me every time i think about it.
***

Neo says,"Ubuntu, I am going to learn Ubuntu."
***

sanderd17
May 25th, 2011, 09:38 PM
I also searched a while to get a computer without Windows, and I finally got an Ahtec ( http://www.ahtec.nl/ , site is half dutch-half english). They don't ship to a lot of countries, but I felt great to be able to buy a computer without OS.

I later noticed that it are in fact debranded Qforce computers. Compare the two:

http://www.ahtec.nl/product/espec/index.jsp?id=531
http://q-force.be/dura-7520.htm

bjordan1979
May 26th, 2011, 09:53 PM
How in the world did you pull that off? I've decided to get a Thinkpad T420 and I'd love to save cost and get it without an OS if possible but I haven't found an OS'less option yet.

donniezazen
May 26th, 2011, 10:41 PM
How in the world did you pull that off? I've decided to get a Thinkpad T420 and I'd love to save cost and get it without an OS if possible but I haven't found an OS'less option yet.

They were actually very polite about it. I called the sales department and asked if they could ship it with DOS. He waived off 35-40 bucks which not a lot compared to an i7 Thinkpad's price but i have a couple of Windows licenses that i get from my school. So, why pay for it and an OEM install comes with 100s of bloatware to slow it down.

NET WT
May 26th, 2011, 10:43 PM
I thought Windows came free with new computers. Would there even be a discount?

angryfirelord
May 26th, 2011, 10:52 PM
I thought Windows came free with new computers. Would there even be a discount?
There's some, but generally the cost of Windows to OEMs isn't that big. It's not anywhere near the cost of a retail box of Windows. It's usually done more on a basis of principle than on cost savings.

abiswas
May 27th, 2011, 01:28 AM
How in the world did you pull that off? I've decided to get a Thinkpad T420 and I'd love to save cost and get it without an OS if possible but I haven't found an OS'less option yet.


I got a thinkpad T420 just 2 days back in Switzerland. We can order it without windows and its 120 franks cheaper. Just loving it !!!

jhonan
May 27th, 2011, 01:31 AM
They were actually very polite about it. I called the sales department and asked if they could ship it with DOS.
DOS? As in DOS5.5 (or whatever it was) ? - I could just imagine them searching the storeroom for the DOS boot diskettes...

matthewbpt
May 27th, 2011, 01:37 AM
They were actually very polite about it. I called the sales department and asked if they could ship it with DOS. He waived off 35-40 bucks which not a lot compared to an i7 Thinkpad's price but i have a couple of Windows licenses that i get from my school. So, why pay for it and an OEM install comes with 100s of bloatware to slow it down.

Damn I should've thought of doing that! I bought a Thinkpad Edge 11, arrived last week and I'm loving it. Came with Win 7, but I also have free licenses available from my school, and I hardly use it anyway, just been using Ubuntu.

fetbec
June 2nd, 2011, 11:37 AM
Damn I should've thought of doing that! I bought a Thinkpad Edge 11, arrived last week and I'm loving it. Came with Win 7, but I also have free licenses available from my school, and I hardly use it anyway, just been using Ubuntu.
Hi,
I bought a Thinkpad T420, arrived last week and Came with Win 7, so can somebody send me link to download Ubuntu certified for this model ?

sanderd17
June 2nd, 2011, 11:40 AM
Hi,
I bought a Thinkpad T420, arrived last week and Came with Win 7, so can somebody send me link to download Ubuntu certified for this model ?

All installations of Ubuntu use the same installation disk, it's found on the main page of the main Ubuntu site.

There is nothing as a "certified Ubuntu" for a computer. Just burn the iso, run the CD and see if it works. If it works, you can install it.

mejo
June 2nd, 2011, 11:53 AM
All installations of Ubuntu use the same installation disk, it's found on the main page of the main Ubuntu site.

There is nothing as a "certified Ubuntu" for a computer. Just burn the iso, run the CD and see if it works. If it works, you can install it.

I assume your claims are right, but the page about ThinkPad T420[1] in 'Certified hardware' section of Ubuntu.com gives the impression, that such a certified Ubuntu does exist:


Ubuntu releases:
10.10 (Pre-installed only, with notes)and:


The Lenovo Thinkpad T420 laptop has been awarded the status of Certified on Ubuntu PC (x86).

Please note that for pre-installed systems:

1) A special image of Ubuntu is available via the computer manufacturer designed for this specific computer. It takes advantage of hardware features for these systems and may include proprietary software and codecs. Please contact the computer manufacturer for access to that specific Ubuntu operating system version.


2) Standard images of Ubuntu may not work at all on this system or may not work well. Canonical and computer manufacturers try to certify all OEM systems with standard releases of Ubuntu, although we are not yet there in 100% of cases.[1] http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201102-7230:201102-7315

Canime
June 2nd, 2011, 02:06 PM
UBUNTU UBUNTU UBUNTU! Clearly the best choice!

donniezazen
June 2nd, 2011, 07:23 PM
It would be interesting to see what works out of box. I hated Ubuntu when i need to install wireless driver for my old dell E1505 using ethernet. And latest driver doesn't work at all which forced me to use maverick version.

mejo
June 6th, 2011, 10:36 PM
It would be interesting to see what works out of box. I hated Ubuntu when i need to install wireless driver for my old dell E1505 using ethernet. And latest driver doesn't work at all which forced me to use maverick version.

for me, nearly everything worked out of the box with natty narwhal on my t420. here's a list (from memory) of issues i remember:

- need to disable nvidia optimus in BIOS. either choose internal intel graphics (saves power, satisfying for me) or discrete nvidia graphics. work is in progress though, to support optimus for linux. see [1].

- the fan runs all the time. you need to install thinkfan and manually add newer temperature sensors to its config file in order to make it work on the t420. See [2] (german) for further information

- battery lifetime was very short without tweaks. with integrated intel graphics, thinkfan running, and tlp installed and configured, i get up to 7,5 hours now.

- the microphone mute button doesn't work. didn't find a solution for that one yet. [3] [4]

- both speakers mute button and wireless hotbutton behave in an unexpected way. for the wireless hotbutton that seems to be a feature (see [5]), for the speakers mute button I hope a fix is found soon.

- issues with external monitor. regardless whether I use the docking station or directly plot my monitor into the vga connector, the screen is somehow broken and cluttered. hope this will be fixed with kernel & video driver update soon.

all in all I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with ubuntu 11.04 on my t420, given that it's pretty new hardware.

also see the following thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10886666

greetings,
jonas

[1] https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee
[2] http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkfan#Keine_Funktion_auf_X220.2C_T420.2C_L420_m it_Ubuntu_11.04_.2F_Kernel_2.6.38
[3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/751471
[4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/408903
[5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/773558

donniezazen
June 7th, 2011, 12:30 AM
for me, nearly everything worked out of the box with natty narwhal on my t420. here's a list (from memory) of issues i remember:

- need to disable nvidia optimus in BIOS. either choose internal intel graphics (saves power, satisfying for me) or discrete nvidia graphics. work is in progress though, to support optimus for linux. see [1].

- the fan runs all the time. you need to install thinkfan and manually add newer temperature sensors to its config file in order to make it work on the t420. See [2] (german) for further information

- battery lifetime was very short without tweaks. with integrated intel graphics, thinkfan running, and tlp installed and configured, i get up to 7,5 hours now.

- the microphone mute button doesn't work. didn't find a solution for that one yet. [3] [4]

- both speakers mute button and wireless hotbutton behave in an unexpected way. for the wireless hotbutton that seems to be a feature (see [5]), for the speakers mute button I hope a fix is found soon.

- issues with external monitor. regardless whether I use the docking station or directly plot my monitor into the vga connector, the screen is somehow broken and cluttered. hope this will be fixed with kernel & video driver update soon.

all in all I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with ubuntu 11.04 on my t420, given that it's pretty new hardware.

also see the following thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10886666

greetings,
jonas

[1] https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee
[2] http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkfan#Keine_Funktion_auf_X220.2C_T420.2C_L420_m it_Ubuntu_11.04_.2F_Kernel_2.6.38
[3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/751471
[4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/408903
[5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/773558

Thanks,

The biggest up side was that wifi driver worked on its own which was a big trouble on Dell i had as bcmwl 100.x.x.x doesn't work at all. Yeah i had trouble with NVIDIA card but i figured out that optimus needed to be disabled. Nvidia doesn't play nice with brightness but their is a hack to enable it. Pretty much everything works.

I noticed this morning that it is an i7 DUAL-CORE machine not a quad-core. I don't know if it matters for my work. I am no video editor but will be encoding video and play latest games. I guess it should be fine.

boriolis
July 7th, 2011, 05:06 AM
There's some, but generally the cost of Windows to OEMs isn't that big. It's not anywhere near the cost of a retail box of Windows. It's usually done more on a basis of principle than on cost savings.



Here in India the difference is huge. The price difference of Thinkpad E420 with and without Windows 7 here is US $135 (on converting to US currency).

shobon
July 7th, 2011, 06:41 AM
Ooo is this a Thinkpad thread? I think so.

I'm ordering a T60 later this week just for GNU/Linux. It'll be used so I don't think requesting it without Windows is worth anything, seeing as how I plan to format it the minute I open it.

Dustin2128
July 7th, 2011, 07:45 AM
DOS? As in DOS5.5 (or whatever it was) ? - I could just imagine them searching the storeroom for the DOS boot diskettes...
It's usually FreeDOS, GPL'd drop in MS-DOS replacement. Don't see the point myself, on such powerful hardware.

donniezazen
July 7th, 2011, 08:13 AM
Forty or Fifty bucks is not a huge difference so i would just but it with Win 7. Natty's performance is awful on this machine. I had to spend a whole day setting it up as i already had a licensed copy but drivers are a big mess. Then i found the Thinkpad Software updater which automatically downloads everything needed.

rewyllys
August 28th, 2011, 07:26 PM
Forty or Fifty bucks is not a huge difference so i would just but it with Win 7. Natty's performance is awful on this machine. I had to spend a whole day setting it up as i already had a licensed copy but drivers are a big mess. Then i found the Thinkpad Software updater which automatically downloads everything needed.
What and where is this "Thinkpad Software updater"?

Could you please provide a URL for it?

Thanks.

donniezazen
August 28th, 2011, 08:02 PM
What and where is this "Thinkpad Software updater"?

Could you please provide a URL for it?

Thanks.

http://support.lenovo.com/en_CA/downloads/detail.page?LegacyDocID=TVSU-UPDATE

keithpeter
August 28th, 2011, 09:17 PM
I'm ordering a T60 later this week just for GNU/Linux. It'll be used so I don't think requesting it without Windows is worth anything, seeing as how I plan to format it the minute I open it.

If its like my T60 type 1952 you might need to research the 'thinkfan' fan control package. I had it working ok with 10.04 using these instructions...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1586094

but hopefully the thinkfan package has been updated since. in my case, the fan was coming on all the time (noisy but the safer option!)

Apart from that it was nice and fast.

Cheers

rewyllys
August 28th, 2011, 11:24 PM
http://support.lenovo.com/en_CA/downloads/detail.page?LegacyDocID=TVSU-UPDATE

Donniezazen,

Many thanks for the URL.:popcorn:

It's encouraging to learn that Lenovo has such support for Linux.

donniezazen
August 28th, 2011, 11:30 PM
Donniezazen,

Many thanks for the URL.:popcorn:

It's encouraging to learn that Lenovo has such support for Linux.

I am sorry. This is not for Linux but Windows 7. Most of the drivers for Linux come pre-installed. The only tweaks i had to do were get thinkfan (http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkfan#Keine_Funktion_auf_X220.2C_T420.2C_L420_m it_Ubuntu_11.04_.2F_Kernel_2.6.38) working, TLP (http://thinkpad-wiki.org/TLP_-_Stromspareinstellungen_fuer_Ubuntu) and patch boot line for kernel power regression issues (http://www.webupd8.org/2011/06/linux-kernel-power-issue-fix.html#more).

rewyllys
August 29th, 2011, 12:40 PM
I am sorry. This is not for Linux but Windows 7. Most of the drivers for Linux come pre-installed. The only tweaks i had to do were get thinkfan (http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkfan#Keine_Funktion_auf_X220.2C_T420.2C_L420_m it_Ubuntu_11.04_.2F_Kernel_2.6.38) working, TLP (http://thinkpad-wiki.org/TLP_-_Stromspareinstellungen_fuer_Ubuntu) and patch boot line for kernel power regression issues (http://www.webupd8.org/2011/06/linux-kernel-power-issue-fix.html#more).
Thanks for the clarification.

Ferralll
July 9th, 2012, 03:08 AM
I tried several times to call Lenovo and see if they would sell a T420 with just DOS, Ubuntu or even with out an OS.

Each time, they clearly said no, and would not offer any extra incentive to buy (except a 10% discount that it seems they give to pretty much any one who asks)

It is a shame. I guess I will continue my search. I just do not feel like forking over ~$80 for an OS that I will erase the day I get the computer.

angryfirelord
July 9th, 2012, 12:08 PM
I tried several times to call Lenovo and see if they would sell a T420 with just DOS, Ubuntu or even with out an OS.

Each time, they clearly said no, and would not offer any extra incentive to buy (except a 10% discount that it seems they give to pretty much any one who asks)

It is a shame. I guess I will continue my search. I just do not feel like forking over ~$80 for an OS that I will erase the day I get the computer.
Well, you are and you aren't. One of the things computer manufacturers do to get prices lower is by bundling all that "junk" that you won't use. They also can get Windows at a lower rate than what the OEM disk sells for since they're selling a lot of it. If they took off Windows, it might actually be more expensive for them to manufacturer it.