Ubuntu getting the desktop Linux buzz, but SuSE gets first major preload partner

Last week, I wrote about how Ubuntu (desktop Linux) is getting heaps of praise and good karma at the expense of some other traditionally compelling destkop distros including Xandros.  This week however, the cards are appparently falling Novell SuSE desktop Linux's direction as eWeek is reporting that one of the three top-tier vendors -- Lenovo -- will be offering SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) as a preload option.  Wrote eWeek's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols:

For years, the holy grail of the Linux desktop has been to get a major computer vendor to commit to preloading a Linux desktop. It finally happened....On August 4, we found out that Lenovo Group, the company that has taken over IBM's Personal Computing Division, had made a deal with Novell to preload SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) on its ThinkPad T60p mobile workstation....For the first time, a major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has committed to preloading a Linux desktop.

Wow. 

After being out-of-service for nearly month (partially my fault because I was too busy to ship it), my Thinkpad is due back tomorrow and I'm trying to figure out the shortest path to getting it all virtualized the way I like it. Given SuSE's support for Xen, it would be cool to run SLED as the host (Xen actually doesn't use the word host but I'm using it since there's no universal langauge) and then Windows on a couple of guests.  But the one thing I'm more interested in is how to get the host minimized to a really low footprint so I don't have to run all of SLED or Windows or something else just to manage the hypervisor.  I want to save as many system resources as possible for the guest OSes.  I've found quite a bit of advice online about using Linux as a host, but none that walks you through -- beginning to end -- how to set up a stripped down Linux that only has what you need to support the other guests.

If you know, feel free to comment below. Thanks