I recently learned the news that Lenovo is entering the server market outside China. As the editor of Free Software Magazine, the first question that came to mind was: “Will they run Linux?”. To my surprise, the answer was nowhere to be found.

Speaking from China, Tux the penguin says "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" as the media continues to report that Lenovo is slaying the kernel mascot with the relish of a Canadians near a seal pup. iTWire digs a little deeper to reveal just WTF is really happening with Lenovo and Linux...

When IBM sold its personal computer division to Chinese PC maker Lenovo, one of the flagship products that went along on that sale was its invaluable ThinkPad notebook line, home of some of the best engineering I've seen in notebook PCs in the entire time they've been on the market. Now Lenovo is preparing to take the ThinkPad a step ahead and ship them with SUSE Linux preinstalled.

Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's No. 3 PC maker, said on Monday it would start selling laptop computers preloaded with Linux software from Novell Inc.

The VAR Guy runs hot and cold on Lenovo. One minute, he praises Lenovo’s ThinkPad brand. The next, he openly wonders if Lenovo can hold off rivals like Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer. Plus, Lenovo’s server strategy — particularly as it relates to Linux — is nowhere to be seen.

eWEEK’s Channel Labs takes a look at Lenovo’s latest offering in the notebook computer market, a portable with Novell’s SUSE Linux pre-installed.

Lenovo, which years ago purchased IBM's personal computer business, appears to have quietly stopped offering Linux as a pre-installation option. None of the company's 49 ThinkPad and IdeaPad notebook models -- nor its many ThinkCenter and IdeaCenter desktops -- can currently be ordered with Linux.

Call it a rare triple play in the open source server market. Lenovo, Red Hat and Tech Data are partnering to give partners discounts on select Lenovo ThinkServers with Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced. Here are the details — and the implications for the smal business market.

It's almost as if Qualcomm's CEO Paul Jacobs took a deep breath and looked the vast expanse that is Mainland China and said to himself; 'There be money in them there hills...'