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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."
Pay your SCO Fee, they throw the computer in for free!!!
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Very nice. I wonder how the folks at MS felt reading a quote saying that this was "nothing to do with Microsoft" attributed to a man with the most unfortunate name of Fink?
RMS demands that HP be referred to as GNU/HP.
(PS: does this mean I can buy a laptop w/ SuSE preloaded on it now, here in the US? Or does that global thing mean what most "global" corporate initiatives do - "everywhere outside of the US")?
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I'll probably try to buy a manufactored PC for the first time in 10 years simply to support the principle of having a choice.
*DrugCheese rants*
...that a major computer manufacturer started offering desktop PCs with Linux pre-installed. Even though I'm not terribly impressed with HP's hardware, this definitely makes me more likely to support HP in the future - but only so long as they don't back down when Microsoft and SCO come calling and tell them to quit it.
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
"Fink said that he expects businesses to use Linux where employees only need a few applications, such as in a call center or support center where workers need to access only a database and e-mail." I have one of the only 2 or 3 Linux desktops in a predominantly Windows environment and I can do considerably more than anyone else. On the other hand, we're safe as long as Management does not know about the existence of Tux Racer and FreeCiv!
The perfect sig is a lot like silence, only louder
From the article:
... The operating system has made inroads in corporate data centers, gaining ground against the Unix operating system on which it is based and other operating systems.
Even Reuters seems to be falling for SCOs crap.
Sigh.
Why is this going to be any different than Dells attempt at selling Linux Based PC's ? Dell tried it and it failed. For a lot of reasons, support, lack of customers and about 50 other reasons. Im curious as to why HP thinks they can make this succeed.
I understand the Linux PCs are destined for some very specialized applications... ...but still it will be interesting to see what kind of support issues and options come with this offering.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
If the same system is available with MS-Windows or Linux, will the Linux system be cheaper (No M$ License fee)? My cynical bet is that the systems will cost the same . . .
Those chip makers who say they don't want to release information on their chipsets without a NDA had better take note. They're likely to miss out supplying chips for "Designed for Linux" style PCs.
Novell is latching onto anything they think can make them money because they certainly haven't made a penny in years.
What about HP? HP-UX is dying, they need to jump on something.
Red Hat will help push Linux to desktops. HP is wandering in the woods.
Windows dominance is already threatened by Linux existence. Keeping that threat manageable is the key to Windows survival.
The coolest voice ever.
Selling Linux boxes is cool. But there are many other sources of cheaper Linux systems. HP should kindly understand that logic.
It's a shame that the Asian market gets it first (for selfish reasons), I would like to see a fully functioning Novell/Suse desktop (the people at the Brain Share "show" are getting a sneak peek now).
HP and Novell Expand Relationship to Offer Linux From Desktop to Datacenter
/. "topic" now?
Can Novell please get a
legal. fun. profitable. pick two.
First HP goes with Apple for music (iTunes and HP iPod) and now they are trying out Linux... that's twice microsoft has been bested in favor of open standards. I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but go HP!
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Our job market is in shambles? A 5.6% unemployment rate is NOT shambles. Also, as a hiring manager in IT I can certainly attest to the fact that there are IT jobs being filled in the States, too.
I know this is offtopic, and feel free to mod me as such. I just can't let FUD like that stand on it's own merit without some clarification.
I'm not fond of seeing jobs go overseas, but that's the price of free trade sometimes. There are also about 6 million jobs in the US for foreign companies (names like Sony come to mind, plus many more).
Honestly, Java Desktop System (aka, Suse/Gnome/Staroffice/Evolution/Gaim) is pretty good for newbies and for corporate desktop transitioners. If HP (a gigantic OEM) partners with Novell to push Suse, we'll finally get reputable (brand aware) hardware pushing linux, as opposed to Microtel or other tiny vendors. Even JDS is pushing crap through walmart. Hopefully this will really open the eyes of the public and introduce Linux to the mainstream world. Hopefully this will push Novell to integrate Suse with Ximian and make a complete desktop OS that any newbie transitioning form M$ can use. Cheers to HP.... and finally a good linux laptop(?).
I wonder if HP and IBM will squeeze out service-only firms like Redhat and Novell as Linux improves in ease-of-use. If Linux becomes very easy to use, there will be less demand for service and support providers that configure and manage Linux systems -- users wil be able to configure and manage their own boxes. I'm sure there will stil be a role for systems integrators for big enterprise rollouts (which IBM and HP can do), but even there I'd bet that many companies will prefer to hire a few Linux techs to oversee these easy-to-use-boxes.
Perhaps profits-from-hardware will supplant profits-from-service as the OSS business model. Why buy support if the system is so easy-to-use that it does not need support? At the very least, service revenues will be inversely proportional to ease-of-use.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
It is a strange fate the Linux desktop seem to take.
;) ) on desktop, is because it allows me to organize many browser-windows, editors, IM-windows ect. without cluttering the UI. Yet here the Linux-desktop is being presented as a tool for the light-weight users.
Most of us, who already use Linux on desktop on a regular basis, consider ourselfs power-users. One of the reasons I use Linux (well... KDE
It would seem we have little in common with these new Linux users.
Hmm, last time I called HP for a support issue with a HPUX server, I had a support person that used the words "dude" "Winblows" and "Microsux" quite often. Quite refreshing to hear personaly on the business side =)
If HP is outsourcing, then it is in their home/printer department...I doubt they are outsourcing Linux support.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
iPod and AAC DRM are open standards? If so why is it that only iTunes seems to support the iPod?
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
And then I read the article, HP is *supporting* Novell in their efforts to ...
Love the spin on the intro. Was this an HP marketing guy who submitted the story?
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.
When HP budget injets and scanners come with Linux support in the box then I will take this sort of news seriously.
And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)
This can't be a co-incidence, HP and Novell making big Linux announcements, and IBM stepping up its own Linux push. I smell conspiracy! Do you think Dick Clark is behind it?
Create a WAP server
My experience with the Linux offerings from HP is that they don't really mean Linux, but just RedHat or SUSE. I spoke with one of their european account managers a few weeks ago concerning their blade server solutions and basicly, if I wasn't going to run RH or SUSE on their hardware they couldn't offer support or anything. Since both redhat and suse don't meet our needs (not without rebuilding the kernels that came with them - thus voiding support responsibility) there's no choice at all.
It's the vendor lockin story all over *again*. I have no doubt that they will try to approach the desktop market in the same way. At least until HP proves me wrong and announces support for the linux *kernel* and promises at least a best effort policy on the different distros.
Now this is just my experience with HP, a talk with IBM went much smoother and their bladeservers are already on their way, just have to install debian on them and I'm all set. (yay! got to mention debian afterall!)
With ``SCO racketee^H^H^H asking Aussies for license'' news earlier on the page, just wondering if SCO will respond to this by extort^H^H^H asking HP to license it's (non-existent) IP?
I mean, why should HP be left out of the ``big companies getting sued by SCO'' list. It'll soon get to be a club kind of thing.
Or has HP cut a deal with SCO? In which case their linux-based products should be anathema.
Just wondering if anyone has heard anything.
Here's the link to prove it.
HP is totally out of control time to send in the federal marshalls
o ve rnment/legalissues/story/0,10801,91317,00.html
Red Bull Busted By the BSA
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/g
The nerve messing with the beer...
Got Code?
Just to cut off some of the trolls at the pass:
Linux is not ready for "12 year old John gets a Linux CD and installs and is ready to go", nor is the support out there for Mom and Pop to click "DOWNLOAD ME" on a website and be up and going.
That said, for the corporate environment, Linux is perfect. It can be pre-configured and mirrored in a sysadmin's sleep, locked down to kill almost all support problems, and managed remotely with little effort. The applications, for the vast part, work almost exactly the same as their Windows counterparts and as such training costs are minimal.
Notice a pattern? The limitation of Linux is ease of administration and software/hardware support. Any place where Joe User is wanting to download and install a program from his favorite news website or Jane User wants to reinstall the OS, Linux is not 'ready' for casual use. But in a controlled environment, like a company where hardware and software falls under the umbrella of IT, these issues don't pose a problem.
As long as a company can find the applications they need to do their work (or start/join an OSS project and complete their own), Linux is pie on the desktop and has many benefits most companies would die for, once realized. Once you've got a Linux friendly IT department and have found the right apps, limitations are few and far between.
Once corporations adopt Linux, support problems will diminish, and once workers take it home, support problems will all but disappear. The snowball will feed itself.
Lack of lock-in, lack of security issues, lack of luser-stupidity-blew-everything-up scenarios and lack of licensing and upgrade costs are huge in the terms of $$$.
Cheers
~Dalcius
Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
Sun Java OS PC's
$300 for a "complete" 1.6Ghz Duron system isn't too bad...
If you live in the USA, do you only buy "Made in USA" clothes ?
I'm sure there are people who do, however, I'd suggest the majority don't, and end up with a cupboard full of clothes made in Mexico, Brazil, India, China etc. It is the same here in Australia.
It is both shareholders, wanting better profits, and consumers, wanting cheaper products, who are driving outsoucing. It happens with clothes, it happens with cars, its now starting to happen with IT.
If you only buy locally made goods, you are supporting your country. Fair enough. However, if all countries did that, then countries which are currently export positive, such as the USA, Australia, Japan etc, won't have a market to sell to. Longer term, it will cause these export positive countries to fail, a fate (arguably, depending on who you are) worse than the outsource alternative.
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
In the spirit of HP's line of printers, they will offer these computers at below cost to manufacture them, but they will be limited to 100 keystrokes from your keyboard and 100 feet of movement from your mouse. At this point, you will need to buy the appropriate replacement keystroke cartridge at $129. Replacement mouse balls and optical lights will be available somewhere where you can't find them.
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?"
As we all know, IBM and HP was the start of the Windows hype... and now, neither one are even using that operating system. Since HP/Compaq have now chosen to use Linux, what do you think that means for the rest of the computing world? The same thing.
Do you think Dell, eMachines, and anyone else will be able to stand alone on their own selling Windows based computers? Nope. People aren't really going to notice a difference when their new HP's operating system has changed, but is still easy to use and flexible towards all of their hardware. Yes, this is the beginning of the rise of Linux and the fall of Windows.
Even if Windows gets Longhorn done in time, I think it'll be too late... unless they just want a rematch to rebattle over the mainstream OS that is...
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
Look at all the unsupported scanners SANE Project HP search
Stop playing Britney Spears.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Unless they have the worlds largest TSR centre I just can't see them handling the support needs that Linux is going to require.
"How do I install X application/game/hardware with Linux"
"I bought Microsoft Office.. why doesn't it do anything in LInux"
Unless you already know what you're doing with Linux... you might as well use Windows 95 if you want to have any clue on how to do something.
Linux still has to clean up the user experience before it'll be a real desktop alternative to Windows. (or even MacOSX)
I used to use Unix on a daily basis over a decade ago, and this week I decided to install linux. I was awed during the Fedora install at the relative ease of use, and the clean, professional GUI.
The feeling of awe ended when I tried to do something mundane, simply install an nVidia driver. I'm sorry, but the average person isn't going to want to open the inittab and edit it with vi. Also, if I can write a script to change run level why cant there be a menu for it in the GUI (KDE/Gnome), I mean I just kinda felt like not much had changed on a whole. Of course I don't want to get flamed, I mean I have only been a GUI using Linux user for about 48 hours, it's just I used to code fortran in vi, I don't think editing a cfg file should be standard operation in driver installation.
I understand that Knoppix is supposed to be great at working with hardware, from what I hear,but still, my experience leaves me feeling like not so much has changed in 10+ years, and Linux does not appear ready for household sub-100 IQ Nascar-lovin everyday use.
Given the niche they're shooting for, "Fink said that he expects businesses to use Linux where employees only need a few applications, such as in a call center or support center where workers need to access only a database and e-mail."
...it's remarkable how many employees only need a few applications - e.g. word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool (*cough*Powerpoint*cough*), browser, email. Like what I've been doing lately, a market study.
All the blahblah around it is written in a word processor, actual data collection via sending out emails and a webhoster with my php script (tested in browser), data analysis in spreadsheet (SPSS would be better, but well...) and a presentation of the data. That's basicly all the tools.
No real advanced features used either. Why? Because it's what I do with the tools that matter. A dazzlingly good market analysis has nothing to do with using Office XP or OpenOffice or Notepad. The calculations I do is on the level of TikiCalc that I used more than a decade ago in school.
It's about asking the right questions, reaching the right people, and drawing the right conclusions, not the fancy headers. Once the current batch of Microsoft tools reach their EoL, it can happen very fast - at many companies at once. Simply because Linux is enough to get the job done. It doesn't matter if it doesn't have every feature under the sun.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
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?
Any 15-year-old?
I wouldn't say any. There's a fair number of 15-year-olds out there with a healthy interest in computers and how to make them work. Linux is an excellent way of teaching them that.
So, uh, take your generalisations and go home. Thank you.
Karma: Non-Heinous
But slowly the idea started to emerge that not everyone needed the full power of a mainframe setup. Cheap simple extremely limited machines started to appear wich could do a few tasks but that was all they needed to do. These machines where DOS and later Windows machines.
Now linux is doing the same. Sure Linux does not have the same capacity yet as a windows machine but windows did not have the same capacity as a mainframe. The question is does it do what is required well enough?
There is a difference. Dos/Windows got in through the lowend single purpose workstation. Linux is going in at all angles. High end server, middle file/printer server, lowend single purpose workstation, specialized appliance (firewall).
MS is scared. HP selling linux as an option is not something MS wants to see.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!