Slashdot Mirror
HP to Globally Launch Linux-Based PCs
Rade T. writes "Reuters UK reports that HP, the No. 1 personal computer and computer printer maker, said on Wednesday that its putting its weight behind personal computers that run the Linux operating system. I guess this is the first serious step towards solving the problems that Linux faces on the Desktop/Laptop."
Good luck finding a Laptop with linux. When I started law school 8 months ago, I search EVERYWHERE for a major computer manufacturer which sold laptops pre-loaded with linux, but couldn't find anything. Not even IBM!
That employment figure is suspect at best, an outright lie at worst.
It takes neither underemployed workers, nor discouraged workers into account.
From a design/philosophical perspective I'd agree - but being based from a design perspective is a bit different to just saying 'based on unix'.
Don't forget how much money you have to spend to be able to say 'based on unix'.
Didn't apple get in trouble over that not so long ago?
Dan
lol. MS stock is up today after the announcement they'd be fined by the EU. Investors realized that $613 million is one week's income for the software giant. Sorry brother.
Yes, they are about $100 less. I've been loading machines (XP) for the local phone company and I like the HP D530 box with its small footprint. Looked it up at HP, about $600 without Windows and $700 with (IIRC).
Yeah, here it is:
at news dot com dot com.
Here's the link to prove it.
Sun Java OS PC's
$300 for a "complete" 1.6Ghz Duron system isn't too bad...
WINE also ran the company's internal custom Windows applications without so much as a hitch. If we hadn't had that printing trouble with Bloated Goats, I probably could have convinced the execs to migrate to Linux and cost Microsoft a few thousand licenses...not to mention the incentive program they had where you got a cut of any money you saved the company.
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
Here is HP's news release. It is mostly marketing fluff, but has a few more details than the Reuter's piece. Their server also isn't melting down at the moment.
It must be the area. In the San Francisco area (where I'm located) everyone I know save one (and myself) is working a service job (food prep, buss driver etc) since there are no tech jobs anymore. The one person I know who is working has a three moth contract after being out of work for a year, and while I'm working full time again, I was out of work for six months. Its a little better out there then it was a year ago, but its still very grim.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
You ever tried different ps commands on AIX,Solaris,IRIX,HP-UX?
They don't all work the same. At all. Besides which, the things you are talking about are the user-space tools - that stuff is all GNU baby, and Gnus Not Unix.
I do know how HP markets their product. It is not a suggestion. Dell takes the same approach that Redhat/Fedora takes. Home lines are for cutting edge, may or may not work, state of the art. Biz are for tested, tried and true. Dell will guaranty the life of a model and parts for it as well as all the software on it, but only for the biz. Dell further sorts their systems to desktop and workstation for what is used by normal people and system that have raid, dual video cards, and other geeky things.
..blah, blah, blah... tech. To be fair I have not been working HP/Compaq directly since shortly after the merger and the way they operate may have changed but I would suspect that they are referring to Brios, Kayaks, ect.
Hp has a different approach. they have personal and biz as well. the personal are pavilions and can be sorted into American made (fixable) and foreign made (disposable). check your first 2 chars of serial number if you are wondering what country it was made in. The biz lines are divided into low end, high end, and thin client. these are not sold in store and rarely sold one at a time. if you want them, you need to hook up with an HP salesman.
I am a certified Dell, HP, Compaq, Apple, IBM
Dell's attempt was half-hearted.
On the desktop, to be sure.
Dell has been doing a pretty good business selling Linux servers though, as has HP and IBM.
The late 1990's Linux desktop fad as a business was premature and the market was not thought out well.
The initial Linux desktop market is technical, engineering, DCC, universities.
And, some limited special purpose kiosk use.
Application interoperability with MS file formats, templates, fonts, hardware compatibility had to improve substantially before you could get a broader market for desktop Linux. It's much closer now, but anyone deploying desktop Linux now will definitely get both the "Early Adopter" fame and still have to suffer some lumps, too.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
You've been able to buy their business-line with Mandrake preinstalled for several months now.
Jason
"FORMAT C:" - Kills bugs dead!
The Slashdot story was, unsurprisingly, misleading.
In the article (or this press release) I've seen absolutely no mention that they'd be selling the PC's to the masses, only to enterprise customers.
A few snippets from the press release (emphasis mine):
It seemed almost too good to be true... and so it probably was.
I doubt, therefore I may be.
I am the support person for the hp deskjet (hpijs) and AiO (hpoj) drivers. Feel free to email me at linux.deskjet@hp.com or visit http://hpoj.sf.net and http://hpinkjet.sf.net Sux that I have to find out from ./ that we are doing this but hey, go us! I guess.
I am the support person for the hp deskjet (hpijs) and AiO (hpoj) drivers. Feel free to email me at linux.deskjet@hp.com or visit http://hpoj.sf.net and http://hpinkjet.sf.net
Our job market is in shambles? A 5.6% unemployment rate is NOT shambles.
Keep in mind, the unemployment rate omits anyone who is "permanently" unemployed, which means out of a job for more than six months.
The average time out of work for those 5.6% is five months right now, which means a lot of people are falling out of the job-seeker pie in the reported figures.
Finally, 5.6% is about people who have *no* jobs... it doesn't count the "underemployed," or those working part time at Wal-Mart for $7 an hour because their AA in English can't get them a better job.
So a 5.6% unemployment rate can exist when the job market is strong and steady, but it isn't an indicator of very much.
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
Ok, Every few months I try a different distribution of Linux. I've tried debian, SuSE, Mandrake, Redhat, Gentoo. I've TRIED and TRIED. I really want to use Linux but I'm stopped at the first hurdle. I've bought books on Linux which are written by geeks for geeks.
Then I realised, every day I work on my Windows 2000 box in VB6 building my framework where I build applications. I write frameworks for PocketPCs which allow you to very quickly build applications using drag and drop interfaces. Click a few buttons on the server and BAM you have a pocketpc application.
Except it's not like that, because I wrote the editor and the framework, have been coding since i was 7, wrote assembler since i was 12, I'm more comfortable in ASM than speaking to girls! So my framework and code mesh.
Want to make my framework execute a system command? add a Pound to the command. this drops it into system mode. Of course I know this and anyone confident enough to dig around in the Windows API will handle that.
This is what Linux expects of users from the word go. This year, I realised _I_ cannot remember all the commands and had to write a GUI so I could administer my own framework. GUIs are not there to make it easy for Mom and Pop they're there to make it easier for us coders. I'm only 25 but I'm struggling to remember how to MALLOC because I havent used it in years. GUIs jog our memories.
I tried to configure my linux wireless. Text files all the way. With no real documentation. Reinstalled XP and stuck it behind a Linux firewall. Yes, I drop to command line in windows sometimes. but those things are shortcuts to existing icons in the GUI. not exceptions.