Preloaded Linux systems: Weighing the options

People may joke about “the year of the Linux desktop” always being some five years into the future. But for a whole clutch of PC vendors who sell Linux as a standard preloaded OS on their systems, that year came a long time ago.

Of course, your first question is probably: Why? Having Linux as a preloaded OS might strike some people as odd, specially since Linux users tend to be do-it-yourselfers. There are actually several good reasons:

• Linux preloads are guaranteed to just work. One of the hassles of dealing with installing Linux manually (and with installing any OS manually, generally) is getting all your hardware ducks in a row: finding and adding hardware device drivers not included in the Linux distribution’s repository, making sure they work properly, configuring storage and so on. A preloaded Linux system has the vast majority of those issues addressed before you even open the box.
• It’s one less thing to do. Linux users are much more inclined to tinker than the average PC user; the nature of the OS encourages (and in some cases mandates) such things. But, sometimes, letting someone else do the basic heavy lifting can be worth paying for when you’re in a hurry or have other things on your mind.
• Service and support. Having “one throat to choke,” as someone once put it, is a great thing. Linux users are used to blaming themselves if their system falls over, but it can be useful to have a third party handling support, maintenance and repair. This is doubly useful for hardware not built by your own hands, or which sports a custom design. It’s also important if you’re buying Linux as a preload to satisfy the demands of others. For instance: some corporate contracts may require a responsible third party as a supplier, rather than performing the installation in-house.

In this article, I’ll look at the different ways Linux can be purchased as a preloaded OS on PCs, and what that convenience costs the end user. Most of the discussion will focus on laptops, not only because laptops are becoming a larger percentage of PC sales generally, but because of the complexities that often surface in running Linux on laptops. Having someone else do most of that heavy lifting would be a boon — or so goes the conventional wisdom.

The big-name vendors

When Linux was still being bruited around as an alternative to Windows 95, 98 and NT, a few big-name PC vendors such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard started an on-and-off flirtation with delivering Linux as an optional OS. But Microsoft’s massive presence in the PC space and the under-baked nature of many Linux distributions at the time made it a tough sell for non-technical users.

Today, very few PC vendors make a point of offering Linux as a preload, although there are a couple of notable exceptions. Among them is Dell, whose offerings come courtesy of its partnership with Canonical. Through that vendor, Dell has not only certified several of its systems as being compatible with Ubuntu Linux but provides Ubuntu as a preload.

Rather than try to make converts out of ordinary users, Dell’s approach is to make Linux available to the people most likely to want it: developers, experts and hackers. For example, the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook is available in a Developer Edition that comes preloaded with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Likewise, Dell’s high-end gaming PC brand, Alienware, now comes with Ubuntu as an option thanks to the growing presence of Steam for Linux.

Two other vendors that have provided Linux for its desktop users are Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. HP currently has a number of corporate-aimed systems certified to work with Linux; its workstations are generally compatible with Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu.

Lenovo also works with various Linux distributions (again, including Ubuntu) to ensure compatibility. Neither Lenovo nor HP consistently offers Linux as a preloaded option for desktops or laptops — but both are happy to ship servers that come with Linux as a preloaded option.

(I do want to note that Chrome OS and Android are both based on Linux. But since neither of those operating systems are actually Linux as most users know it, describing computers that are loaded with either as “Linux systems” is a misnomer. Of course, some Linux mavens snap up Chromebooks, wipe the laptops clean and install Linux on them.)

Independent system builders

If most name-brand PC vendors still don’t offer systems preloaded with Linux, dedicated system builders have stepped in to fill that gap.

System76 (founded in 2005) wasn’t the first Linux-centric PC vendor, but its name surfaces regularly in discussions concerning which vendor site to shop at first. Its distro of choice is Ubuntu, which isn’t surprising considering the two-way relationship System76 has with Canonical. System76 sponsors events including the Ubuntu Developer Summit, while Canonical in turn hosts the company’s official support forums.

Like many smaller PC companies, System76 does not manufacture its laptops. Posters on FedoraForum.org and on Reddit have asserted that System76 laptops are generally rebadged laptops manufactured by Taiwanese maker Clevo. I went to the Clevo website, and System76’s Bonobo Extreme does appear to have the same case design, the same backlit keyboard, even the same Onkyo speakers as the Clevo P370SM.

Still, Phoronix, which covers Linux-based hardware and software, had good things to say about System76’s recently released Gazelle Professional.

ZaReason (founded in 2007) takes a slightly different approach. Rather than just pick hardware that’s known to work well with Linux, it makes its systems Linux-compatible by submitting any needed driver or code fixes that its systems need back to the people who actively maintain Linux. Consequently, ZaReason supports not just one distro but several: Ubuntu (including Kubuntu), Fedora, Mint and Debian. Its range of hardware is a bit more limited than System76’s, especially the laptops, but Ars Technica thought well of ZaReason’s UltraLap 430 back in 2012.

Up until 2011, ZaReason had an unusual hardware warranty it called the “open hardware warranty,” which encouraged users to open up their laptops without fear of voiding the warranty, as described by Canonical’s Jono Bacon. This is no longer offered, but it does honor that warranty on computers shipped before August 1, 2011.

ThinkPenguin (founded in 2009) emphasizes hardware and software unencumbered by patent restrictions. When you access the site via the URL libre.thinkpenguin.com, a cookie is set in your browser that hides all non-free software or hardware — such as devices that require proprietary drivers. ThinkPenguin also has a partnership with Linux Mint; purchases of ThinkPenguin PCs from the Linux Mint store return a 10% donation to the upkeep of the Linux Mint distribution.

The resellers

Yet another approach to selling Linux systems is to take a system from an existing name-brand PC maker, load Linux onto it and resell it. This works best when the system in question is already known to work well with Linux, either because the manufacturer has taken pains to certify it as Linux-compatible or because a third party has done that legwork. In all cases, though, it’s the original manufacturer that handles any hardware support duties.

Two things can be problematic here: The degree of support offered by the reseller (as opposed to the original hardware maker), and the markup imposed on the resold hardware.

EmperorLinux (founded in 1999) offers four major laptop brands with Linux as a preload: Dell, Lenovo, Panasonic and Sony. It can install any of the most popular distributions — including Ubuntu, Red Hat / CentOS and Slackware — but also provides its own Fedora-based EmperorLinux distribution, with a custom kernel designed to work on laptops. The company is also an officially designated VAR (value-added reseller) for each of the brands it sells, rather than simply an eBay-style system repackager. One year of phone and email technical support is included for any Linux distro installed by EmperorLinux, but any support for the laptops themselves is supplied through the manufacturers.

What’s startling is how much of a markup there is on its offerings. Its version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook starts at $2,850 — but an identically equipped system ordered from Lenovo, albeit running Windows, is $1,775. This translates into over a thousand dollars out of pocket for the luxury of an out-of-the-box Linux experience.

Linux Certified (founded in 2000) is a Linux training and services company that also sells Linux-loaded ThinkPads, as well as some rebadged OEM laptops. A ThinkPad T430 from this company starts at $1,599 — but the same system configured at Lenovo’s site is only $773, the latter including Windows 7 Home Premium.

Hardware support for ThinkPads is again done through Lenovo, and its support for Linux seems limited. The Terms and Conditions document for the company reads: “Although, in general, we do help out customers with Linux configuration issues, we will restrict the number of such incidents that we support. We only support drivers with default distribution kernels.”

Because there is no one Linux, it makes sense for any reseller supporting the OS to limit its support options to whatever edition of Linux it installs. But customers should check to make sure that any price markup on a system translates into a reasonable amount of company-provided support.

Conclusions

If you want, or need, to run Linux, your cheapest bet at this point — but not necessarily the easiest — is to start with a laptop or PC that’s known to work well with the OS, either because the vendor says so or because of third-party testing that can be found on sites such as Linux on Laptops (an adjunct of LinuxCertified) and TuxMobil, both of which have lists of known compatible hardware.

Buying a custom-built system is a bit more expensive, mainly because the systems in question are generally rebadged OEM models, albeit ones chosen for being Linux compatible. Their prices can be competitive with A-list systems, but again the quality of their hardware may vary widely.

Buying a preload is the costliest option, and cost-effective only in that in some cases you’re purchasing support for a custom-built kernel for the system. But it also goes a long way towards guaranteeing that the entire system — Linux distribution, drivers, hardware and all — works well as one complete system.

This article, Preloaded Linux systems: The pros and cons, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

Serdar Yegulalp has been writing about computers and information technology for over 15 years for a variety of publications.