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HP Will Offer Customized Linux in Notebooks
diegocgteleline.es writes "According with Tom's Hardware, HP is working with Ubuntu to offer a customized GNU/Linux version that works 100% - wireless, bluetooth, IrDA, IEEE1394 - with HP hardware. This offer will be restricted to Europe, Middle East and Africa. The CD includes free support through online resources as well as paid support through Canonical, the developer of Ubuntu."
I've personnaly tried to purchase Linux (Our corporate application were running is UNIX based) on notebooks and servers from HP. I was told that they had to sell me Windows XP Home edition pre-installed for CDN$85. The extra $85 is no big deal for a large corporation, but this really irritated me.
Why? Well, this was the cheapest version of Windows that could be sold. I was informed by the sales rep that HP's contractual terms with MS required that no hardware could be sold without an operating system. The accounting involved was so onerous that HP could not be bothered to do the extra bookkeeping in North America where the Linux market was so weak.
So MS gets paid even when Linux is installed. That's just not right!
From TFA:
"According to HP in Europe, the Ubuntu Linux project is currently limited to EMEA - a region that tends to be more receptive to Linux than for example the US - and aims to demonstrate that a Linux desktop can be easily transferred to a notebook. The software is available in a few countries with an expansion to other markets being evaluated at this time, a spokesperson said."
I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
I had only a couple adjustments to make to get Ubuntu 5.04 to have good power mgmt on my VAIO. It hibernates when I close the lid, comes back pretty fast and keeps the 802.11g (via ndiswrapper) connection intact. Seems pretty good to me.
There was an article on slashdot a few years back how another company got around with their contractual obligation to M$ to not sell a computer without an OS.
They shipped their computers with Free DOS installed.
I have an HP ze5790US laptop, which came preinstalled with XPhome, but which I now dual boot with Ubuntu (and hardly ever boot into XP.) However, something which (despite spending several days recompiling the kernel with the right drivers) I have not been able to get the wireless card to work. Nor does putting the laptop to sleep (it will go to sleep, but not come out of it.) So if they are able to get these things to work with their laptops hopefully they will gpl their software, and make it available to others with their laptops.
In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and is widely considered as a bad move.
Um, yes it does. It's been part of the default IE install since at least IE 5.5.
Err, insightful or uninformed ? Then again, it's Slashdot...
So, as I'm writing from a HP zv5000 laptop, running Suse 9.1 x86_64, I have to say the following:
- power management works. No specific patches, kernel compilations or the like. Just set it up as you please.
- the two things that don't work properly are the memory card reader (some 5-in-1 thing which is not recognised by the kernel) and the integrated modem, which, I haven't even tried to configure.
- everything else works. Of course, one needs to install the NVidia drivers if one wanted hardware 3D acceleration, but that's not laptop specific. Plus, it can be done by HP.
But I'll tell you this much: even with the latest video drivers, the colours of the IT scheme of Slashdot still look painfully idiotic.
This is not insightful. This is nonsense. Those animations? Half the time they are not flash at all, but self-contained executables. 99% of the software you buy at Staples and Walmart run on Windows from 98 to XP.
The real target for Linux is not the hypothetical old ladies. It's people like you and me, who don't need those kinds of silliness that Windows provides.
They're talking laptops here, not desktops or servers. There is no "prevailing h/w standard" for laptops -- or rather, if there is it's a couple of years out of date. Laptop manufacturers constantly have to push the edge regarding battery life, display resolution, battery life, weight, battery life, wireless and bluetooth capabilities, and did I mention battery life? (Battery life, of course, implies finding low power versions of the other technologies, as well as the other innards.) And of course some of that cutting edge hardware comes from third-parties with NDAs limiting how open they can make the drivers.
As far as HP desktops and servers go, they're pretty much supported out of the box by most distros, with most of the drivers for HP/Compaq hardware being GPL'd. (Except perhaps for some server-only features on high-end hardware, like the remote lights-out management system that'll let me power-cycle a box in Singapore from my desk in Colorado.)
-- Alastair
Here they are: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF04a/3219 57-64295-89315-321838-f33.html
Oh well, what the hell...
Last time I bought a laptop with Windows preinstalled, I immediately replaced the hard disk when I received it. When the keyboard needed a replacement some 18 months later, I just swapped the old HD back in before sending the machine to guarantee repair. This procedure allowed me to:
- Replace the orignal 6GB HD with a 30GB one (this was a couple of years ago).
- Avoid fuss about me running Linux. The repair shop would see my virgin Windows HD.
- Have my data safe when sending the machine away.
)9TSS