Element Computer: ION Linux on Linux Hardware

JigSaw writes "Well known Lycoris person Jason Spisak left the company to join Element Computer, a new hardware company which now strives to offer the Apple experience on PCs: they sell Linux-certified modern hardware with their own flavor of Debian, ION Linux. ION is a desktop distro and it is developed specifically to work perfectly with the accompanied hardware. Other highlights include usage support (as opposed to installation-only support other distros provide) and system upgrades specific to the exact hardware the user runs. The KDE-based distro will only sell with their hardware as Mike Hjorleifsson says in his interview." (The company was previously mentioned on Slashdot.)

Comments

This could work if the price is right

[christopher240240]

If they follow apple's lead on hw/sw integration and keep the prices reasonable, this could be a very nice way to show Linux as a user-friendly option.

Apple experience?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

which now strives to offer the Apple experience on PCs

They sell PCs with single-button mice, without floppy drives, at 3 times the price?

Re:Apple experience?

[PhiRatE]

> You'll have to explain to me how that's easier than dragging the application out of the DMG file into the Applications folder.

It's much easier. You don't need to know where to get the application, you don't need to go download the DMG file. Everything done for you, just type "apt-get install mozilla" and wait. Local mirrors of everything for added speed.

In addition, it takes care of dependencies (although I acknowledge that the Apple mechanism of "One-file-for-the-app" is a good alternate solution to this a lot of the time), and allows you to go and upgrade any or all installed applications without having to remember where you got it, go and find it, download it again etc etc.

Even further, you can do full searches of available applications using apt-cache, allowing you to quickly and easily locate, for example, and mp3 player or a video encoder immediately available for installation.

APT really is very very good. All kudos to Apple for many of their usability features, but in this one area Debians devotion to Free software has given it leverage which has proven difficult for other operating systems to match, a supply of almost all the software you'll ever need on your system, right here, right now.

Secret developers

[winkydink]

We don't publicly state who and where our developers are for obvious reasons.

Ummm... you don't have any?

Re:Secret developers

[r_j_prahad]

We don't publicly state who and where our developers are for obvious reasons.

They're SCO employees?

Linux with usage support?

[rdsmith4]

And it ships on hardware?!? A novel concept! This will be THE breakthrough! 2004 is indeed the Year of the Penguin!

Oh wait, you have to pay for it.

Damn.

Re:The "Apple experience"?

[00420]

The hardware limitations are part of the reason Apple offers such a solid, well-functioning OS.

Kind of Pricey

[hng_rval]

Is it just me, or do these computers cost more than an equivalent Dell model?

Why not buy a Dell, format with Linux, good to go.

I guess they install Linux for free, and provide you with some sort of support, but if you really need that why not just use Windows?

Or, install Debian - it's getting easier every day.

Re:GPL?

[El Cubano]

I don't like that a company is using Linux in a way that (seemingly) intentionally keeps its software from being of use to anyone who doesn't buy their product. It seems to go around the purpose of GNU and OSS.

Actually, you have it backwards. This is exactly what the GPL was designed for. This company has snazzy new hardware. Since the company can customize an OS around GNU/Linux, they are saved the millions of dollars requisite to develop a proprietary OS. Now you can buy the base model for $799, instead of $2799. Nevermind that then vendors and OSS projects would have to work on porting their products to the new OS (not likely in many cases) in the case of a new proprietary OS.

It's better for them as a company because they are quicker to market and can make their products more economical. It's better for the users because thay can use a well established, rock solid stable OS with thousands of already available applications.

So what if you can only get the hardware from them? As long as they comply with the GPL (or the licesnse for any app they modify), it's all good.

Un-fricken-believable

[MicroBerto]

Wow. I was just thinking to myself, "You know what, Mike? We need MORE LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS!"

Not only that, but we need distributions that only work_on/come_with certain hardware. So now I go from 2% market share to 0.0002% marketshare!

Have these guys ever taken Marketing 101, or ANY type of business course? What kind of business plan is this, and who honestly expects it to sell?

Let me give you one obvious hint - steal business ideas that are GOOD, not those that have been holding Apple back for the past 15+ years.

Don't forget....

[mao che minh]

...you also have to throw away all of your games and junk half of your software. Then go to the ATM, withdraw about $1,000, and promptly rip it up.

There, Apple experience complete.

Sounds like a reasonable approach...

[isaac]

I think the general idea of shipping machines with an operating system and, indeed, applications that are tuned to the specific hardware of the machine is a sound one.

I've installed more operating systems in the last 20 years than I can count. My main home system is a Fujitsu P2040 laptop that currently dual-boots Win2k and Mandrake 9.2, and I've probably spent 60-80 hours installing and tweaking and tuning both of these operating systems just to get everything working to my liking in both operating systems - all the hardware buttons (even the "email" button and notification light), cd-burning, region-free DVD playback, trackpoint sensitivity & z-axis support, 3d acceleration (albeit pathetic on this Mach64-based Rage Mobility) under linux, cygwin in win2k, Crusoe-tuned power management and monitoring, remapped keyboard (caps=ctrl, winkeys useful), separate partitions for my data and OS (and a swap partition used by both operating systems). I can recover this clean, custom load of either OS with bootable CD sets I made. I replaced the fujitsu logo on the top of the lid with a metal plate I screen printed with tiny C version of DeCSS (efdtt.c, props to Charles Hannum and Phil Carmody). It's a great little computer and works a treat - but I'll probably sell it soon because I've come to prefer my girlfriend's G3 ibook. It's got that UNIX-fresh flavor I crave right out of the box, and doesn't come loaded from the factory with bullshit like a PC, and it took all of 5 minutes to configure to my liking when I installed Panther on it.

A company that can deliver a no-bullshit PC running linux with Apple-grade hardware/software integration might get my business. I'm not convinced that Element is that company, but we'll see.

-Isaac

Actually.....

[retendo]

I think that you've missed on this one.

If ION can put together a slick looking and feeling desktop system with linux nicely tuned on it then I will be *glad* to give them my money. And I have been setting up linux on laptops and workstations for a number of years now.

Why would I pay them money when I can just buy a Dell and do the same?

Two reasons.

Because I'm not always satisfied with the hardware that Dell chooses and I'll be very happy if I don't have to download another $%*# experimental winmodem driver, get the right hardware acceleration components loaded into my X server or figure out why the cd/rw only appears as a cd.

I love linux and love the control I have over the entire system but I hate having to wrestle with configuration issues all the time. If by default my laptop came well tuned and looking pretty I would pay the ION folks some $$$$.

And so would my company.

And so would my friend's companies.

Cool. I hope they get their prices and the the look of their distro right.

Oh, and add a few we more servers to the cluster......

--
Dan Glauser
J2EE Architect
http://www.roundboxmedia.com