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Mirus to Ship Desktop Computers with Linspire
segphault writes "Ars Technica reports that Mirus has teamed up with Linspire and plan to ship budget desktop PCs with Linspire preinstalled. From the article: 'Designed specifically for optimal Linux compatibility, the Mirus Koobox line computers feature AMD processors and Linspire preinstallation. The Koobox systems, which start at US$299, will come with a variety of open source applications, including Firefox and OpenOffice. [...] At this point it is hard to assess the potential of the Koobox systems. If it succeeds, the product could help legitimize desktop Linux and bring it further into the mainstream. Regardless of how many get sold, the availability of yet another budget Linux PC illuminates the growing popularity of the Linux platform, and contributes to the perception that Linux is applicable to desktop computing. With Dell selling low-cost computers sans OS, and Apple selling the popular Mac Mini at a price that doesn't look as much like typical Apple extortion, Mirus is going to have to fight an uphill battle to pick up a worthwhile chunk of the desktop PC market.'"
When I was write this response
This article not on front page
http://www.slashdot.org/
and shown on
http://hardware.slashdot.org/
Anyhow I done my firstpost (hope so)
[My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
But the price is compelling, and the hardware specifications don't seem that bad.
The $299 system is pretty good - Sempron 2800+ (S754 variety I suspect), only 256MB RAM, only a CDRW, only a 40GB hard drive. It's the cheap system that few people buy, but gets the eyes onto the site.
The $399 system is much more sensible. Sempron 3000+, 512MB RAM, DVD-RW, 160GB hard drive. That's not a lot of money more, but it gets you essential memory, and decent storage options.
Issues are: 90 day warranty. That's piss poor for an item of consumer electronics.
However it'll outperform today's Mac Mini that costs $499. Will it out-perform the Mac Mini that'll be announced on Tuesday (allegedly)? That might have a dual-core Yonah, and it'll certainly have Apple's industrial design.
As for the OS, I'm sure it works. Hopefully it isn't a cluttered desktop though. That'd scare away users.
I agree, that $399 is quite a decent price point for a system with these specs ... a customer could even repartition the HDD, and install additional and / or inferior OS ... such as a copy of windows, or experiment with a freeBSD ... the only concern I have would be the chances of finding support for a box with Linux pre-installed ... are there truly enough LUG's out there, and will they willing to cheaply support these boxes once they hit the street? There is money to be made, but come on, these will be picked up by inexperienced noobs, and under-privileged groups, ( for the most part ), and if they have some brains (windowized) they will still need some support ...
Question Authority before IT questions You
Don't get me wrong, I think widespread adoption of GNU/Linux and Free Software alike will happen, and it will be a good thing. But out of all possible choices of distributions, Linspire is without a doubt the worst (at least of those distros I know of, and that are quite a few...). It's ok and comfortable to have a system that "just works(tm)", but Linspire shows tendencies that it's not true to the heart of neither Free Software-philosophy, nor UNIX-pragmatism. The founder of Linspire, who afaik is also the former owner of mp3.com, has made statements in the past about how he thinks users should log in as root always, and that it's better not to confuse an end-user with such a thing as access privileges. Where this leads to can be observed on MSFT Windows nearly every day, where a privilege system that has been applied to (I prefer to say "bolted onto") a system that has so much legacy code to support leads to the "Log in as admin and go"-mess, implying MASSIVE threats to system security. Linspire also bundles a bunch of non-free tools they developed themselves (they could at release them under GPLv2, just as Red Hat and Novell do with their contributions, but no, they prefer to leech drom other projects and not giving back the same way the take), and don't seem to give a damn about anything related to the ethical and moral message Free Software stands for.
They (Mirus) would probably have fared better with, say, Ubuntu, or a customized Debian or Archlinux, as would their customers and society have, in the end.
:%s/Open Source/Free Software/g
YTARY!
I don't think that this is a good idea. No matter how you look at it, Linux is not and will not (soon) be an operating system ready for my grandma to use; it's much better suited as an operating system to those who simply want more power and more control. Linspire is most likely the worst choice if you take this into consideration. If I want a good system, I'd much rather get Debian (or Ubuntu?) with my computer.
I know that I'm dreaming, but the ideal Linux combination would be Dell bundling Kubuntu on their low end machine. My guess, given that such a machine with XP now sells for $299, is that they could offer it at $249 with a big warning that says "All support for this system will be handled online at dell.support.kubuntu online forum." There would be a warranty on hardware for which phone support would still exist, but all other issues would be handled online, primarily by other users.
The Koobox has three problems for me: (1) Linspire, (2) no monitor, (3) no modem.
Yeah, I'm as old as my UID would suggest.
With Dell selling low-cost computers sans OS
I figured that was enough to get me a +5 Funny. (We've seen the stories about these computers...)
Honesty may be the best policy, but by process of elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy.
If people actually go and buy this in droves, they will do so because of the cheap hardware. The next thing they will say is "Linspire Shinspire !" and proceed to install his or her bootlegged version of windows XP on it.
Besides no tech support team would be allowed to tell you HOW to install XMMS/Azureus/DVD ripper, and these user will HAVE to *gasp* search for sites such as the unofficial Ubuntu Guide to get things done...
Elitist talk? Maybe... I just don't see the point in selling a PC pre-installed with a specific *nix distro when in the end it would require the EXACT same effort from the buyer to buy a virgin PC and install the distro of his choice (or the one recommended by his friend(s)).
Why must everyone push "cheap PCs" via linux. Any vendor that offers a cheap linux PC should also offer an expensive linux PC. Linux isn't about cheap, It's about power and freedom.
Of course, Windows is also about power, but the power is not yours.
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
90 days warranty for a computer means it's crap.