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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 $85 is no big deal for a large corporation, but this really irritated me.
Why? Well, this was the cheapest version of Windows that could be sold. I was informed by the sales rep that HP's contractual terms with MS required that no hardware could be sold without an operating system. The accounting involved was so onerous that HP could not be bothered to do the extra bookkeeping in North America where the Linux market was so weak.
So MS gets paid even when Linux is installed. That's just not right!
From TFA:
"According to HP in Europe, the Ubuntu Linux project is currently limited to EMEA - a region that tends to be more receptive to Linux than for example the US - and aims to demonstrate that a Linux desktop can be easily transferred to a notebook. The software is available in a few countries with an expansion to other markets being evaluated at this time, a spokesperson said."
I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
There was an article on slashdot a few years back how another company got around with their contractual obligation to M$ to not sell a computer without an OS.
They shipped their computers with Free DOS installed.
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 There is no "prevailing h/w standard" for laptops -- or rather, if there is it's a couple of years out of date.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