This may be close to the truth, if it turns out to be true that Lenovo intend to shun Linux, supporting only Windows on their Thinkpads and desktop machines.
In saying that, they hardly support anything anyway, but the general consensus is the build quality is decreasing with cost cutting, and I expect that Linux people will start shunning Lenovo anyway, in both developing drivers for, and buying, the hardware. But IBM were meant to move to a total Linux desktop internally by 2005 - a target they missed - and much of their development work is done on Linux desktops. I'm sure they have an arrangement to buy gear from Lenovo at or near cost, and probably without Windows licenses, and I'm also sure that the worlds largest IT services company can probably orchestrate their own driver writing and distribution maintenance. However, with the speed at which Lenovo are distancing themselves from the powerful IBM brand, it's not hard to imagine that IBM staff will end up using another vendors desktops and laptops in the future.
There were a lot of Thinkpads at Linux.conf.au in January.
At about the same time, the Chinese government purchasing agency announced that all new PCs they purchase must be Linux compatible, and Lenovo are a supplier on that list. Go figure.
Edit: turns out that the manager commenting was responsible for only the cheap 3000 series, and his comments weren't meant for Thinkpad. Foot in mouth please.
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