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Centrino-based Linux Laptops

Posted by michael on from the tux-inside dept.

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?"

4 of 316 comments (clear)

  1. No excuse by slashnutt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now that Intel ceased banning Linux on Laptops then I should be able to call Dell or HP and say I want a laptop that runs Linux out of the box right? Then why hasn't AMD captured the Linux laptop market? Oh yeah the vendors don't see a market. I imagine that it is time for a small time vendor to start making 100% Linux compatible laptops and if they survive and make money then great - this is similar on how Dell started in the desktop market. If the market is big enough than the small vendor took a big risk but it would pay off; if the market doesn't support the small vendor then the big name vendors will avoid Linux like the plague and say to share holders 'see I told you so - Linux is ready for primetime'. Either way works out best as I just want a Linux latop.

    1. Re:No excuse by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As much as I'd love to see mainstream laptops built for Linux with full vendor support, the sad fact is that there *is* no real market for it. It's a very tiny niche of computer users who would buy one. It's not just that the vendor's 'don't see a market' as you put it. There just isn't much of a market TO see. Hopefully this will change as Linux continues to evolve into a more user friendly system.

  2. Reasoning? by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It obviously makes very little difference technically what name is on the outside of the box,

    To them it does, as they've been interested in projecting a particular value of the Centrino brand, being low power consumption.

    but does this represent a major philosophical shift for the chipmaker,

    Obviously not, did you actually RTFA?

    or are they just leaping upon the nearest bandwagon in pursuit of a few extra bucks?

    Most likely they have been promoting Linux, but not at the expense of their own brand of stuff. After all their marketing (possibly preceded by some actual innovation, but that's usually optional for any company) they want to ensure their brand lives up to their beliefs. If you were selling a line of Linux Laptops which didn't conserve power and ran the batteries down and some guy in an airport, surrounded by dozens of pairs of ears (some not connected to iPods) and started carrying on about what a piece of shit your Centrino laptop was because it drained the battery before you even got on your flight, well, that's the kind of damage lots of $ of advertising and spin can't undo.

    I do have reservations about a company like Intel telling people what they can and can't do with their product, but if it's meet some specification to earn the right to logo the boxen, I think that's within the realm of acceptable business practice.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  3. intel has become "oss friendly" by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ~/kernel/stable # grep -i "@intel.com" MAINTAINERS | wc -l
    11

    Intel has a couple of programmers taking care of ACPI, they've merged their own GPL drivers for their network cards, they've published specs of SATA hardware or documentation of mainboard chipsets, drivers for their graphics chipsets, there're intel guys at the kernel mailing list...I buy Intel just for how good linux support is having lately. No cookie for you, amd:
    grep -i "@amd.com" MAINTAINERS | wc -l
    0