Slashdot Mirror
Huge Linux Desktop Deals Get HP Thinking
An anonymous reader notes an article in CRN about HP recently cutting deals for multi-thousands of Linux desktops. With all the talk about whether Dell will offer pre-installed desktop Linux any time soon, in the end HP may beat them to that particular punch.
Well its about time someone did it on a large scale. There is a market, so whats holding it back? Dare I say back room Microsoft deals?
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
That was the puzzle piece the Linux commnity needed.
I'm wondering if Hp figured out how to preinstall AOL, and all the rest of that junk for advertising like the Windows machines come pre-installed with to supplement income. It occurred to me that windows machines might actually be cheaper, not because of the windows deals with MS, but because of the paid to be installed junk. If so, that may not be nearly as nice as it first appears.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
It would be nice if HP also comitted to getting Linux on their laptops as well. I noticed that there is no trouble getting Windows running on my laptop, but It's always hit and miss whether or not Linux runs.
Of the three laptops I've had over the years, It's only the latest one (an HP dv6000 from Canadia) that's not playing nice.
While this is indeed trolling, I wonder if Microsoft encourages HP (et al) to make it difficult to get Linux running on their machines (ie wierdness for screen / network / etc firmware or modules).
Thank goodness for sites like http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ (even though there's nothing for the dv6000 yet)
That's already been discussed as a reason for Apple's future to look brighter. After all - new interface, new paradigms, and lack of backwards compatibilities and lack of software all make for a nice big opening for other systems to enter the market. Add to that an entirely new administrative/maintenance learning curve, and going with something a little more stable, like, say, Apple or Linux, all of a sudden becomes quite enticing, especially when you include the lack of CALs (Client Access Licenses).
Vista may be the hay bale that broke the camel's back.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
More and more governments don't like proprietary or closed formats for documents. HP always seems to be able to get big government computer contracts, so this seems like an easy route to follow.
..........FULL STOP.
The creator of this post (Jacob Smith) hereby releases it, and all of his other posts, into the public domain.
I've been predicting that M$ was going to shoot itself in the foot with Vista for a while now, but last year not many were willing to agree with me. Now, it looks like it's happening, but the question is, are we ready?
We're an army of Linux nerds, but I fear there will not be enough of us at first to satisfy any sudden growth in demand for support as Linux crosses the threshold of critical mass. At first, I think this lack of support will limit the rate of growth, but not for long. It's going to take several years at least for all those Windows admins to become useful, but modern distros like Ubuntu and pre-installed systems from major vendors will make things easier for users without any direct support, thus allowing for more growth sooner that would otherwise be possible. Still, this kind of growth will have its limits as well. Windows will only really start to disappear when there's enough professional support for Linux.
Apple's OSX systems are nice, but I don't think they'll be taking over from M$. Yes, it is *nix, but they're just too expensive; you're limited to using Apple's hardware and you still have licenses to worry about. It's not going to happen. I guess this is the price they pay for always having avoided going head-to-head with M$ for the desktop.
In the mean time, I'm going to have to get certified for Linux in a hurry. At least, that's if I want to get a piece of all that juicy Linux corporate consulting work on the horizon. I've been doing Linux almost exclusively for about six years now, but LPIC-1 isn't as easy as I thought it would be -- you have to remember loads of details for the exams. I'm almost there, though. Then there's LPIC-2, LPIC-3, maybe RHCE too. Anybody know of any other interesting Linux (or related) certifications?
You can't have tried very hard to get DELL laptops with Xp rather than Vista, there are pretty prominent links all over the laptop section of their website and you can select XP as the installed OS rather than Vista without any difficulty at all. Large vendors like DELL or HPQ would never accept a mandate from MS to stop offereing XP when Vista launched because they know that corporates will not be ready for largescale Vista rollouts for quite some time. This is nothing new, you could get W2K on systems for a long time after XP came out.
I didn't read the breakdown in detail, but I understand that most of the work HP did on Linux related to the IA64 port. Since they are about the only people still selling IA64 hardware, and Linux is about the only OS that runs on IA64, this means it's pretty-much up to them to keep the work going. I don't think they are planning on selling IA64 desktops or laptops though...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Poor Lumpy, I feel your pain. When I was a moderator for Ubuntu, I had to stop using an AIM account (in part) from it being flooded with help requests. I'm not one to say "no" either, so I crashed and burned pretty quick. Your 1-2 people idea is nice, but the problem and solution you present is a paradox - most knowledgeable linux users are the RTFM'er types and not in the business of hand holding, but the enthusiastic and evangelic young guns are polite and eager to help but don't know how.
I have two friends that work at HP and yes, Linux is widely used there. Their whole shop uses Linux for desktops. I think Linux makes perfect sense in the corporate world for a desktop OS. Mostly from a computer security standpoint. And secondly cost.
(LOL Sir Bill. Did you forget backwards compatability got you where you are? Remeber what sunk NetScape? A re-write.)
Well he broke compatibility for some programs (mostly games) between 95/98 and 2000/XP. That "run in 95/98" compatibility mode seemed to be a placebo. And running DOS programs on a x86 in an emulator is ludicrous.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
I worked at Digital Equipment Corp. myself, and again as a consultant for Compaq prior to the HP merger-acquisition. I also attended a Debian conference where SEVERAL HP employees were openly favorable to Debian Linux and who were actively promoting the use of Debian GNU/Linux software within HP. From my Digital days, I know that Jon Hall, when he was still at DEC, actually brought in Linus Torvalds (I met Linus personally during one of those meetings, and Jon also saw to it that Linux had his own AlphaStation to port Linux to Alpha. So there is a long history with BOTH HP and DEC in using and promoting Linux internally.
Externally, it has always been a bit below the radar, even though HP does in excess of $2B a year in hardware, software, services, and other line items. Maybe for a $100B+ company that is not very big, but with a little more effort, they could scale that five or tenfold. Maybe it will happen if they have as much success on the desk as they have had with servers. The sheer numbers of systems sold could far exceed the server numbers, though admittedly the profit per unit would be smaller. But if you can get into the millions of deployed units, critical mass can be reached, then it is all profit after that.
I hope HP goes after it big time, Dell and IBM see their success, and follow suit. The industry will then follow and at last we will have a solid Linux desktop presence. Hope it actually happens that way!
Brian Masinick, masinick at yahoo dot com Linux
Do not forget Chicago, which turned into Windows 95.
MS was going to make a new OS from the ground up, completely object oriented, not DOS etc. Something like OS/2 but entirely from MS.
The first alpha releases were that, but then time lines stretched, marketing took over, and MS put a GUI layer over DOS, rolled out Windows 95, and said "Look at us, aren't we great!".
- - - - - - - - - - -
I am a programmer. I am paid to produce syntax not grammar. Deal with it.
I for one would like an Apple PPC with linux pre-installed. In fact I have an iMac (G3 600Mhz) at home I run Ubuntu 6.10 PPC on for my daughter, and it runs better than the OS9 it had on it. In several comparisons that I've done (and read) Linux generally performs as well, if not better in some cases, on PowerPC hardware than Mac does. However, that has changed to some extent with the switch to intel. Though there are several articles floating around the web stating that when linux is configured to run on the Mactel iBooks, the performance is still marginally ahead for linux. Personally, if I could get my hands on a Power6 PC, and slap linux on it, I'd be all but done with x86. I'm personally surprised that IBM isn't doing this in lieu of the Apple switch to Intel. Basically.. if I could get an intel iMac with Linux preloaded, I'd save up for it and buy it. Right now, I find MacOS X to be about as useful as a second butthole. (And yes.. I've used OS X, a bunch.)