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."

Comments

Re:Hmmmm.

[steve_l]

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.

I really like the IDC quote...

[pjrc]

...where Byran Ma is quoted saying:

What you've got is a blank canvas in which the user can paint any color he wishes whether that's officially licensed Microsoft software or pirated software.

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.