I'm around a quarter through that thread which I missed previously cuz this dude bought an Ubuntu Dell that lasted 8 years. So, the situation seems to be they intentionally changed BIOS setting to not allow alternatives to their proprietary image or something like that. A lock-in technique in an industry that's had one after another exposed going back over a decade. So, what is going on the thread posits. Let me go through the top-ranked comments.

vanderZwan quotes a reference about companies that take away users' freedoms using proprietary extensions or changes that cripple or lock you into the product somehow. Biggest PC manufacturers do that when they can. Lenovo appears to. It fits. That subthread includes at least two good ones with the rest "blah."

Next is paulintrognon sayings they locked the thread. DanBC countered that. Quality of this subthread & that original got upvoted is best evidence of your position so far. Then SamBam references a history of shady inclusions while some others show alternative products for Linux. Remember some upvote a shoddy, top-level comment if it contains useful information.

Getting to your original point is deviate_X saying it doesn't have Linux drivers. dagaci points out Microsoft wouldn't block other MS products. Sounds good but subpoints win me over from a3n, the throwaway, and nowprovision. This is already probably the answer based on prior experience that showed up by 2nd top-level comment with some shoddy one-liners and such that are easy to skim since they likely greyed out quickly & rapid-fire, small responses are often flamewars.

You might be thinking, "Hold on! You agreed with what?!" Microsoft's riches started with monopolistic partnerships with OEM's that preloaded what they wanted on the system with ways to knockout competition. This evolved into big manufacturers preloading garbage for competitive advantage plus controlling images. Sold it as convenience and recovery. I got bit by that with HP when I got my first computer that had a recovery CD but not a Windows install and license (wth!?). With Vista, Microsoft convinced manufacturers to help it trick the public about the value of a huge, bloated OS with hardware upgrades that generated revenues for the manufacturer. That one backlashed with resulting Windows 7 being awesome. Then, they tried to push Windows 8 on people with a discount then try forced moves to Windows 10. The commenters indicate this Lenovo scheme forces a move to recent Windows as a side effect of its operation. That's exactly what Microsoft, who controls Windows licensing at OEM level, wants along with their prior preference they executed in many ways with corrupt OEM's cooperating.

So, that's my theory after just two high-level comments and skimming past some garbage ones in the sub-threads of the second one. Got to what I needed to know in minutes. Overall thread might be full of garbage comments with the eye rolling implications of that. However, if BIOS was changed & for an OEM image of latest Windows, then the voting scheme worked since I got to the likely scenario in just a minute or two. That's if those premises were true. If they're not, then the thread would be an example of something else entirely.