One step forward ... two steps back.

Oh well. At least Lenovo Linux Laptop purchasers won't be under threat of patent violation lawsuits from Microsoft. I guess that's some piece of mind, even if they're stuck with SuSE.

(Of all the distros, they pick SuSE. Pussies.)

To some extent it doesn't really matter which distro the Linux laptops come preloaded with, the fact that they come preloaded with any flavour of Linux guarantees* that:

1. The hardware has been verified as Linux compatible so ought to work just fine if you install your distro of choice, provided it's a recent version.

2. You aren't paying a hidden cost for a Microsoft Windows licence that you aren't planning to use.

* Alright, it doesn't actually guarantee these things but it gives you some hope.

Way back when Dell started leaking that they were going to pre-install Linux, I predicted they would go with RedHat or SuSE, since those were safe enterprise bets. When they chose Ubuntu, I was pleasantly surprised. From the enterprise perspective, SuSE makes a lot of sense. It's only too bad SuSE decided to pay MS extortion money.

Who cares, at least one isn't being forced to pay the M$ tax.

To answer James's question why SuSE, this is merely Lenovo exploiting the work previously done by IBM a few years back.

How can people like Acer say "the market in the UK is not there" They haven't asked me, or anyone I know for that matter, so where do those stats come from?

Do they ask *Existing* customers - meaning those that weren't too worried about the windows in the first place, and not those that went else where because they didn't do Linux on laptops (like me) - I went else where, and got my self a nice laptop with Linux, I like Acer, but they wouldn't let me have a laptop without paying the Microsoft Tax (tm)

I've never seen a survey asking what O/S I want on a laptop and going to Dells website and actually trying to find their systems with Linux on is actually a headache, A Manufacturer should offer the OS across the whole range, not just on 1 model.

I hope Lenovo will do this across the range, and not offer 1 particular laptop with it but nothing else.

Maybe one day I'll see a survey asking me what O/S I want, and i'll be sure to pass it on to as many people as I know.

J

Actually, in the worst case, you might be getting double-dipped. Depends on whether or not Lenovo is selling the Linux models at lower prices and how you account for the kick-back from Suse to Microsoft. As regards the pricing, it is quite possible that Microsoft's license agreement with Lenovo will penalize them if they give *ANY* discounts for non-Microsoft OSes or software. Actually, even if it isn't in the license agreement, Microsoft could send a warning under the table for the next negotiations...

Distro doesn't really matter, as long as all the hardware is supported by open drivers, ideally already included in the mainstream kernel. The issues they'll face supporting closed binaries should nudge them away from such hardware. I dream of this pressure forcing ATI or Nvidia to open their specs.

What is it with people and their knee jerk reactions to Suse?

Sure Novell signed a deal with the devil and they probably realise their mistake, but when GPL3 becomes more widespread perhaps it will have the reverse reaction.

Suse 10 and openSuse 10.2 are polished, stable, easy to install and use gnu/linux distros and on a par with Ubuntu and Fedora.

So stop the Novell/Suse knocking be grateful that another major manufacturer is installing gnu/linux so hopefully all distros will benefit from improved hardware support and customer awareness

Suse Enterprise Linux Desktop 10, happens to be what clients are asking us to deploy! Its also a good desktop. Lenovo make good desktops and laptops. Couldnt be better news.

Fingers cross they bring more of the ThinkVantage Technologies over to Linux as well. Its the one key feature missing when running anything other then Windows on a Thinkpad. (Currenty only ThinkVantage Access Connections for Linux exists).

Well, could this be a chaos theory-esque development in Linux's favour?

I mean business knows the reliability and stability of Linux and know the pedigree of the base OS, hell business was built on Unix.

The problem business has these days is they dont remember the 'old days' when people wrote their own systems and applications... yes i know thats not feasable these days, but, what is possible is to achieve everything you need to on a linux desktop, (at least for business, home users will still struggle as far as common shop bought software and games are concerned). The first three raindrops to hit this pond,(dell, lenovo, acer) will start to see the result of their ripples all over the place, the question: will we soon see waves?

I also believe if the business user base of Linux users increases then Microsoft will have to conform to more open standards for filetypes, when their customers say "hey i just emailed this important client my Visio drawing and they cant open it" standardisation will happen i have no doubt.

That Fujitsu is going to start preloading Slackware on their laptops. Too bad that probably won't happen...

Try this, then:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Please note that I am not in any way affiliated with Dell nor Ubuntu, except as a user of both. I agree, the OS ought to be offered across the full range - but that Inspiron 1420 looks sweet for the price.

I have found the Ubuntu systems on the US site, but they won't ship to the UK, so that still leaves my unable to get them over here.

it's a real shame.