If what's good for SUSE is also good for GNU/Linux...

A few large OEMs have faced the change of tide. They began preinstalling SUSE Linux (either OpenSUSE or SLED). One of these OEMs is Lenovo, which will finally begin installing SUSE on Thinkpads.

The first thing is by far the most significant, a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 and R61 laptop. They are not new, but the fact that the Linux models, all running Suse 10.1, will be out next week is huge news. Finally, you can get a corporate laptop with no downsides, and it doesn't have the Vista malware shoved down your throat. Way to go Lenovo.

A more accurate report appears in DesktopLinux.com.

PC vendor Lenovo has promised ThinkPads with pre-installed Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 for some time now. Lenovo will deliver the goods the week of Jan. 14.

Dell is no exception here and it installs SLED 10 over at China. Here is a new report.

Dell has been shipping OptiPlex desktops in China with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and now Precision workstations in China are certified to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Related in this context, Sam Hiser defends some of Novell's moves in this new writeup, but he adds some reasonable balance in the sense that opposition is mentioned as well.

Some Free Software developers -- perhaps those operating from their garrets -- may ask, "Why do we need to commercialize Linux? It's fine as it is. It solves all my problems!" It's a fair question, for which we need a fair answer. Even Linus Torvalds has commented about virtualization, for example, 'I don't care ... I'm just not that interested in it.' We are glad they are so focused on the problems that are important to them; it has made the software GOOD.

What he describes does not necessarily position Novell at a state with unique advantages, but it sounds reasonable nonetheless. ⬆