With Monday’s news that it will bundle Linux on laptops, Lenovo becomes the second major PC maker to offer the open-source operating system on consumer PCs. But though the move is a boost for the OS, analysts say it’ll be years before desktop Linux can seriously threaten proprietary systems like Windows.

Improvements in Windows 7 will make it less likely notebook makers will adopt Linux-based operating systems, said a technology executive at Lenovo.

The desktop Linux market got a big boost earlier this month at LinuxWorld, where Lenovo unveiled plans to soon begin selling ThinkPads preloaded with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. The deal makes Novell the second major vendor to support Linux on its consumer PCs, following the trail Dell blazed in May with its decision to offer machines loaded with Ubuntu Linux.

Back in June, when I wrote an opinion piece about the enduring competition between the three major operating systems, I assumed the race would just go on indefinitely. But in a brilliant stroke of diplomatic ingenuity, Lenovo brought to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a single hybrid laptop in which Windows 7 and Lenovo's custom form of Linux.

Lenovo today announced its IdeaPad U1, a consumer Windows laptop with a touchscreen that can be detached and used as a separate Linux tablet computer.

What you should be aware of and concerned about as a consumer is those machines labeled as "Designed for Windows 8". Much more so if you care about the environmental and humanitarian problems caused by e-wastes, for these machines do end up much earlier as e-wastes than the ordinary machines manufactured now.

Recently, many larger OEM system builders have started offering a selection of their models with Linux distributions pre-installed. Really big names such as Dell and Lenovo have offered this service.
Unfortunately, DesktopLinux.com reports that Lenovo have pulled out and will no longer offer Linux pre-installs on any of their home-oriented systems.

The biggest Czech Linux portal, AbcLinuxu.cz, reimbursed a user for a MS Windows Vista Business OEM license in Lenovo ČR's stead. The paid amount is the same the manufacturer offered for returning the license in accordance with the EULA of the Windows Vista Business OEM software that was supplied with the Lenovo laptop.

At Lenovo's press dinner the other night there was an unidentified handheld on display, sitting casually next to the three new consumer-friendly IdeaPad laptops the company had come to Las Vegas to push.