I love the juxtaposition of these two stories. First, we hear that Chinese PC-maker Lenovo won't be supporting Linux on any of its products. Lenovo bought most of IBM's PC hardware business last year, including it's Thinkpad line of notebooks. Next, we hear that the Central Trust of China, which is in charge of purchasing computers and other equipment for government agencies and schools, has mandated that all desktop computers purchased from now on must be Linux-compatible.

Now, this probably isn't a disaster for Lenovo. The Central Trust mandate seems to be just that the computers are compatible with Linux, not that the manufacturers support it, and Lenovo says it will provide advice on getting Linux to run on its systems. It's still amusing that both of these stories came out over the same weekend, though.

**Update:** Lenovo denies ditching Linux.

On Friday, CRN reported that Frank Kardonski, Lenovo's worldwide product manager for its 3000 series, had indicated that Linux support was being dropped.

"We will not have models available for Linux, and we do not have custom order, either," he told the reseller newspaper. "What you see is what you get. And at this point, it's (Microsoft) Windows."

But Lenovo made strenuous efforts on Monday to set the record straight, emphasizing that Kardonski provided incorrect information to CRN and that the company plans to continue to offer Linux on ThinkPads.