Centrino-based Linux Laptops

sebFlyte writes "Intel has lifted its ban on Linux-based laptops carrying its Centrino brand... It obviously makes very little difference technically what name is on the outside of the box, but does this represent a major philosophical shift for the chipmaker, or are they just leaping upon the nearest bandwagon in pursuit of a few extra bucks?"

Comments

Intel sells chips...

[fitten]

I know a few folks who work at Intel (some are CPU designers). If you ask any of them, they will repeat the mantra: Intel sells chips. They don't care to who or for what purpose (this was before 9/11). If it is to someone who is going to run Linux or to someone who will run Windows, it doesn't matter because they sold that person some chips.

How banned?

[Doc Ruby]

How did Intel enforce it's "Linux on Centrino" ban? Isn't that unfair competition? It stinks of Microsoft collusion...

Re:How banned?

[dreamchaser]

Not everything is a conspiracy out of Richmond. The Centrino brand name is a trademarked property of Intel. They didn't say they wouldn't sell chips and chipsets to companies selling Linux based latops; they just would not license the Centrino lable to said vendors until now.

Wrong question!

[Kid Zero]

You should ask "Will we also see Sonoma based, Linux laptops?"

My guess would be "No, we won't." Centrino is now the old technology, isn't it?

Jebus, pull your heads out and look around..

[stratjakt]

Before you get all up in arms about Intel "banning linux" and being all evil and monopoly, blah blah, realize that Intel is a member of OSDL - Intel pays Linus to write linux.

This was all about not having their brand and logo associated with something that didn't work. This is a pat on the back for the kernel hackers who managed to get good solid support for the various Centrino components into the kernel.

So just take it for what it is. You can now say that linux officially works on Centrino laptops.

Bandwagon or not...

[keiferb]

Who cares? Isn't leaping onto a bandwagon a show of support? If they think they can make money off of it, that generally means they believe it's A Good Thing(tm).

Re:No excuse

[fshalor]

And most of those geeks who demand a linux laptop are being slightly drawn by mac's right now.

I'm one: Gave up my dead PII 300 Cpia Debian machine for a iBook. :)

I have came close to snapping up an amd64 e-machines a few times though.

Linux could really improve in wireless

[digitalgimpus]

This is isn't flamebait... just someone who uses linux occasionally (prefers Mac OS X).

No mater what system I use, I've really never had a simple time getting WiFi working. Always several steps... always ugly.

IMHO Linux would have a bit better marketing if it focused on being as close to 0Config as possible. There's a ton of potential.

The best experience I've had is with Knoppix. And even that wasn't perfect.

Re:X driver

[slick_rick]

Funny, I have purchased three laptops this year and they all of them worked just fine with recent XFree builds. Then again I'm a fairly serious computer user, I [GASP] googled the laptops for their linux compatability before I purchased them! If you don't know how to google, you can always just pop in a recent Knoppix CD if you can find the exact model at a local B&M store.

Come to think of it, of all the linux users I know, I don't know even one who has needed a commercial X server in years.

Re:intel has become "oss friendly"

[stratjakt]

Intel and AMD are both members of OSDL.

Any "this one is more OSS-friendly than that one" insinuations you hear would pretty much be nothing but fanboy bullshit.

AMD doesn't have anything to maintain so far, since they have up until now just been doing CPUs, not whole-board solutions.