Lenovo is not only preloading SLED on its ThinkPad notebooks, it is also providing direct support for both the hardware and the operating system for the first time. The company said that the preloaded Linux notebooks would be available in the fourth quarter for both enterprises and individual business users
The deal, announced at the LinuxWorld event in San Francisco, builds on an existing relationship struck between Novell and Lenovo at the same event last year. Then Lenovo announced that it would provide support for SLED 10 running on its ThinkPad T60p mobile workstation.
There was no pre-installation agreement, however, giving potential customers a complex variety of options for getting the operating system working on the notebook.
Users could buy the machines with a blank hard drive and then purchase the Linux software from Novell, or they could provide a customized SLED 10 image to Lenovo, which worked work with Novell to load it on the system. Alternatively, Novell could design the image for the customer, and then have Lenovo load and ship it.
We have seen more customers utilizing and requesting open source notebook solutions in education, government and the enterprise since our ThinkPad T60p Linux announcement, and today’s announcement expands upon our efforts by offering customers more Linux options, said Sam Dusi, vice president, product marketing at Lenovo’s notebook business unit.
Our View
The latest deal between Novell and Lenovo is another boost for desktop Linux but progress is still painfully slow in terms of mainstream enterprise adoption. Given the fuss over Dell’s Linux desktop push, it is perhaps worth noting that Lenovo was ahead of the curve, even if it was only dipping its toes in the water.
As Lenovo’s latest announcement indicates, supporting Linux on a particular configuration only (perhaps less than) half the story. For desktop Linux to take off in any significant way it needs to be much easier for enterprises and individual business users to get their hands on a Linux PC or laptop, not to mention the drivers and applications that make it truly usable.
More Linux desktop machines are on their way from Dell and there is an indication that the company will also enable small-to-medium enterprises to get a look in. That, combined with the expansion of Lenovo partnership with Novell, is an indication that the desktop Linux waters are getting warmer, albeit one centigrade at a time.
