*> Because a person might want to tune the performance of their laptop in regard to power consumption.

That's what exposing BIOS settings are for.

You have described why there might be an interface for fan control that software could use. It does not justify not having the board opt for sane defaults.

i'm calling bullshit.

if you don't put special software on your linux before you boot a live cd, your thinkpad t500 fries itself.

sure it does.

I never said it would fry itself. It actually just turns itself off, and I have to remove the battery and power cord to get it to restart. And I only had this problem on Windows 7. Every major Linux distro I tried had proper power management support.

thanks for the clarification. you should have sent it back! it's probably out of warranty now. if you can switch off the ati graphics and use the intel graphics, that's a workaround.

Of course it doesn't fry itself. Any CPU made in the last 20 years will throttle itself and run at lower speeds instead.