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Elonex ONE Subnotebook Shows Right Path For Linux
davidmwilliams writes "Whether it was to your taste or not, there's no denying the ASUS Eee Linux subnotebook was a massive sales success. Demand far exceeded initial production so it's not surprising competitor models are on their way. Just like the Eee, the Elonex achieves cost savings by bundling freely redistributable open source software including, of course, the Linux operating system (specifically, Linos 2.6.21). Those who use the Elonex ONE may well understand it uses something called Linux under the hood, but they don't really have to grasp what this means. They don't have to care that the WiFi hardware was carefully chosen to be one of the exclusive few which has supported Linux drivers. They don't need to tamper with the way their family computer is already set up."
It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the years. It used to be that people who didn't like computers, but had to use them for a few things, avoided Linux like the plague. It may be that these very people are about to embrace it, if it gives them all they want.
Unfortunately: this hasn't happened yet (in a big way) in the corporate desktop market. That will happen next year -- as I have been predicting for the last 8 years.
Apparently the Elonex ONE is just a rebranded version of this system, i.e. a digital photoframe with a keyboard/mouse and wifi grafted on (which is how they manage to keep the cost down).
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
This doesn't really answer your question and I will add another question to the discussion. Just how come a version of Linux is proprietary? Doesn't proprietary mean that you don't automatically get a license to use and/or distribute the software? This can not be the case with a Linux derivative since GPL v2 (the license of the kernel) allows everyone to use, modify and distribute it.
Aslong as the proprietary only applies to distribution, im (somewhat) "ok" with it.
But if we start hearing about lawsuits and crap because some kid modded his Linos so he could do [whatever], this is not going to help "Linux". Because the articles "Bob Smith sentenced to a $1,000 fine for modding his Linos" just makes people scared of touching their OS.
Linux is just the kernel, GNU is the operating system.
From TFA: "Unlike the Eee, however, the native resolution is a more regular (though narrower) 640x480 instead of the bizarre 640x400 ASUS offer."
This is false. I own the Asus Eee PC 701. It has a resolution of 800x480, not "640x400".
From TFA: "Now, returning to hardware, although I commented on how much the ONE seems reminiscent of the Eee there are some differences. I already mentioned the resolution which while taller is narrower."
Again, this is false.
There is no "gap" between Windows and Linux for general use. Windows has more specialty applications that Linux lacks but that is only because it has been around in desktop use (for most people who use Linux we aren't talking about Linus here....) for longer then Linux has. All Linux is lacking is good support pre-installed by most manufacturers, with the EEE, the XO and now this, it seems like Linux can start being installed on more things. The gap is closing with every new computer maker who installs Linux on new computers.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
As Joel wrote, a good business strategy is to drive the price of the complements of your product down to commodity levels. Decreasing the cost of operating systems will make laptops more profitable, so a lot of the companies entering the subnotebook field will be stimulating linux (and other open source) development. We've already seen this from VIA; I can't wait to see if some big US brands start openly supporting linux development.
The Eee wins.
I considered the Elonex One for all of 5 minutes before rejecting it. Ok, I paid twice as much for my Eee, but it doesn't look like an ugly botched abortion with an even more obscure "version" of Linux than Xandros. And the overall spec of the Eee is light years above the One.
I've installed Xampp on the Eee with no problems and it makes a curiously engaging development and demonstration platform. I'd hate to try THAT with the One!
Well, since they bought the name, they probably want to benefit from the recognition of the old company, so they're not going to play up the fact that they're a legally different entity.
Brands are in truth increasingly meaningless these days. Take Polaroid for example. The original company went bankrupt a few years back, and the current "Polaroid" is a legally separate company that took over their business and the name. With the exception of film cameras (which they continued for a while, but I believe they've stopped doing now), almost all "Polaroid" products are made by third-party companies who've licensed the name and slapped it on some cheapass LCD TVs (or whatever) in an attempt to trade off the reputation of and goodwill towards the original Polaroid.
In other words, "Polaroid" is totally meaningless as a brand (in the traditional sense) nowadays.
What I don't understand is companies taking over names like "Time Computers". For those who don't know, Time are a UK company that's gone bankrupt and had its name bought at least twice, despite having a really manky reputation in all its incarnations. I guess that "brand recognition" has some value, no matter how bad the associations with that brand are.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Elonex has a removable keyboard, even though the lack of touch screen makes it less usefull. I really want to have one of these with out keyboard, because of the small form factor the keyboard becomes alot more conspicuous.
I've been using small Laptops since 2000 and the keyboard has always been an issue. Sure 90% of the time it doesn't matter, but sometimes it really is helpful to remove the keyboard.
Dear AC,
/.. An example might be one entitled GNAA Announces Website Partnership with Barak Hosni Mubarak Saddam Hussein Obama Campaign and purporting to bear news of an agreement to allow the Obama campaign to use GNAA's botnet (triggered by Last Measure, which is to replace the current Obama Campaign home page) to inject Hillary "God, I wish I'd married a real man like Anal Cox" Clitdong and John MacOSXPain (and all their heterosexually brainwashed followers) with Holy Gay Nigger Seed via the intarwebs, etc., etc.
You're just a wannabe who couldn't post a real GNAA troll is his life depended on it.
1. A real GNAA post takes the form of a press release, which is used to parody a recent issue in the news - it works best if it's recently been the subject of a story on
2. A successful GNAA post is a first post that's posted non-anonymously.
All you've done is post (most of) the standard GNAA coda as an AC, which is pathetic. It's not like there aren't heaps of examples at gnaa.us to get you started.
Have you even watched the movie? Geez.
both hardware mfr. and Linux developers
:)
.deb and .rpm.
Yes, but their hardware quality, especially in comparaison to Gigabyte (by itself it's fine), has been in a rather harsh decline since the launch of S775/AM2.
Oh, they don't develop anything Linux/GPL IIRC. The linux distro on the eeePC is outsourced to Xandros, a shoddy company that puts my city's already crappy tech sector to shame. They were also one of the companies that signed a deal with MS, another reason to avoid them (Novell's turned out to be not too bad, the ones following it however were a lot worse).
Still, I love the eeePC, because it was the first and the only subnotebook to be under 400$ and released to the "general market", something MSI, Dell, and HP have missed.
Apple using them as their vendor
Apple uses Foxconn parts.
Linux has needed a single, unified, vision from the beginning
I would like to direct you to kernel.org
That said, really, there is no need for a unified Linux distro. Almost everything is "unified". The only thing that really differs amongst distro packagers are slight kernel modifications, small lib changes (basically things that would make an Ubuntu binary not run on Debian), and choice of package managers; even then, only two are relevant;
get past all o fthe choice/freedom crap
Why are you using Linux again? Might as well go back to MS/Apple if you have an attitude like that. That's not to say we're all elitists, I even less, but if you don't like the "choice/freedom crap" then you're free to leave you know.
and get on to a unified UI,
Why? I freaking hate EDE. I hate gnustep. I hate FLTK. I love GTK. Why should we have a unified UI? All of the major desktops (Xfce, Gnome, KDE) have unified on a set of desktop standards, namely Tango, so there's nothing really non-"unified". Sure, there's different toolkits, but hey buddy:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/microsoft-learn-from-apple-II.media/vista.png (and they've left out non-MS toolkits too!)
http://bla.st/static/blog/macos_interfaces.gif
Yeah, good job Apple and MS! We should really be "unified" too! That's what people want! As opposed to two major ones, GTK, QT, and one minor one, FLTK!
"Linux" looks rather unified to me. Look at how well GTK and QT can play together.
a solid look and feel,
Feels solid to me. If you have complaints make 'em verbose & direct so we can fix it.
and most importantly ONE of everything that is best in class and 100% working by default.
Yeah, like things on the OSX and Windows side work 100% amirite or amirite? You don't have to install every effing program you know. You're free to use the apps you like, and I'm sure it's in your distro provider's best intentions to give you the nicest experience they can. Otherwise you've got a bad maintainer and should leave.
Since the OSS community will never agree to do this, a company is my only hope (as sad as that is). I'm wishing ASUS nothing but luck.
Yeah, like Asus does such a good job; have you ever looked at their xandros desktop? Not exactly farts and sunshine there. I especially like that they mixed IceWM and KDE. That's two toolkits that need to be loaded. Good game, guys.
And users care about that distinction because...?
Unfortunately, I think there's a big uphill climb in getting people to accept a desktop.
OS X has gained a respectable amount of traction but there's something that linux evangelists forget:
In order to grab a mostly disinterested audience, you need to have the desktop stay 90% the same year after year after year.
It's not the 80s. Folks aren't used to learning a new using environment every time they buy a computer.
I'm the same, more or less. By doing just about everything I can, except web browsing, on bash, I ensure that when the big leap in whatever interface happens, I can just keep doing things exactly like I have.
The world was really excited to try out new desktop configurations around 1989. It's old news now and we really just want ot get back to work.
The linux for the clueless distributions need to settle on a much more consistant presentation.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Ask yourself how many DELL laptops are being shipped with Linux on them, and how many end users will leave the Linux on their new Dell laptop and actually use it regularly.
The answer will surprise you : almost ALL of them.
The MediaDirect functionality that's being shipped on every Dell laptop that comes with the media buttons on the front (so the user can play music, DVDs, etc) without booting the system - is running Linux.
So yea - Linux is out there, and people are using it. Maybe not as originally intended, or to the limits of its ability - but it's definitely being used.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer