Geeks Petition for Free Lenovo BIOS
FOSS community acts to protect freedom of choice for laptop devices.
Software developer Evan Carroll and several coleagues have started a petition at Change.org calling for Lenovo to end its practice of building a hardware whitelist into the BIOS as a means of excluding devices the company does not support. Critics complain that this practice excludes some devices and drivers that the system actually supports, just because Lenovo doesn't happen to have a business agreement with the device vendor. In other words, the exclusion has no technical purpose. For instance, a wifi adapter by a manufacturer that is officially approved by Lenovo is allowed access to the system, but another adapter with an identical chipset is excluded by the BIOS.
The petition calls for Lenovo to release an "unencumbered" version of the BIOS and states "We request the option to purchase third-party miniPCI-E cards and install them into the laptops we purchased."
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
SUSE Dives into the Agentic AI Pool
SUSE becomes the first open source company to adopt agentic AI with SUSE Enterprise Linux 16.
-
Linux Now Runs Most Windows Games
The latest data shows that nearly 90 percent of Windows games can be played on Linux.
-
Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
-
LMDE 7 Now Available
Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Reaches EOL
Linux kernel 6.16 has reached its end of life, which means you'll need to upgrade to the next stable release, Linux kernel 6.17.
-
Amazon Ditches Android for a Linux-Based OS
Amazon has migrated from Android to the Linux-based Vega OS for its Fire TV.
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.