another good reason to build .. don't buy

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/superfish-infected-computer-150512749.html

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another good reason to build .. don't buy

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/superfish-infected-computer-150512749.html

Link is now clickable.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/superfish-infected-computer-150512749.html

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Didn't realize that Lenovo made desktops. Is there any way to build laptops? I've only built desktops, and my impression has been that the answer is no. If I ever get a laptop or help a friend with theirs, is there a way to know if there's manufacturer installed adware or privacy reducing bloatware? Are there brands that should be avoided? Any website that lists brands w/ adware, ect.

Build-able laptops: technically yes, generally no. It can be done if you know what you're doing, but it ends up costing more than just buying one because you have to source replacement pieces/parts from one or more models and assemble them together.. and replacement parts cost an absurd amount in comparison to buying a whole laptop.

There was a kickstarter fund or something similar a few years back to try to make build-able laptops a real thing, but then tablets and smart phones became affordable, so that idea kind of went silently into the night.



Regarding what to look/scan for in a new (or factory-restored) laptop: I typically prefer to just wipe it and do a clean OS install myself, and THEN make a new "factory image" at that point, but that's me.

Most people are just fine with going to the installed programs list (appwiz.cpl) and just remove everything you don't want. It's not perfect, but it does fairly well. There's always Decrapifier which does that in a pretty automated manner. It's great for new machines or ones that have been going for a few years and collected a ton of bloatware from various things (such as.. you got a new printer and wanted the 3 MB worth of drivers so you can print things.. but you HAD to download the 800 MB software bundle and install 50 things that you will never ever use.. and so forth).

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

For anyone with a Lenovo, they have posted an automated uninstaller to get rid of Superfish.

Of course, just in case you are justifiably dubious running it given that it was also developed by Lenovo, there are manual uninstall directions there too. :^)

U.S. Department of Homeland Security alert on Superfish. This is worth a read as you should also uninstall "Komodo redirector" if present.

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Aside from Lenovo adding the uninstall instructions on their website, they'd also already disabled the servers that would send the adverts. I bought a Lenovo laptop for my mother in January and although I saw that app in the Add/Remove Programs listing, I noticed no extra commercial adverts coming in. So it's a bit of a storm in a teacup scenario.

It was long disabled before anyone found out about it and posted the first report about it.

If you want to feel secure, go online on your Xiaomi smartphone.
The first thing these phones do when you add a simcard and have loaded the battery, is secretly text carrier name, phone number, IMEI (the device identifier) plus numbers from address book and text messages back to Beijing, and continues to do this every month. Yet a lot of the people screaming murder about Lenovo happily use such a phone.

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my point exactly .. call me paranoid but Lenovo and Xiaomi might very well be just 2 of the teacups in the china cabinet

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Lenovo's security advisory says "This advisory only applies to Lenovo Notebook products.
(ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, Lenovo Desktop, ThinkStation, ThinkServer and System x products are not impacted.)"

Also, the previously linked removal instructions appear to only apply to Win 8/8.1.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Lenovo's security advisory says "This advisory only applies to Lenovo Notebook products.
(ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, Lenovo Desktop, ThinkStation, ThinkServer and System x products are not impacted.)"

Also, the previously linked removal instructions appear to only apply to Win 8/8.1.

Well the original article did say Superfish was only installed for three months I believe from October to December last year so it is unlikely Lenovo were selling any Windows machines with anything other than Win8 on.

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Lenovo.comhas been hacked. Not the website itself, but apparently malicious people have hijacked Lenovo's domain record, an attack that would have given them the power to redirect the lenovo.com url to a new server under their control.

You can go to http://www.lenovo.com, but as soon as you click any of the top links here, you're at the redirect again.
More at The Verge, or any other news outlet who sports this news.

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Lenovo.comhas been hacked. Not the website itself, but apparently malicious people have hijacked Lenovo's domain record, an attack that would have given them the power to redirect the lenovo.com url to a new server under their control.

You can go to http://www.lenovo.com, but as soon as you click any of the top links here, you're at the redirect again.
More at The Verge, or any other news outlet who sports this news.

THAT really inspires confidence. I'm glad I didn't download the uninstaller from "their" site.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.