HP To Sell PCs With Mandrake 9.1

theoddball writes "HP just announced a new PC model (HP Compaq d220) that's available preloaded with Windows or Mandrake 9.1. The machine appears to be targeted to business users, although it's on the lower-end of the scale - specs are here. Mandrake also has a press release announcing the deal, which will grow to include four other HP models. Is this a sign that top tier manufacturers are taking Linux more seriously, or at least seeing a profitable niche?" We commented on MandrakeSoft's status update yesterday.

Comments

Good. Distro variety.

[arcanumas]

This is also good news that Large companies see Distros other than Red Hat to be of excellent quality. It have many times seen ignorant IT managers telling me how the only way to go with Linux is RedHat. (which is good, but not the only one)
Maybe now i can propose the use of my favorite distro and have "managerial" evidence to back it. :)

Retail!!!

[PaulK]

Looking to find out what retailers would be selling this, I did follow their product link.

It's not listed yet, but that's no surprise.

This is probably the ONLY way that people are going to buy this for their homes; a side by side comparison of an MS machine and a (GNU/)Linux machine.

The retail setting is absoluetely imperative. Buying a preloaded sysem online is well and good, but most people will stick to the devil they know, (MS).

Now, people will have the whole "touchy, feely," experience.

Sure it is.

[EdgeShadow]

It's newsworthy because Mandrake only just recently climbed out of bankruptcy. The fact that a major computer manufacturer has decided to preload Mandrake on one of their business-line models as an alternative to Windows suggests that the company's future might be brighter than many expected.

Re:Hopefully

[Aadain2001]

say, edit video

Linux may lack the video editing tools that are present in the Windows world, but there are projects out there working on them. I personally use Kino for the small jobs I have, and it does the job.

create artwork

Two words: The Gimp. Very powerful. Very supported. And free. There are many other programs out there, but The Gimp is the most known. Some compare it to Photoshop.

manage source code

This is where Linux shines! It was created by hackers, for hackers, and as such has a great history with development and development tools. I'm constantly suprised that more people don't develope for Linux since it comes with every kind of development tool most will ever need. CVS, IDEs, compilers, linkers, debuggers... Linux has it all and for free!

create product to send out to clients

That depends on the product. Where I work, the Windows boxes are nothing more than a way to use the Exchange Server (which the open source world really needs to come up with a replacement for) and maybe a few office documents. The real work is done on Linux and Unix boxes. Everyone here who is part of the core revenue stream works entirely on Linux. It's more secure, free, and easier to manage when you have thousands of servers. So, as far as producing a product to sell, Linux is definately ready, and has been for a while.

Maybe it's time you actually try doing something real on Linux. I'd think you'd be suprised by how well it works.

Re:Gimme notebooks first ! (RE: ipaqs)

[majorflaw]

Linux preloaded *anything* could make a dramatic difference. The ability to buy a PC designed for your favorite distro (meaning no compatibility issues, of course), and have it work right out of the box can have a big impact on the O/S and software business. How many people do you know who are quite capable of running Linux but gave up due to their inability to install succesfully. How many distros have you given up on out of frustration with the installation process. Once the install is included with the hardware, we may just see some real competition.