Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) operating system is now available on select Lenovo ThinkPad T61 and R61 14-inch widescreen notebook PC models. In February, this preloaded Linux option will be extended to additional 14″ widescreen T and R Series models, and select T61 15″ widescreen laptops, Lenovo has announced this week.
Apparently, the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1-powered T61 and R61 14″ ThinkPads are now available for large enterprise customers. Lenovo says these notebooks will be available for purchase on the Web on February 19.
Lenovo and Novell estimate that a major portion of the business workforce can transition from Microsoft Windows to SLED 10 on a ThinkPad “without skipping a beat”. In addition, the companies highlight some of the features of this OS, such as interoperability with current IT environments, OpenOffice.org productivity suite, integrated VPN, firewall and anti-virus protection, and support for popular multimedia applications.
Regarding hardware, the ThinkPad T61 and R61 notebooks are based on the Intel Centrino “Santa Rosa” mobile platform with the Core 2 Duo processor.
The T61 with SLED 10, the Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M dedicated video card, 1GB of system memory, a 100GB hard drive, and a DVD burner, is priced at $1,249. The SLED 10-based R61 with the T7250 CPU, the Intel GMA X3100 graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB HDD, and a DVD writer, costs $949.
