PC vendor Lenovo has promised ThinkPads with pre-installed Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 for some time now. Lenovo will deliver the goods the week of Jan. 14. Lenovo will release pre-installed SLED 10 on its Intel Centrino processor-powered ThinkPad T61 and R61 14-inch-wide notebooks. In February, Lenovo’s pre-integrated Novell Linux offering will expand to include some Penryn-based ThinkPads.
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=98
so .. they want SLED .. they’ll get SLED.
don’t forget to take your time to participate in future Lenovo polls .. those weight really heavy on the decision made upon their costumers product line!
yeah .. right …
Just an observation. The results of that poll, and most other indicators that I run accross, bear a *lot* more resemblance to the numbers on Google Trends than to the hits per day figures at distrowatch.
uhm … my point was that nobody voted for SLED (only 311 votes .. whereas FreeBSD, which is not even a linux distro, got 1500!) …
so .. why asking you potential clients what they want if your going to do what you want anyway?
so much for making a poll …
My observation was a general one, and not really directed at you.
Is there a license cost for including Suse on the hardware? The main issue with buying hardware preinstalled with VistaXP is paying for the license. Even if it’s only 40$ OEM cost, I prefer not to premote MS business practices.
If the cost of getting the hardware with Suse preinstalled is, well, the same cost for me to download Suse then I have no problem with whatever libre licensed OS they put on it since it’ll get a fresh install on delivery anyhow.
Heck, most businesses use there own images so buy the hardware without the Windows tax. In bulk hardware purchases, that could be a noticeable savings.
Either way, let’s just be happy that another big brand hardware company offers a choice outside of “do you want Vista, or Vista Ultimate?”
But I would replace it with openSUSE, which of course should work fine, but is more up-to-date and more flexible.
Edited 2008-01-12 23:11 UTC
We’re talking Lenovo Thinkpad here, which is mostly a business line of laptops. Its users are likely to prefer more thoroughly tested distros than the latest Compiz-Fusion plugin.
I’d have rather seen RHEL on it myself, but it is rather clear that Lenovo has no intention to load non-MS-approved distributions. Most commonly mentioned examples of which are Xandros (of every Eee PC, a few bucks of MS-tax go to Redmond) and SLE (same story, I suspect).
In that case, I guess we have Dell to thank for selling laptops that include a distro untouched by the evil Microsoft (shun! shuuuuun!)
A T61p using Linux? Seriously? This model is meant to be a mobile workstation, designed for graphics and design professionals using CAD and such. The plain T61 is the mobile office-jockey/road dog series used primarily for those who need email and excel duty. Are there even any supported video drivers to properly handle the pro-series chipsets…ie. Quadro? This is like putting an 84 Escort engine in a Mustang.
All things considered, though. SLES installed probably still makes for a better business decision than pre-installing Vista. For every T61p we get in the office, there’s a smile every time we re-image it back to XP Pro.
How much sleep do you guys lose fretting about Linux distros, and which one should go in which PC or laptop? When will you realized that you have no voice, business is business and they will do wjhat makes them money, not what you think is best. You guys are jusy wasting your breath and time. Sleep away and you be better off.
Listen to the lack of sense of one of the posters. No one will buy Photoshop if it doesn’t offer way many more features than GIMP. First, it alread does, plus, Photoshop sells really well amongst people that spends money on software. Let’s face FSF fans, all you want is free stuff. Remember Russia? All their stuf was cheap or free, but in the end it was all garbage!
You want a free ride, get on the back of the bus!