Categories
ThinkPad

openSUSE 10.2 on Lenovo ThinkPad T60

Well, I finally got around to installing openSUSE 10.2 on my ThinkPad T60. Unfortunately, I was running very low on disk space and couldn’t get any screen captures of the installation process.
In general, the installation process went very smoothely. The biggest advantages of openSUSE 10.2 over Fedora Core 6 during the installation process are:

  • Installation picked up my Intel Centrino 3945 and installed the kernel module. Fedora requires you to set this up manually later.
  • openSUSE has the ability to connect to the Internet, get a list of add-on repositories and add them during the installation process. Fedora has a screen where you can add the repositories manually during the installation process but this requires you to know the full URL of the repository.
  • openSUSE also allows you to install third-party applications like Sun’s Java JRE along with the Centrino firmware and kernel module that Fedora requires you download and install from a third-party provider of RPMs such as Livna or RPMForge.

openSUSE also has better fonts and looks “cleaner” and cripser than Fedora. Proprietary ATI drivers on openSUSE are easily available and installable. The default installation used a VESA driver and set the resolution to 800×600 so installing the ATI drivers was important. Fedora does a better job of providing a hi-res driver but installing the ATI drivers on Fedora is also very easy and well documented all over the place.

I’m not using openSUSE as my primary desktop yet. There’s some hacking to be done with my user settings that would allow the same user id and home directory to be used on both systems. I might remove openSUSE and give Ubuntu a whirl.

Categories
Apple MacBook ThinkPad

Lenovo and Novell Want a Ransom for Linux

I just spent 15 minutes on the phone with Lenovo trying to get information on their ThinkPads preloaded with SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. I am very surprised at Lenovo’s half-hearted attempt at preloading Linux on ThinkPads. As I mentioned in this post, Lenovo and Novell announced the preloading of SuSE Linux on the ThinkPad T60p. A T60p with the following specs is available for $3099.00 by calling Lenovo (it is not available for purchase from the website, you must call to get any information or place an order).

  • Intel Core Duo T2700 (2.33GHz, 2MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
  • 14.1″ Screen with 1400×1050 Resolution
  • 1Gb RAM
  • 100 Gb 7200 RPM HD
  • 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5200
  • DVD Burner
  • 9 Cell Extended Battery
  • A/B/G Wireless and Bluetooth
  • Integrated Gigabit Ethernet

Oh yes, I must mention that the same exact configuration with Windows XP Home Edition costs $2289.00. Why Lenovo and Novell have to charge $810.00 more for the same exact laptop running SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is mind boggling. Why would anyone in their right mind buy this ThinkPad even if it running Linux? For those of you out there who have a T60p and would like to install SuSE, you could try running openSuSE ( Novell recently renamed the open source distribution ) and download the Lenovo software for SuSE here. It might not work because apparently Lenovo and Novell updated the SLED Kernel for the ThinkPad and I’m not sure if openSuSE contains the kernel enhancements. I am very interested to hear from any of you that try it out. I’m also curious if the software will run on other ThinkPads running SuSE so please let me know.

I still love ThinkPads ( See Apple MacBook vs. IBM ThinkPad – Part 3 ) but, by charging a ransom for a Linux ThinkPad, Lenovo isn’t gaining any friends in the community.
Lenovo – Notebooks – ThinkPad T Series mobile workstations

ThinkPad T60p 14.1″ 2007-8ZU and ThinkPad T60p 15″ 2007-9ZU

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