Submitted by “The Lenovo ThinkPad T60p is the first ThinkPad to officially support GNU/Linux. Unfortunately that support is not quite as broad as some would like – you’re more or less forced to install and use SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. The good news is, SLED 10 is a highly usable, stable, and configurable operating system. Officially you’re supposed to buy a support contract from Novell if you need help installing the operating system on a ThinkPad T60p, but if you’d prefer to do it on your own, this guide will walk you through the process.”
“Officially you’re supposed to buy a support contract from Novell if you need help installing the operating system…”
This assertion is inaccurate – both SLED and SUSE Linux come with 60 days of installation support. For SLED, there are optional support packages available.
From my experiences with both SUSE Linux 10.1 and SLED, Novell’s support is very good.
…and to get that support, you need to BUY the product, not just download it and install it. You don’t get free support from Novell. You buy it.
I was excited to see that they had released Access Connections for SLED10. However, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t release source for it, as I don’t run SLED, and the binary that they released is pretty distro-dependent.
So if I understand correctly:
Purchase new Lenovo TP.
Purchase SLED.
Download Add-on CD.
Download SDK CD’s.
Partition HDD.
Address dependency issues(?).
Swap discs as appropriate.
Download updates.
Log in to KDE to use ThinkVantage utilities(?).
Log out and log in to Gnome because SLED=Gnome (?).
Download more updates.
Tada !
A brand new Lenovo TP with linux.
Other than the part about the ThinkVantage utilities, is this not the same generic linux installation process for any distro on almost any IBM Thinkpad, which have always had good linux support anyways?
I just purchased a new HP laptop and installed SL 10.2 from DVD, it was less hassle than the SLED Thinkpad installation seems to be. Does that mean that HP is supporting linux on laptops now?
I’ll admit that any manufacturer support of linux is a positive, but this really really really seems like a stretch. It’s either a marketing experiment between Lenovo and Novell more than anything else, or something they cooked up together to make the bundled solution compliant for somebody’s RFP/RFQ somewhere in the world.
Well said.
I have an old IBM Thinkpad A31p ( yes its really that old). It had WinXP preinstalled. I just went to instlinux (http://instlux.sourceforge.net/) and downloaded their Ubuntu Linux install exe. Thats it.
I was easily able to install shiny Ubuntu Drapper.
Some extra thoughts, I never had to specially configure::
1) Wireless, I think it got configured automatically during install
2) As this was a web install, so I got the latest Ubuntu system with dapper-updates installed. Hence no updates install after install.
3) I simply connected my HP Printer and it was detected and installed.
4) Installing “SDK” — Just installed monodevelop using synaptic, g++ does similar way.
Well, Now I have my TP configured just the way I like.
Advantage over SLED, as mentioned in article::
1) NO purchase of Operating System, for me Ubuntu is Free.
2) More important, no- I repeat not even a single burning of CD/DVD.
3) Only one desktop environment “GNOME”, why install another Window manager when I use only one.
4) Almost no manual configuration.
5) No updates download immidiately after initial install, I believe that initial install should be fully updated.
….is for IBM/Lenovo and Novell to form a partnership in which, as a part of the purchase price of T60, SLED 10 GNU/Linux distro would come pre-installed, and Novell would provide support for a preset period of time. That way, the customer would have an enterprise-level GNU/Linux distro pre-installed with enterprise-level support. It would be an excellent way to get a foothold into the corporate arena, where the purchase of hundreds or even thousands of pre-configured computers is common.
… actually costs €2700+ here.
I guess, full official support for a free operating system is only for the happy few – so far.
But this is just the beginning. Obviously Lenovo doesn’t want to make Microsoft angry. To start official Linux laptop support in the high end is a way to make the competition think about doing this too, and at the same time, Microsoft can’t see a direct threat as long as way cheaper laptops aren’t given the same treatment yet. It is to be hoped that HP and Dell will soon follow, which will be the end of an undesirable monopoly.
Since Lenovo took care of producing specific RPMs for this particular model, would it have been so difficult to create a ready-to-install DVD image?
First screen: welcome to SLED installation procedure (click)
Second screen: Would you like to dual boot windows or have a SLED only system? (select, click)
Third screen: The system has been installed, please reboot (click)
Now *that* would have been a hell of an installation routine.
Please note that I think the author of TFA has done a very nice job (layout of the page a bit too plain for my taste, but anyway), but I am afraid that’s a bit complicated for someone who just wants to try out linux: maybe an installable liveCD with *all* thinkpad features working could have been an even better option!