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HP Thailand Sells $450 Linux Laptop

Posted by michael on from the tco dept.

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."

7 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Article seems a little short on details. by Chris_Stankowitz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What kind of laptops? How many of these were they selling (as many as people would buy or a fixed number)? Can Anyone buy one? Can I buy one over the internet? Would I want to buy one? The list goes on. Anyone have any links to know the answers to any of these questions?

  2. Hmmmm. by The+Bungi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    $450? I somehow doubt this is a particularly excellent piece of hardware. I mean, even accounting for the "M$ tax" as it were (which is negligible when applied in bulk OEM licenses anyway) and considering that it's difficult to find a decent laptop for under $800... well, I think this is kinda fishy.

  3. Seems right to me by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I just bought an HP notebook a few months ago (here in the U.S., where I couldn't avoid the M$ tax). Since then I've seen another HP notebook with a faster Athlon and bigger hard disk (40 gig vs. 30 gig) for the same $850 I paid. Considering that HP will build the systems with 20, 30 or 40 gig drives, will put a 14.5 inch rather than a 15 inch screen, give a choice of CPU, and will sell it with a DVD drive rather than the DVD/CDRW drive I got, it certainly makes sense that you can get a decent Linux notebook for this price, although I would expect a 40 gig version with a DVD/CDRW drive and a hot processor to certainly be more. But HP could well sell decent notebooks here at that price too if they dropped the M$ tax.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  4. I have a couple-o-three questions.... by rdewald · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The government of Thailand is the real force behind this move. That is an interesting development, has Microsoft ever taken on a government before? (I'm kidding) I wonder who has more cash?

    The fact that Linux has no licensing fee does give these machines a competitive advantage, especially if the user intends on puchasing a pirated copy of Windows. In fact, this government-sponsored initiative also gives an advantage to the software pirates, i.e., it gives them a new market. Hmm, is this a good idea? Is there any fair way to avoid this? Or is it that Microsoft creates their own disadvantage here by way of their licensing policies and fees?

    The bulk of the TCO for these machines is assumed to be end user support. Really? If you install a kernel especially suited to the hardware on the laptop, I'd think support would be down. I've struggled very hard with Linux (Debian and Slackware) over the years, but it's always been over hardware issues. Once I learnt enuff Perl to do stuff, use of the Linux environment has been natural and intuitive for me.

    In Windows, I am still a stranger in a strange land. I still can't get Windows to do what I want it to do on a regular basis, but hardware setup is usually pretty smooth. If I had been wise enough to ask someone smarter than I to build my kernel for each Linux box I have deployed, I would have spent WAY less time and money on support for them compared to the Windows machines. Is my experience so unique as to be counter to the conventional wisdom? How did the Thai Ministry conclude that they must anticipate higher support costs?

    --
    The best way to do is to be.
  5. Re:Specifications by jdray · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's plenty more than the 300 MHz Celeron I'm using for my desktop at home. And I have few complaints about it. And my 300 MHz laptop, running XP of all things, isn't terribly bad, either.

    --
    The Spoon
    Updated 6/28/2011
  6. Re:Specifications by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Rock out. That is precisely *twice* the specs of the laptop I'm running Gentoo on now. This would be a sweet little upgrade for next to nothing (as far as laptops go).

    I'd be very interested to see what the peripheral options for this box are. For example:

    * Wireless networking capability?
    * PCMCIA slots? Media card slots?
    * Docking station?
    * Battery type and life?

    Another nice spec to have would be the internals. Since they're putting linux on it, I suppose we can all assume that they are using compatable hardware :) I guess the question is, exactly how cheap are the bits inside, and are the drivers open?

    GMFTatsujin

  7. Pirated Windows??? by psxndc · · Score: 4, Interesting
    When was the last time you tried running a version of Windows on an 800MHz Celeron with only 128MB RAM? I wouldn't worry about pirates using these for XP. :-)

    psxndc

    --

    The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.