Lenovo is preparing to ship laptops preloaded with Ubuntu in India. The first of these systems will be the Lenovo Thinkpad L450, featuring only one of two CPUs, but the selection may widen over time and expand to other countries.
The Thinkpad L450 is part of Lenovo's mainstream L-Series of notebooks, and the company already sells this system with Windows in India. The Ubuntu versions of this system will typically feature an Intel Core i3-500U or an i5-5200U.
The Windows version also includes a Core i7 option carried by retailers. Because the Ubuntu version of the system is targeted as a cheaper alternative to the Windows-based system, Lenovo doesn't plan to sell pre-configured systems with the Core i7 and Ubuntu, but if someone wants this setup, it can be purchased through Lenovo's Configure To Order (CTO) service.
The pre-configured systems available from retailers will also utilize Intel HD Graphics instead of a discrete GPU, but AMD GPU options are available under the (CTO) service also.
Regardless of the CPU used, the initial system offerings will contain a 500 GB HDD and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM. Later, more models will be available with larger storage devices and more memory. The company might release the system with a wider range of CPUs in the future, too, but currently it's undecided. Likely, the popularity and sales of the system will determine if Lenovo designs systems with different CPU options.
Overall, switching to Ubuntu reduces the system cost considerably. Currently, the standard L450 system with Windows 8.1 Pro utilizing a Core i3, 4 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB HDD costs 59724 INR ($943.02 USD). An Ubuntu version of the system with the same hardware specs, however, will only cost 48000 INR ($757.91 USD). Although most people are accustomed to using Windows nowadays, that is a significantly reduced price.
It will be interesting to see if Lenovo decides to ship these systems anywhere else in the world, but for now an exact shipping date for the system in India has not yet been set. Likely, the success of this system will decide if Lenovo attempts more Ubuntu systems in other countries.
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