RSSLenovo Debuts SUSE Linux Portables
By Ed Oswald | Published August 15, 2006, 11:50 AM
Lenovo debuted its first Linux-based laptops at LinuxWorld in San Francisco on Tuesday, running SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 provided through a partnership with Novell. The systems are the result of a two-year research effort by the two companies as well as Intel, whose Centrino Duo processors power the portable.
The Thinkpad T60p is an inch thin and weighs 4.7 pounds. Several features of Lenovo's Windows-based notebooks, including Help Center support, the ThinkPad Configuration Utility, Power Manager and Access Connections have been ported to Linux, the company said.
"The ThinkPad T60p is a milestone for our collaboration and shared commitment with Novell to develop innovative and powerful workstation solutions," Notebook Business Unit vice president Marc Godin said. "Engineers running intensive based applications can now leverage these enhanced features while working remotely in the Linux environment."
Lenovo expects the laptop to quickly become popular among IT administrators, engineers and others who require Linux for their everyday tasks. Its partners also said the laptops would help to enhance productivity in Linux-heavy environments. While the laptops are intended for business users, they are available to anyone to order through the Lenovo Web site.
Various features that have proven problematic in previous attempts to merge Linux with a laptop such as hibernation, warm and cold docking, and other notebook-specific technologies have all been corrected, making the unit run very similar to a Windows or Mac portable, Lenovo said.
Along with the release of the Linux laptop, the company recommitted itself to Linux support, saying all of its portables could handle at least basic Linux functionality. Lenovo will also extend support for SUSE Linux to select models outside of the T60p, and will offer drivers and utilities on the support site.
Two models of the T60p will be made available immediately. A 14-inch version will start at $3,099 USD, and a 15-inch version starts at $3,199 USD.
I think they are testing the waters. It weakens Microsoft's stranglelhold on the market which is a plus. It hopefully will push more mainstream companies to finally give us a choice.
I am interested in Apple but would mind running Ubuntu but cannot consider giving Microsoft money for an operating system I will never use. I have a copy of W2k tghat works just well fr games if I ever want.
OK, now for the negative, three grand? Wat kind of Chinese mushrooms are they taking?
Let's hope it's just the beginning and they are testing the water...
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That sucks. At least they should offer a model for cheaper than the cheapest Windows version. If for nothing else but to prove the point that it can be done cheaper than by using Windows and MS products. Their pricing will keep this out of the hands of the masses and further marginalize efforts to get Linux on consumer goods. What a wasted attempt at marketing. Not that they shouldn't offer a high-end configuration, but it shouldn't be the ONLY configuration offered.
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Now if they could just make them affordable. This may have a lot of bang, but my buck stops at $1500, which is what I'd pay for a loaded T43. That's with a Windows license that just goes in the trash. :(
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There *is* something new here. This is a maker of a portable PC, which would normally run Windows (the same models have been available with Windows for a while), coming right out and selling it with Linux installed instead, with all power management and other laptop-specific hardware in working order.
No other maker of laptops has done that. IBM never did before it sold the laptop division to Lenovo. HP and Dell don't, despite their support for Linux on server machines. There are third parties (eg. Emperor Linux) who will do their best to get Linux working nicely on other peoples' laptops, with mixed results. But this is new.
I understand that it's not all free software; it has high-end ATI "FireGL V5200" graphics (I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm sure there's no free driver for it!) and some of the specialist Thinkpad bits and bobs are ports of the Windows versions and remain proprietary to Lenovo. But hey, it's a start.
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IBM has supported 64 bit Suse Linux since 1998, and more specifically when AIX -5L (hence the "L") came out as an alternative to a full blown AIX-UNIX for less critical servers.
Nothing really new here. Its just nice to see other options being available other than MS.
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Yeah baby, Suse Linux is on the prowl. Windows and OS X better watch out Linux will be taking over soon;-)lol
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It is unfortunate that they are not willing to equip the more affordable models with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. Nothing to see here... move along... -.-
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I have to agree with exceleon. THe problem I've seen is that in the past when a Linux option was offered it was either a very low end or very high end version. THe machines also tended to be more then their Windows counterparts.
In the end people just buy the Windows version and then install Linux on the same machine for less money.
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3 grand for a Centrino machine? Am I missing something here? I can buy a 3.2+ GHz Pentium 4 machine with a much larger screen for half that and install SuSE myself (which I've done).
I guess that's the "business user" premium.
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It has a Duo CPU, much faster than any P4
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And much longer battery life.
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