Lenovo and Novell have announced that they will offer Linux preloaded on ThinkPad notebooks as well as providing Lenovo support for the operating system.

The deal will allow commercial customers the option of having Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 installed on Lenovo notebooks, including those in the business-oriented ThinkPad T Series.

The option will be available for purchase beginning in the fourth quarter of 2007.

As part of the team-up Lenovo will provide direct support for both the hardware and operating system, while Novell will provide maintenance updates for the operating system directly to customers.

Sam Dusi, vice president of product marketing for the Notebook Business Unit at Lenovo, said that the company had seen "more customers utilising and requesting open source notebook solutions in education, government and the enterprise."

The two companies have been working on various collaborations for more than five years, including Lenovo Linux-certifying its ThinkPad notebook PC line for the past few years.

As well as the Linux operating system, the Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 includes other open source applications including the OpenOffice.org suite, an email client and web browser.