TurboLinux to Sell Wizpy Media Player Worldwide

MsManhattan writes "TurboLinux will attempt to lure Windows users over to the Linux operating system in baby steps this June when it starts selling its Wizpy media player worldwide. The pocket-sized device, which plays audio and video files, is really a Linux carrot of sorts, in that it also allows users to store a complete Linux desktop in its memory. You can plug the Wizpy into a PC's USB port and boot up the Linux system with all its user settings, passwords, bookmarks, etc. It originally launched in Japan, where TurboLinux marketed it to 'early adopters who are curious about using Linux but either don't want to or can't install the operating system.' The company will now target the same crowd around the globe, starting in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, India and Singapore."

Comments

Design matters

[z0M6]

It looks decent enough: http://www.turbolinux.com/products/wizpy/

Re:any system?

[timmarhy]

just write your own drivers, GOD can't you do anything without being spoonhead you bonehead user! it's all your fault our OS can't handle many simple tasks

Price

[CowboyBob500]

4Gb for $278? No thanks.

Bob

I'm waiting for Apple to do this with iPods

[Timesprout]

With the market share iPods enjoy it has to be a massive temptation to stick OSX on them and let users boot off them to help drive Mac hardware sales. It's not a strategy without risk but it potentially offers them a much greater share of the market very rapidly if they decide volume sales are the way to go.

Re:I'm waiting for Apple to do this with iPods

[VE3OGG]

Cash cow for how much longer though? iPod/itunes/iPhone/iTV are expected to bring in the cash now. Well iTunes still doesn't make Apple much money last I heard, the iPhone has yet to be released, so really there is no idea whether it will be a hit or not, only speculation, and the iTV has widely been seen with lackluster (probably one of the reasons Apple is trying to push the iPhone, to cover up for the iTV. The only solid cash Apple is seeing is from the iPod (which is, no doubt, considerable.

Because every schmuck has an iPod and it already has credibility as a quality product. If Apple can make a decent implementation people will buy Macs for the full experience. I don't think that means what you think it means For Apple to have a qualified product, it would need a helluva lot of drivers written up. I would hazard a guess and say that Apple products (where the drivers are written by Apple and not a third party) have far fewer drivers available than Linux, and even Linux is problematic on hardware. Not to mention, most people are morons when it comes to technology -- if their iPod runs Mac OS X (and think of the sheer number of people that would run it), and it doesn't suck (which I am not convinced of, see: drivers) then there would be no incentive because it doesn't suck. If it did suck, then again there would be no desire to upgrade and it would sully the Apple brand.

Besides, if Apple was going to do something like this, it would be far more beneficial (although stupid, IMHO) to release it as a DVD-install like Windows. To compensate for a lack of Apple hardware, they would probably be charging $150 USD for it -- now figure that if it went the way you are proposing, that would be $150 USD on top of the iPod price, and there is still no guarantee that they'd switch. At least if they are buying the software (and let's face it, most people just take whatever is pre-installed on the system) they might consider buying hardware at the same time.

The major problem I see here...

[dteichman2]

Of the 4 GB, 1.2 is for the Linux stuff. This leaves you with 2.8 GB of space. That's not very much for a $300 (rounded) media player. At least give this thing a couple SD expansion slots or something!

Re:any system?

[farkus888]

wired card support is much better in linux than it is in windows. I have a couple of mobos with onboard 1 gig nic's that require a lot of work to run in windows. they install and run with 0 effort in every linux distro I've tried. even if it doesn't work out of the box the power is available to fix it yourself, instead of waiting for ms to decide its time to fix it for you. but thats an irrelevant point because the poeple they are targeting are not the kind of people who will be able to do that.

"Wizpy"? That's like Wii times two, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nintendo had a great success with a game console whose name sounds like a word for urination.

So TurboLinux now comes out with a device whose name sounds like two words for urination.

Re:Not really

[ozmanjusri]

Linux doesn't have as complete hardware support as some of the other OSs out there.

Linux has far better hardware support than any other OS out there.

It's extremely rare that you need to install any drivers on any modern distro. Mac supports a very limited hardware set, while Windows needs half a dozen drivers post-install just to get everything working.

In the context of a media player capable of booting from any modern computer, Linux much better placed than other OSs.

Can this be used to remove spyware?

[kahei]

Is it possible for a device like this to circumvent XP to the point where it can be used to delete files/kill processes that are being protected by freindly spyware processes?

I've been confronted by several XP machines that have spyware which can pretty much never be removed within XP, but which also don't run Knoppix or other 'lite' linux distros. Unless they happen to have a floppy drive for a DOS boot disk, it's a major pain removing spyware.

A Linux USB stick might help, depending on how it's implemented...

Re:Can this be used to remove spyware?

[an.echte.trilingue]

I am not sure that I would call knoppix a lite distro. SLAX really is lite, and it has a subproject devoted to USB stick installs, although AFAIK nobody sells it like that.

It also has a bunch of tools devoted to security, but IMHO reinstalling XP from your system restore disks is easier and usually faster and more reliable than trying to "clean" a compromised PC.

Take care,
-mat

Re:Not really

[dannycim]

"Linux has far better hardware support than any other OS out there. "

bullshit, and you know it. wireless drivers, onboard drivers, 3d accerleration. they all SUCK to install on linux. not to mention specialised stuff like hdtv tuners.

I challenge you to wipe your Windows HD, re-install everything from just a windows CD and see how much of that hardware works.

In my experience, out-of-the-box clean installs are generally easier and more complete in Linux.

Re:Not really

[orangeyoda]

I've recently done this. Clean install of windows, gets a network connection up and running and i can get the drivers to install the rest of the cards. Red Hat -- Wifi drivers don't work , installed faq has a helpfull link to a Website on how to get your wifi card to work. Suse -- Same deal as redhat Knoppix -- does not support my wifi card Various LiveCD's don't support it either. Eventually what I had to do was remove all the PCI cards from my box, install 4 different pci wifi cards, 1 usb wifi card and then install Suse 10.0 (10.1 doesn't work with any of the cards ) , eventually it found one that it could use an RA2500 based card, but there was no setting for TKIP - instructions on a wiki on the web. bloody usefull I must say. Changed my settings on the router to WEP encryption and it suddenly starts working. figured out how it should be set up for TKIP and changed it back, and it stopped working after the reboot. Uninstalled suse, but the companies vista version on that box, spent 5 mins playing with the crap interface and wooshy effects, same with the java3D interface. uninstalled and put the initial win2k back on to it, left it for 8 hours while it auto patched itself, another 4 - 5 hours installing the server software, and my box was ready again. Until linux sorts out the basics, like having the help files on the install cd. Having TKIP working out of the box and not insecure WEP etc. I can't see myself using it.

Re:Not really

[gerrysteele]

Well you don't seem to actually know anything about the thing you are criticising. Well done. Out of the box a windows install is all but useless. Linux out of the box supports near on anything.

Re:Not really

[dc29A]

"Linux has far better hardware support than any other OS out there. "

bullshit, and you know it. wireless drivers, onboard drivers, 3d accerleration. they all SUCK to install on linux. not to mention specialised stuff like hdtv tuners.

Troll, but I'll bite.

Installing XP SP2 on either of my PCs (standard Asus board, Athlon X2) requires:
- Video driver (7600 GS)
- Audio (on board)
- Sata RAID (I can skip this and go with Window's builtin raid, but I'll lose the ability to put my C: drive on Raid0).
- Network
- Chipset

Feisty:
- Video Driver (if I really want it!, the nvidia driver is ok, of course upgrading to a proprietary driver = 3 mouse clicks + 1 password).

PS: Wireless worked out of the box for my laptop, something that didn't on Windows XP SP2.

Your mileage might vary!

Re:Not really

[sgc2000]

You should really be comparing Feisty with Vista as Feisty is reasonable new unlike XP. When I installed Vista (Intel board, P4) I didn't need to install any extra drivers to get it functioning. I had to install the nVidia drivers if I wanted 3D performance of course and I don't use RAID so I can't comment on that.

Two main points

[DrYak]

So the two main points to make wider Linux marketshare are :

- Have system builders that hand-pick components known to work with Linux distros. Both small Linux shops and initiatives from large manufacturers like Dell shipping Ubuntu on some computers will help. If they build machines on which Linux just installs(tm), that will be a nice step forward.

This will be much more creative than bitching whose OS is better for a clean install and throwing personal anecdotes at each other as arguments. (Yes, I know you can find WiFi cards that don't work on Linux out of the box. On the other hand you can also find server that are completely supported in Linux - Chipset, RAID controllers, etc. - whereas under Windows you need to pop several floppy disks just to get the install started. It's just a matter of who selected the hardware and for what purpose)

- Put pressure on the makers of chips used in WiFi, GFX Cards, etc... to release enough specs so the community will be able to write a decent opensource driver.

This is the only possible solution. Keeping a stable ABI or using shims/BLOBs is a fundamentally bad idea. Unless you want to bring Windows' "my printer drivers made the whole system crash" stability to Linux. And accompanying driver portability on anything but x86 architecture (Do I really need to bring the subject of driver availability under Windows XP 64bits edition ?). If the drivers aren't GPLed, drivers produced by manufacturer aren't that much useful.

Always FM, never DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting)

[deragon]

Ugh... Why is it so hard to find DAB devices? I want DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) on my radios along with FM... They still build radios with cassette players, but no DAB. Nobody cares about cassette players anymore but people would love DAB if it was available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_broadca sting
http://www.cab-acr.ca/drri/index.shtm

Re:Early Adapters?

[FishWithAHammer]

What bizarre definition of early adapter includes those jumping on the bandwagon 15 years later?

CGA enthusiasts.