HP Releases Linux-Based Notebook

SteamyMobile writes "As the article says, 'In a sign the Linux operating system may be gaining traction beyond server and other back-room systems, HP said Tuesday it will be the first major PC maker to ship a business notebook computer pre-installed' with Linux. This is great news because, as anyone who has ever tried to run Linux (or even Windows XP) on a laptop knows, laptops come with all kinds of funky hardware, and it's often a mess trying to find and configure the right kernel modules to make things like software suspend work correctly. Having it shipped pre-loaded, and with support, makes it easy for me to decide where I'm getting my next laptop. Linux has been ready for the desktop for a while now, but it is good to see companies like HP acknowledging that."

Comments

WTF? No Wireless or DVD+RW?

[Anonymous Coward]

Try to customize this laptop on HP's website and you'll find "Note for SuSE Linux: MultiBay DVD+RW and Intel PRO wireless not supported."

Re:WTF? No Wireless or DVD+RW?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

But their other DVD-ROM drives are supported, just the +RW isn't

I don't understand what legality has to do with it.

Re:WTF? No Wireless or DVD+RW?

[ajs318]

There's a simple explanation for this ..... Licencing. Jörg Schilling, the author of cdrecord, decided to make, and profit from, a non-Free "pro-DVD" version. It is available as a binary only, and even requires unlocking to be able to handle discs bigger than 1GB. So much for the idea that "only code compiled on this here box should be run on this here box". As it was his own code, there was not much anybody could do about it ..... {Think about it this way. An individual who is not allowed to keep slaves, though considerably freer than a slave, is less free than an individual who is allowed to keep slaves; though the average level of freedom in a society which forbids slavery is almost certainly greater than it would be in a society which tolerates it. Assuming, of course, that you can measure freedom on a linear scale where 0 = component in a machine and infinity = able to modify laws of physics at will.}

SuSE is a paid-for distribution; it contains closed-source and other non-Free components, distributed under special arrangements with the copyright holders. It is very likely that some licencing conflict somewhere precludes SuSE Linux AG from distributing cdrecord-prodvd. It is also possible that SuSE charges a premium for the "enhanced", DVD-ready version of its software, and will not allow HP to resell it.

However, all the older versions of cdrecord were released under the GPL, and the source code was already out there; so anybody else could work in DVD support independently. This is exactly what was done with the version that comes with Debian (at least, Sarge/Testing and Sid/Unstable), as the below excerpt indicates:

# cdrecord --version
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01a29-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jörg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to <warly@mandrakesoft.com>.
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
NOTE: this version of cdrecord is an inofficial (modified) release of cdrecord
and thus may have bugs that are not present in the original version.
Please send bug reports and support requests to <cdrtools@packages.debian.org>.
The original author should not be bothered with problems of this version.

DVD recording also works properly on Mandrake -- the other free-as-in-beer distro. Not surprising really since a Mandrake developer is credited in the output above! It ought to be possible to get the source code from Debian or Mandrake. Once you've patched it to cope with SuSE's file structure {makes much use of /opt, IIRC; Debian is /usr all the way} you could always repackage it as an RPM. This is the best thing to do anyway if you intend to put the main binary in /usr/bin; just be sure to give it a version number higher than the distribution's official package, in case of security updates trampling on it.

Note that my trials have been confined to DVD+RW discs {which, officially, aren't even DVDs; the DVD-forum clearly couldn't stand the fact that someone had managed to invent a better way of making recordable DVDs than they had, and threw their toys out of the pram}. It is no coincidence that these discs are what my TV recorder requires .....

There is also the more mundane possibility that the supplied DVD+RW drive is incompatible with the kernel on the supplied install/rescue disc. I found a DVD+RW in a 1U server that would boot the Debian Woody CD, but not install from it -- I was so glad I had specced in a floppy drive! Downloading and compiling a new kernel soon sorted it; but Debian doesn't require a kernel which is patched to buggery.

As for the wireless bit, well, TTBOMK the Intel

A day late and a dollar short in my case.

[krunk7]

I pretty much got fed up making linux on the laptop work and just sold off my Dell to pick up a iBook. If this had been an option at the time, I may have considered it. As it is, OSX has all the unixy goodness plus none of the hassle.

SuSE makes this even better

[Stevyn]

I haven't used SuSE in a while, but I'm happy they chose it over Linspire or those other "distros". Actually, for this purpose, I can't think of a better distro. Mandrake is kind of slow and Fedora is more beta testers tinkering than a distro I'd want to offer to my customers. I'm not trolling there, Red Hat agrees with me :)

SuSE also has a good repuation of GPL'ing their work where as Linspire won't even offer a free download AFAIK.

Bah.

[wo1verin3]

HP said Tuesday it will be the first major PC maker to ship a business notebook computer pre-installed' with Linux.

Hardly. I owned an IBM T20 which qualifies as a business notebook computer and it shipped with Linux years ago. Here is the coverage from June 19/2000.

Re:How about drivers for the current crop of hardw

[jg]

I presume you mean the SD slot as media card...

The SD consortium folks did not publish enough information for open source drivers. You had to sign various agreements to see the specs, etc.

However, this situation is now changing...

Our dear Redmond friends recently asked them for permission to ship SD drivers in source form; we (HP) said "sure, so long as open source drivers are possible". So this got them off the dime to open up SD implementations (at least the software side; they are keeping the mechanical and electrical specs locked up; they want to ensure interoperability of the hardware, and enforce it as part of the contracts you have to sign to get access to those specs).

So the programming specs are getting opened up; this should have taken place by now. This didn't happen in time for the Nx5000.

There is an SD driver developed independently on the iPAQ handheld for Linux from information that had already leaked out over the last several years; this needs further work for particular SD chip implementations. But it was problematical to distribute, at least by a member of the SD group.

At least it is now possible for do drivers, not possible in the past. I don't know how long it will take to get support done for a particular implementation; if you are interested, go for it!
- Jim

Still not fully supported tho-

[NTT]

From the product web page: (Note for SuSE Linux: MultiBay DVD+RW and Intel PRO wireless not supported.) And the base price has changed since the article was published.

Re:$60 difference...

[BroncoInCalifornia]

I went to the HP web site. If you select SuSE 9.1 or XP home you get a $60 price break from the default selection of XP "professional".
they are giving your SuSE 9.1 for the same price as XP home. We are not getting a price break.

They think this will be a low volume product, or they are not sure what the support costs will be.