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.

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.

Lenovo has announced the Skylight sub-notebook which uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip, runs Linux rather than Windows and will sell for around $499 (£308) when it goes on sale in April. Using the ARM chip architecture, Lenovo's Linux device represents a significant move away form the common Intel/Microsoft Windows model for computers.

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.

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

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.

Lenovo has announced its entry into the "netbook" market. The Linux-based IdeaPad S9 and Windows-XP-based S10 feature 8.9- and 10-inch displays, respectively, plus 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processors, 1.3 megapixel webcams, 802.11b/g wireless networking, and up to 160GB of storage, says the company.

A French laptop buyer has won a refund from Lenovo after a four-year legal battle over the cost of a Windows license he didn't want. The judgment could open the way for PC buyers elsewhere in Europe to obtain refunds for bundled software they don't want, French campaign group No More Racketware said.

After Dell broke the ice for pre-installing Linux on desktops and netbooks in 2007, the other major OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) reluctantly tried it out, and, in some cases, like Lenovo, backed right back out of the Linux desktop market again. As 2010 dawns though, Lenovo and HP are both back in the pre-installed desktop Linux game.