HP has agreed to pre-install Novell's Linux distribution on some of its notebook and desktop range in India. However, the computer maker said it currently has no plans to extend that deal to EMEA.

SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10-loaded HP computers will begin shipping to India in the second quarter of this year.

The deal marks HP as the latest big name vendor to provide systems pre-installed with the Linux distribution to the consumer market.

Dell already sells Ubuntu computers to customers worldwide and has its own agreement with Novell in Asia. Lenovo has been globally punting SLED-based ThinkPad notebooks since late last year.

HP told The Register in an email that "at the moment this agreement covers products only available in India".

"HP has currently no plans to pre-install Linux on its notebooks and desktops in EMEA, but will continue to evaluate the demand." ®