Lenovo to offer Linux on ThinkPads

CHINESE PC-maker Lenovo has reached an agreement with Novell under which it will pre-install Suse Linux on its popular ThinkPad notebook machines.

Lenovo will also provide direct support for the Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop operating system – the first time the company has taken responsibility for both the hardware and operating system.

Lenovo and Novell have a five-year history of joint R&D work, and Lenovo has for several years Linux-certified its ThinkPad notebooks.

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Lenovo in delivering this pioneering Linux preload to the enterprise client computing market,” said Novell open platform solutions vice-president Roger Levy.

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Lenovo in delivering this pioneering Linux preload to the enterprise client computing market,” he said.

Lenovo Notebook Business Unit marketing vice-president Sam Dusi said the two companies would continue to expand their Linux cooperation as the market demanded.

“Known for hardware and software based innovations like our roll cage and ThinkVantage Technologies, we continue our tradition of building the industry's best engineered PCs and delivering excellent customer solutions, such as SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 from Novell,” Mr Dusi said.


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IBM gives Cheetah a Linux playpen

IBM and Novell have teamed up to build and release a new Linux-based database appliance server based on Big Blue’s Informix Dynamic Server database.

The new IDS server is the first major upgrade of the Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) database management system in two years. Code-named ‘Cheetah’, the database is in open beta testing with IBM customers.

The new hardware-software bundle will combine IDS Cheetah with SUSE Linux Enterprise Edition from Novell and an IBM xSeries server based on AMD’s Opteron 1000 processors.

IBM says the bundle is targeted at small to medium sized enterprises and designed specifically to meet the low-cost availability and security needs of smaller, growing firms.

“The IDS data server provides an environment with low administration needs, which in turn lowers the total cost of ownership and frees up (database administrators) to focus more attention on their overall information strategy,” said IBM data server vice-president Arvind Krishna said.

"IDS Cheetah will build upon the IDS history of reliability with a broad spectrum of high-availability options for business continuity and advanced security,” Mr Krishna said.

IDS Cheetah is scheduled for release this year and is designed to meet customers changing data management goals by enabling users to extract more value from their business information.

Novell’s open platforms solutions vice-president Roger Levy said IDS Cheetah’s support for open source application development and SUSE’s performance and reliability would give customers the best possible return on the investments they make in their applications.

The IDS platform is a strategic element of IBM's Information Management portfolio and delivers fast OLTP performance, high reliability and low cost administration. It is a leading integrated data server in many market segments such as retail, telecommunications, healthcare, government, banking/finance, entertainment, and SMB.

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