Lenovo to Offer Linux Notebooks

Lenovo plans to offer ThinkPad T-series notebook computers with Novell's SUSE Enterprise Desktop 10 Linux pre-installed beginning in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Lenovo and Novell announced today that Lenovo would begin offering ThinkPad T-series notebook computer with Novell’s SUSE Enterprise Desktop 10 Linux operating system pre-installed as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. The ThinkPad T-series notebooks are aimed at business users, although the the Linux-equipped notebooks will also be available to individual customers. The companies say the systems should hit the market in the fourth quarter of 2007.

“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, VP of product marketing for Lenovo’s Notebook Business Unit, in a release.

The move marks the second major computer maker to offer Linux on computer systems offered to consumers; back in May, Dell began selling systems with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. However, Lenovo’s move is a little more conservative, from a business standpoint: Novell and Microsoft have formed a broad partnership over SUSE Linux, which has Microsoft selling Novell products and both companies offering each other—and each others’ customers—protection from patent infringement litigation from the use of SUSE Linux. Microsoft has offered no such protections to any other version of Linux, and has stated outright that it beliefs open source systems like Linux violate more than 200 Microsoft patents. Those allegations have been hotly refuted by the open source community.

Lenovo will be demonstrating ThinkPad T-series notebooks running Linux at Novell’s booth at this week’s LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco.