Comments on: Step right up and get your SLED-preloaded ThinkPads

By: MM

MM — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:54:00 +0000

Thanks to KB for the most helpful info, however, Lenovo quit carrying them. I just called, 10/07/08. MM

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:04:11 +0000

@ John Yorke – to what company are you referring?

By: Kevan Barney

Kevan Barney — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:42:14 +0000

These machines are globally available. You'll note that on the shop.lenovo page, under "Ready to buy?", it says ThinkPad T61 and R61 models with preloaded SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop will be available for purchase on the Web on Feb. 19. Meanwhile, organizations or individuals can purchase them by calling their Lenovo sales rep or the appropriate Lenovo service center. For example, in the U.S. the number is 1-866-96-THINK (as listed on the shop.lenovo page). Hope that helps ...

By: John Yorke

John Yorke — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:16:20 +0000

I would really like to see Novell work with a company which already has an industry leading product for 3D animation which runs on Linux but isn't currently supported on SLED 10 to get it approved for SLED 10. That same company has another market leading product for CAD not available currently on Linux but in questionnaires has shown to be one of the top ten requests for desktop Linux software, uses at least a few servers running a non-Windows OS in their IT department, and which has an office across the parking lot from Novell's Waltham office. The target users of that companies products are probably among the most receptive to a Linux desktop being more technical, using only a select few applications, and being focused on OS stability and performance.

By: John Yorke

John Yorke — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:32:42 +0000

Not only does every laptop configuration wizard on the Lenovo website only give the option of Windows, the specific web page you linked to above states in bold letters "Lenovo recommends Windows Vista® Home Premium." I think HP is doing a better job by mentioning which laptops are SLED 10 certified on their small business product pages even though you can't select SLED 10 to be pre-installed. I was just trying to determine which notebook to buy for someone working with Maya 64-bit on Linux the other day but it is still too difficult as most vendors don't clearly state SLED 10 64-bit certified on their product pages and often the select few certified notebooks are not the ones with Quadro or FireGL graphics cards and more than 2GB of RAM. Baby steps I guess.

By: cb400f

cb400f — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:11:17 +0000

Maybe you can clear up a couple of things for me..

In all the talk about this, I've never once heard any mention of _where_ these will be available. Is this a US only thing? A worldwide thing? Selected countries? Countries with languages that are officially supported by SLED?

Secondly, looking at shop.lenovo.com it seems they're only available for purchase by enterprises/organizations, and not individuals?

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:16:21 +0000

The Lenovo website you link do does not allow people to actually buy (or find) a laptop pre-loaded with Suse. How can people actually buy these laptops?