Is Tuxtops' Next Project Custom Disk Images?

Tina Gasperson writes: "Nathan Myers, the former CEO of now defunct LinuxLapTops, says he gave Tuxtops a suggestion that could turn into big business for them. He shares the scoop, and Tuxtops CEO Graham Hine confirms (pretty much)[in this story at] Newsforge." The short n' juicy is this: after announcing last week that it would no longer sell laptops with Linux pre-installed (the business model till then), it now "looks as if Tuxtops might make a full-time venture out of creating those ready-made Linux installation images." Which is a great idea, considering that the complications of making sure a particular distro works predictably and reliably with AcmeCorp's computers is probably one of the major reasons it's so tough to buy laptops running Linux.

Comments

Tuxtops plans, an elaboration

[V for Victory]

I am the CTO at Tuxtops, Mark Allen.

I'd just like to give a bit more elaboration on what we're planning.

We're working on a software product which encompasses the idea of customized linux distributions for a specific vendor's hardware -- laptops, desktops, and servers -- but the product goes way beyond that idea in many important respects. The product is in the arena of "holistic" Linux system management.

I can't fully elaborate right now about what kind of project we're working on -- trust me, I would love nothing more than to blab on and on about it, but it's just not possible right now. Provided we can raise the capital we need to build this thing, though, I'm sure that most folks will be impressed with the result.

Finally, if you're reading slashdot and you're a Linux competent marketing or sales professional and think you have what it takes to drive marketing and/or sales forward for a revolutionary idea in a new company (and you live around the Bay Area), send us an email. We'd be glad to hear from you. (info@tuxtpos.com)

Acme Corp. Computers?

[Royster]

Somehow I don't feel so safe. Acme Corp. dosn;t have a good record of safety.

Re:Great idea

[brad3378]

How tough would it be to create a Perl script to run in Windoze that could detect your existing hardware configs, and creates a basic *.iso for installing a Linux Distribution. It would obviously have to create some custom /dev/ files and might take a long time to run. Maybe the hypothetical script/program could even download the latest stable drivers from a trusted source.

I hate to say it, but If I have to fill out some web-page with all of my hardware and network settings (to order this disk), I'll probably type something wrong. A script that runs on the actual machine (or even over a network) could likely be idiot proof. Have it automatically (and safely) create a working boot/partition manager, and you'd have a Winner!