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HP Releases Linux-Based Notebook

Posted by timothy on from the too-bad-this-is-unusual dept.

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."

4 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. WTF? No Wireless or DVD+RW? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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."

  2. A day late and a dollar short in my case. by krunk7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  3. Bah. by wo1verin3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:How about drivers for the current crop of hardw by jg · · Score: 5, Informative

    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