Novell has signed deals with five white-box manufacturers to preload and distribute PCs globally with its SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 operating system, said Justin Steinman, Novell's director of marketing for Linux.

Waltham, Mass.-based Novell also is negotiating with more system builders and tier-one vendors to do the same, Steinman said.

Steinman identified one of the PC makers as U.K.-based Transtec but said announcements would be coming soon on the other system builders. At least 10 more white-box vendors, mostly overseas companies, are in talks with Novell, he added.

Novell also has begun a pilot with what it said are 50 "brand-name" customers, which have installed anywhere from 25 seats to 5,000 seats each, to capitalize on a window between now and the launch of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. The only customer name Novell would provide was Transtec.

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