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HP Thailand Sells $450 Linux Laptop
greyrax writes "The revolution has begun! Seems that the Thailand branch of HP is selling Linux-based laptops for $450. The government of Thailand is now talking to Dell Thailand about a similar arrangement."
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All the posturing and buying senators that Microsoft can do in the US, and Europe will have no effect when China, and India come online in a big way. Especially for governments suspicious of Windows, and the possibility of backdoors.
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Hmm now that's what caught my eye. I believe they said
This could get interesting... I know Wal-Mart sells headless Linux boxes for $200 but the only people that buy them are guys who already run Linux. The support could persuade a LOT more people into using Linux.
we already have Shell owning Nigeria, and some Peru/Ecuador war in the sixties or seventies was effectively a proxy war for competing oil companies, each with a different government contract. And of course the US is subject to the current Oil and Gas Administration.
I dont see the computing industry playing such strategic games, though I think Disney may already own Southern California.
It's about bloody time.
This is what linux is best for, after all - low cost hardware made to run just as fast as the new stuff via the application of a good, stable, OS. Also the fact that this allows HP to cut M$ out of the picture completely. An OS is really the only computer component that can be had free, and I see no reason why this couldn't be done on this side of the ocean.
How long before Walmart (a company that I usually loathe) starts selling a super-low-cost lindows laptop? I'd sure buy it! (Or have they released one already?)
(-:Stephonovich:-)
"Who needs reincarnation when we've got parallel universes?" -Me
1. Find wholesale friend in Thailand
2. Import said cheap laptops
3. Remove evidence of thai-stuff from laptop
4. ?????
5. PROFIT!!!!!
Big hardware costs in a laptop are display, HDD and CD (say $25) /floppy ($5), plus CPU and memory.
a pure linux laptop can get away with a lower power CPU, less HDD and by the CNET report, the CD. That leaves display.
The nice thing is that not only can they get rid of the MS tax, but they can include a full suite of tools: gimp, OpenOffice.org, evolution, and at a price point that you cannot do legally with a windows box (of course, you can get all the windows stuff illegally at discount rates in Asia: Redhat CDs sell for the same as Windows Server CDs, $5 or so).
The interesting thing is the network effect: if lots of people start to use linux distros, then it makes sense for even people with $$ to use it, offices to use it, etc, as it is what everyone will understand. And if one developing country follows the Open Source path, it can set an example to others.
Something to watch, perhaps.
Thailand has promised to take over the support and servicing costs for the units. That's worth a good bit. You can also take off marketing costs, because those machines are gonna pretty much sell themselves. Economics of scale will also kick in a bit, because it sounds like they're gonna be selling as many as they can possibly make in the next few years.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
That's fine. The PHB's companies can keep spending an extra few million a year on software. That makes life easier for all their competition that is smart enough to accept the savings. :)
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Why is it so hard to imagine that users will simply just use whatever comes with the machine? As long as it works, and even if it occasionally crashes or doesn't work in some way (eg, the long sordid history of a certain monopoly vendor)., they'll probably never bother to go to the considerable trouble to reformat and install 'doze.
Especially since the machine doesn't include a cdrom or floppy drive.
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If you can pick up a pirated version of XP on the market, next to the durians, for $3, how much of a price advantage does Linux have?
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