Microsoft forced Lenovo to put a Copilot key on my laptop. I run Linux. It does nothing. We paid for their advertisement on hardware we own.
Lenovo LOQ, Linux Mint user here. That shiny Copilot key? Completely dead. Does absolutely nothing.
Microsoft made this key mandatory for OEM certification — so Lenovo had no choice. They literally removed the right Ctrl key that existed for 30 years and replaced it with a branded Microsoft button.
EU banned IE bundling in 2009. But a permanent AI logo burned into physical hardware? Crickets.
You can uninstall software. You cannot remove a key from your keyboard.
This is hardware-level vendor lock-in and nobody's talking about it.
u/TygerTung — 2 days ago