I just launched this thread on the Lenovo forum:
The reply by Usedtoberich seems to imply that Lenovo considers it is no longer usual or recommended practice to install Linux on their “modern” computers.
To avoid getting involved in a local spat, I’d be grateful for advice on how to follow this up. We haven’t yet discussed dual boot…
This is not true.
He just recommends to use an USB 3.0 medium and
If you want Mint or Ubuntu carefully read the installation guide to learn how to select and download and build your bootable media. The methods for modern computers are different from methods that worked for Windows 7 machines.
As long as you are able to boot into any operating system from a pen drive or a disc, you should be able to install Mint on your computer. You should carefully check your BIOS/UEFI settings to make sure, that booting from USB/disc is enabled.
For your specific device (computer), I can’t give you further advice as I don’t own one of these.
I’m not in the habit of posting purely technical questions on more than one forum. The stuff about the magical properties of a new usb 3.0 device, and the reminder to read the instructions on making a bootable ISO image, are essentially distractions from the message contained in the reply by Usedtoberich of Lenovo. Anyway, I’ve booted or installed Ubuntu and derivatives on Lenovo machines that are probably more recent models than the one in question.
The message is that, whereas Lenovo was at one time promoting Linux and Ubuntu in particular, they say now that “they occupy themselves only with Windows software”. Few machines with Linux (or no OS) remain on offer (only one here in France). Only Fedora is now referred to; this is, relatively speaking, a distribution for specialists. We can surmise that the non-Windows market is too small for ordinary customers of large manufacturers, so that every such customer has to pay their tribute to Microsoft whether they want Windows or not.
One reason for reluctance to adopt desktop Linux, sometimes discussed here, is that available major applications tend to have imperfections that, though they appear minor at first sight, make the software incompatible with what the user needs. A well documented example is LibreOffice and precursors: bugs and omissions that can be traced to fairly subtle defects in the odf file specifications render these office suites practically unusable at school or work. No-one who has worked on regulatory specifications affecting industry (my field was pharmaceutical regulation) will be naive about what might possibly have happened.
Desktop Linux has failed to develop in all but a few limited areas, even for the majority of potential users who can’t afford to pay much for computing facilities. This consolidates the situation of influence, intrusion and forced obsolescence on the part of the current monopoly suppliers. Reading between the lines of the reply by Usedtoberich, we should try to interest legislators, as a matter of urgency, in the relatively less publicised question of control and ownership of the BIOS.