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95 Comments
- theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27Doesn't matter what the other companies do, because there are only two kinds of laptops in the world: ThinkPads, and everything else.
Once you go black... - Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24AWESOME! Now I'm certainly gonna buy a ThinkPad! :D
- rph2go, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Is this the first domino to fall? Hope Dell, HP, and Acer are listening.
- sjalloul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13@ theblooms
"ThinkPads, and everything else."
Well said! - Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Read the article on eWeek (Linked from the DesktopLinux article):
"The PC maker, at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo beginning Aug. 14 , will announce a plan to pre-load Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on one of its ThinkPad notebooks, sources familiar with the two company's plans said." - drakonite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Linux installed from the factory means that hopefully Linux users won't be forced to pay the Windows tax anymore.
- mDot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11My personal solution was installing Windows as a virtual machine. But then I got practical and ditched that God-awful bank for Washington Mutual.
Any financial institution that requires the uses of a browser that is so easily compromised is not one I want to have handling my money. - jrsims, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11
Whoop! Too slow Dell! - bieber, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Have you ever _used_ a *nix OS? As a user, I could _easily_ get myself into a hell of a lot more trouble with Windows than with anything else.
- Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9When we speak of "desktop Linux" in the way Steven Vaughan-Nichols does in this article, we refer to just desktop usage of Linux, and not traditional datacenter usage, whether it'd be on a desktop- or laptop computer.
The huge huge benefit Linux will get from Lenovo preloading it is that people who buy it can know nothing about installing an OS, just turn it on and use it, all ready to go, like they can with Windows, until they get their first piece of spyware, then it's out the window and off to the shop to buy a new one, which is very ironic as these Windows machine are perfectly good machine, but the OS is compromised like a swiss chease.
All modern Linux distributions are so easy to install these days that everyone who can install Windows can install Linux, but what about the people who can't install Windows, because they don't have the knowledge, or maybe don't wish to have that knowledge, to install it, then they can't install Linux either, by buying it preloaded and all ready to go, this major roadblock suddenly disappears. I'm confident that Lenovo won't try to sell this to consumers, but like you can buy SLED 10 from novell.com even if you're a normal Joe user, you probably will be able to buy one of these ThinkPads. - Smeltn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I have a Thinkpad notebook.. My wife uses it to surf the web, order movies (netflix), and pay bills.. I REALLY want to load Ubuntu on it.. Problem is, is that our banking website does NOT work in Firefox, ONLY works in Internet Explorer.. So I am screwed unless anyone knows of another way?
- thedreampolice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"um.... the ThinkPad is a notebook, not desktop."
so is windows xp running on a laptop not a desktop os? - theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I have owned an Acer, a couple Armadas (the corporate Compaq), and a Gateway. I've extensively used HP's, Viao's and Satellites. I'm on my third ThinkPad. And yes, they really aren't like any other notebook (though the Toshiba Satellites are the closest of the also rans).
The keyboards are just so good it is indescribable. On my desktop, I use a MS Natural, which is to me the best keyboard in existence. My ThinkPad's keyboards are damn near that good, and about 100X better than the crappy basic Logitech that I am forced to use on my workstation here at work.
Until you live with a ThinkPad, you don't know what you are missing. - Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6They did say that, but like Novell did with the support for the KDE desktop in SUSE Linux last November, Lenovo did a 180 on their Linux support and apparantly are back supporting it more than ever, which is a wonderful thing.
- motang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This is good that major companies are recognizing Linux, weather it be RedHat, Suse, Ubuntu, or any other distro.
- lordthor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I saw the same thing, and didn't even see an option in customizing the unit to add Linux instead of MSW.
Anyone know how we can see it?
EDIT: Oh, I see, they PLAN to. My bad. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6 Will wonders never cease!
Great news. - Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I already run Linux or BSD on every machine I own, but I do not have a laptop. I was considering saving up for one for school stuff, and ThinkPads seemed a little pricy, but I'm willing to pay a little bit more for hardware from companies who support Linux, and not force the Redmond monopoly down your throat.
- ardellin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5actually they did say that, or at least this article alludes to it.
- skubiszm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I thought just a month ago I read an article on digg saying that Lenovo would drop all linux support, even drivers. I guess I can't believe everything I read on digg.
- dcperspective, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4dcperspective- Thursday, June 02, 2005
So it looks like you will have real consumer desktop choices coming for the first time this fall. Within the next year IBM, HP/Compaq, and and now Dell will be offering systems with DIFFERENT operating systems for the first time EVER. Novell, Redhat, and Microsoft all direct and preconfigured.
That's when I first predicted this on my Blog- boy talk about being off by more than a year and a mile.
What has transpired in that year I find quite intriguing.
Novell was in pretty serious discussions with the top tier last year this time with NLD9 and the story king of disappeared. Good thing in the long run because they really didn't have the desktop ready- servers- yea, but the desktop was still a little loose.
Not now- SLED 10 is the real deal to be the flag carrier for all the linux distro's to finally crack the oem barrier. The fact that the distro unit included has corporate subscription support and automatic updating to boot means that the crack in the OEM barrier will grow as long as distro's take the lead on supporting their users and maintaining their Quality Control on update services.
Not that the crack will grow to a break quickly but this day will none the less go down in history as the day the crack really started.
BTW- all those who are wishing Ubuntu was the flag bearer remember that Novell is the back end. The back end that can manage and support billions is the one we want carrying the flag. - thepxc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I like them for some of the littler things. Some don't even have an annoying touch-pad, and they never force you to use it. The keyboards usually have the INS/HOME/PGUP etc. keys in the right place.
- Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7This is great stuff! Now we just need more vendors doing this, but good start. SuSE is a fairly solid distro.
Too bad this article title doesn't have the word "Ubuntu" in it though....I doubt it will make the first page. - Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Riiiiiight...let's all jump on the bandwagon and do something cuz it's "trendy". You must be one of those guys who gets off everytime they see Ubuntu in a news topic on Digg. SuSE is a good distro...I'd take it over the overrated Ubuntu anyday.
- killerofkiller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I wounder if they will add thinkvantage support for Linux.. i would love to still use the active hdd protection, fingerprint management and all the other stuff
- dharm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4i thought so too... but great news for linux is great news for linux, regardless of distro... and its on the front page. ^^
- jejones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Before I start seriously celebrating, I want to see some things:
1. The actual offer.
2. Whether all the hardware is completely compatible, i.e. under Linux does one have access to all its functionality.
3. The price, especially what it is relative to the same hardware offered with Windows. If they want my business, it had better be less--and ideally, I'd like evidence that if I buy it, not one penny of my money is going to MS. - bieber, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4System 76 has been selling laptops preloaded with GNU/Linux for a while. They're just not quite as high profile as Lenovo...
- jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3brilliant. i always wanted a thinkpad, was a bit hesistant since lenovo bought it, but they've won me over. my next laptop will be a thinkpad
- Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@ hadees
"Good start but it would be nice if they had multiple distros. Because getting SUSE on my Thinkpad means I still will have to do the same as getting Windows and install Gentoo."
In theory, SLED 10 costs zero dollars, it's the support contract that includes updates, that you pay for. Why is this the case? Because you can go to http://download.novell.com and download SLED 10 if you want to, the online updates will be available for 60 days and then you have to pay for a support contract, but the rest of the OS is fully functional and you can use it as you wish.
Also, sure it would be nice to allow customers to choose between multiple Linux distros, but since this will most likely be aimed at business customers, I don't think it really matters. And I think the reason Lenovo has accepted Novell's SLED 10, is that Novell is a major company backing Linux, sure Novell doesn't have as big a market share as Red Hat does, but remember that Red Hat has been in business for over a decade now and have had plenty of time to build their reputation as one of the leaders in the Linux space, so it's gonna take a little while for Novell to really get the their truck running smoothly, but I think this move by Lenovo shows that they're well on their way, plus at least with SUSE you show Lenovo that you're a Linux user and care about their Linux offerings, and are not just another guy buying a Windows machine from them, even if you decide to use Gentoo, Fedora, Ubuntu or even Red Hat Enterprise Linux on it. - albybum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4For those that need to use IE in Linux
Install Wine
Install IE6 (or more) using this script
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/index-en.html - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I disagree. Linux/Unix allows the user to be stupid because stopping them would also stop them being clever. It's like market regulation, the most interesting things will always happen where taking risks and being stupid is possible. All markets where you can only follow the one true way tend to stagnate and this is why Unix people don't see uniformity as a benefit from their perspective. All clever things were once stupid things that the clever said were madness so forcing people down a 'one true path' only kills innovation.
Anyway it is certainly possible to botch a Linux system up easier than Windows but with practice it is possible to make a Linux system nearly bulletproof and the experienced rarely make mistakes. Windows on the other hand is always at risk, its security setup is based around sticking plasters and exploits come out far quicker than they can be patched or enter the AV's definitions file and unlike Linux its nearly impossible to protect your system against unpatched exploits bar shutting your web connection down.
You can't chroot or run with minimal privledges. - jgeorgeson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Dell sold Latitude's with RH (I think 5.0) pre-installed in the late 90's into at least 2002. They stopped because there wasn't enough customer interest (nobody bought them).
- Invader02, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"Too bad this article title doesn't have the word "Ubuntu" in it though....I doubt it will make the first page."
Already did :P - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No but the fact that SUSE runs on it means that it will have 100% hardware compatibility with any Linux you care to run. If these things become big I wouldn't be suprised if somebody made a Thinkpad centric Ubuntu distro or at least wrote a script to get everything working.
- gregmo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4youre right. I dont accept this major step forward for linux.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Plans are great, but the press is hitting the fan *today*. Today is when everyone is going to the site and seeing no sign of Linux, shrugging, and going to another vendor. Do you think that they will come back in two weeks to see if anything changed?
- OmegaNine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I have to agree, i have heard this from so many companies at one point or another, and so few actually do what they say.
- motang, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Well the problem I see is you have pay of Windows weather you want it or not, I had to for my HP laptop, and soon as I got it I wiped out XP Home and installed Ubuntu.
- thisdude415, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hm... if this isn't availible now, i'm gonna have to wait untill it is! i've been wanting a lenovo... but i want the T60, not T60p
- Tsuroerusu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@ JohnCrichton
"Great!!! Does this now mean that I can get support from Lenovo with Battlefield 2 installation problems?"
Probably not, as this most likely will be aimed at business users, and even if it were aimed at home users, I doubt Lenovo would support installing games made for Windows, on a Linux computer, that just doesn't make any sense, that's like asking Mercedes supporting Toyota parts in the engines they make. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2SUSE is a great Linux distro for laptops. I'm not up-to-date with the latest ThinkPads, but I'm sure that SUSE and ThinkPad make a great couple.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3have you ever used one of those parc laptops? I ask mainly out of curiosoty since my only brush with sparc was on a 500mhz sunblade in school. Even for things like surfing the web it felt painfully slow.
- muyuu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@Splizxer
It is a very big deal to know that your laptop is going to be properly supported on the hardware side. Installing Linux yourself is all nice and dandy and it's what I always do, but sometimes you get a hardware configuration that is not 100% supported. By sometimes I mean most of the time.
Proper power management (like coming from hibernation/sleep reliably), proper video acceleration and wireless support are NOT to be taken for granted just yet, I'm afraid. All this with good stability is a must for whoever uses his laptop for serious work. - Quix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Unfortunately I have no idea on a solution to the banking problem, but looking forward I definitely see OS diversification as a VERY good thing for the consumer in that regard. That anyone forces you to use "this" browser on "that" operating system to access an online application is ludicrous. The migration of more Windows users to Linux and OS X will help tear down the walls of proprietary online access.
Thumbs up to Lenovo for helping speed up the liberation of desktop computing. - nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4In any case "The holy grail of the Linux desktop has finally happened!" ... holy grail? please, I love linux, but spare us this kind of BS.
- gildude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't see any difference in quality between my IBM T40, my IBM T43, and my Lenovo T60p. What difference are you seeing in quality since Lenovo took over? We've got quite a few folks with the T60, T60p, and X60s with no issues.
- Sp1k3d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I know what kind of notebook I will buy now, Lenovo all the way! I will probably reformat it and put Ubuntu on it, but I just have to support a major vendor that supports my freedom.
- BillyEveryteen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Agreed. Most laptops are smaller than desktops.
- deltasig, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Long Live Novell
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