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OEMs Looking to Ubuntu for Netbook Market
Anon writes "Mark Shuttleworth provides much more detail today about development of the Ubuntu netbook platform, and says OEMs are calling Canonical when they want to start building netbooks. Channelweb notes: 'It's actually a big deal. For example, Dell CEO Michael Dell has been carrying around an early version of a Dell mini-notebook, and referring to it as the device for the next billion Internet users [...] Asus has become an industry rock star by using GNU Linux to power its Eee PC. HP's niche Mini note runs SLED 10 Linux. The iPhone, of course, doesn't run Microsoft software. Is anyone paying attention in Redmond?'"
And here comes the next round from a company on it's way out the door and no longer truly innovating: litigation!
Of course they do...they are busy trying to sell Vista,Zune and stuff.... And laughing at the price of the first gen iPhone of course...and throwing chairs..and..feeling sad about Bill leaving Microsoft..
Bill Gates said:"I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine" My favorite number is 09 F9 11 02 9D 74
Someone thinks people will use WinCE just because it looks like windows xp; but Vista doesn't look like windows xp either.
this post contain no useful information, no need to mod it down
OMG!1! It's the first modern-greek-themed porn novel I read
this post contain no useful information, no need to mod it down
Actually, if you read the latest Distrowatch Weekly, they say that Linux on the Eee PC is almost a thing of the past.
See, I told you soo; 2008 is the year of linux on the desktop. For real this time.
"Is anyone paying attention in Redmond?"
Yes.
At least OLPC and Asus are.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It really is pretty simple here - there are those who want overcoded, overprotective, overhyped operating systems. And then, there are those who want to use their computer.
The eee, Netbook remix, ume-launcher and all OSS-friendly friends fit into the latter. Let's face it - the operating system is slowly melting into the background. Vista, for instance, is trying to kick and scream its way back to the front of your widescreen LCD - but sooner or later, people are going to 'ho-hum' them into oblivion, and get on their Intarwebs the easier way.
P.S. lolsauce.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I'm sure that Microsoft and most hardware vendors are really not thrilled that customers aren't demanding exponentially faster machines with exponentially more RAM and disk space.
How do you drive customer upgrades to more bloaded OSes when customers are demanding devices with lower cpu/ram specs?
As the price of systems drops from thousands of dollars to hundreds of dollars, having to pay Microsoft hundreds of dollars for OS + Office licensing becomes a non-trivial fraction of total system cost.
Also, you can bet that the hardware manufacturer's profits on a $500 device are razor thin. If they can cut $20 to $100 or more off the cost by using Linux, it's worth it.
So, at this point, I have to wonder whether Microsoft is going to try to converge WinCE code with Vista code for Windows 7 to have a single OS that can run on phones / UMPCs / netbooks / laptops / desktops (or at least the same codebase even if CPUs aren't the same). That's probably going to be hard for Microsoft. I expect they'll try to reimplement apps in silverlight instead.
Just call it Linux. Calling it Gnu/Linux completely ignores the work that's gone into making Linux a household name. "Linux" is a weird enough name, throwing a little-known water buffalo that nobody knows how to pronounce is disastrous.
"'...Is anyone paying attention in Redmont?'"
Ah, ignorance is bliss...especially when you are a monopoly -- and think that you will be forever.
Their cellphone market is still pretty big...oh, wait, what about Android (and its competitor, whose name I always forget)?
The iPhone, of course, doesn't run Microsoft software. Is anyone paying attention in Redmond?'
if anyone is a bigger offender of lock-in it's apple. why do slashdotters act like it's some kind of victory? is this about a brand or about freedom as you all caw on about?
OEM such as Dell and HP has always relied on MS to tell them when to upgrade hardware and drivers, but all the time half listen and looking for cheap outs, ergo the Vista flop. They've long lost the ability to innovate or motivate on their own nor understand their users. Linux companies ought to beware of established OEM as partners when they come knocking looking for help on that next sale to bail them out. As soon Ballmer slip a 'We'll give you a Windows XZ for a nickel!', the same OEMs will drop Linux on a dime. And will the same vendor offer dedicated support to help novice users upgrade the ever-evolving OS 3 times a year? To ensure long term success and real Linux traction, whoever the Linux company is supplying the netbook OS must keep up the positive user experience for years, not months.
It seems to be the case that, while the Year of the Linux Desktop may never arive, 2008 may be the Year of the Linux n(ote|et)book.
In trying to compete for the desktop, the open source guys have managed to get a strong foothold on the newest, latest, cheapest portables. Perhaps not the particular victory which was sought, but perhaps victory here would gradually translate into victory on the desktop. If people like what they use most of the time (Linux on the portable), it would be reasonable that they would want the same thing on their own desktops.
[quote]The iPhone, of course, doesn't run Microsoft software. Is anyone paying attention in Redmond?[/quote] http://www.apple.com/iphone/enterprise/
What kind of ignorant semi-question is that?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Like the author didn't find the linux eee booth and decided that was a lack of marketing push, a step on the road to deprecating linux on the eee.
I don't see this at all yet, and if I did it would not worry me. There are plenty other and bigger OEMs fishing for the premium experience you get with linux on the netbook now. Asus got an early lead but if they want to throw their advantage away and return to differentiating their product only by price and color that is their right. There are more than enough other mfrs eager to push the mindshare across the threshold and bring about the unchained era of personal computing.
It will be chaotic for a while. That's when the interesting things happen.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
When user see that they can get more with less money, it's a difficult deal to resist...
I've tried playing around with the Eeee PC, and while I can see the appeal, the GUI experience is a bit sucky. Gnome as is, just wasn't designed with a screen that small in mind, and it shows with the amount of real estate consumed by control buttons and what not in proportion to the data.
What's needed is a kind of minimalist mode, where contol buttons and menus don't get in the way, but can be exposed easily and intuitively as they're required. That's going to be a lot of very hard work.
So, as a computer engineer, I have to graduate to Photoshop?
(\(\
(=_=) Bani!
(")")
I guess what I'm a little worried about is if the market perception becomes that Linux is only good for small portable computers/cell phones/etc, that the larger distros will stop paying as much attention to the desktop.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
You know, probably 90% of all work done on computers is done in one either in a basic office app, (like Word, Excel, or Powerpoint), a browser (like Firefox, IE), an email and scheduling program (like Outlook/Notes), or a frontend for a server side app. That goes double for the in-browser apps. Not that there's anything wrong with the heavy desktop publishing stuff, but netbooks have nothing to do with playing, and if anything, I think it more likely that workplaces like mine will graduate to them then that users will graduate from them. After all, the hardware required to do Photoshop and heavy desktop publishing is mostly wasted on office apps, and is very expensive. Oh, and please don't talk about professional quality software. Professional quality software means nothing to me. I'm a professional, is the software I use "Professional Quality"? Some of it is downright crap, but I use it because changing now would be very difficult. Some of it is awesome. There is no correlation between profitability of the producer and quality of the software.
Right now I'm writing this from an IBM Thinkpad A21m Using Ubuntu 8.04. Right in Live CD mode, Ubuntu configured all of my hardware, even Wifi, the mic, infrared can detect an old phone, No Wonder why Ubuntu have been chosen.
.. 256Mb should be enough for everyone (I know I need 512Mb but believe me it runs fine).
It's a dual boot, having the choice of Win 2K pro, Now I'm planing to install Wolvix in there, I have not so much problem with the speed in Ubuntu
BTW I'm using Firefox 3no beta, no RC.. Updated just an hour ago! Why I haven't seen an article on this here? http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6682/ff3gb5.png
This comment disregards the whole point of these sub-notebooks:
:)
Photoshop -- on a 10" screen? Really?
Apache -- running on a laptop? Perhaps as part of development...
Desktop publishing -- see Photoshop comment. Hard to do page layout when you can't see enough of the page.
As far as Office goes, again, you're missing the point. Sub-notebooks are fine for creating quick docs and even presentations, but the real work is to be done on a desktop with a much larger display.
Software engineering is a *great* use for this type of system. vi isn't all that resource hungry.
Sub-notebooks are for people who want to carry ready access to a few simple functions: web, email, quick document editing and the like. This are to augment your full desktop, not replace it.
Dell has the bucks and "political" power to get some of the big commercial software packages ported to Linux.
Maybe they can convince Adobe to port all their stuff. If Linux had the Adobe apps (and Flash, for God's sake) and Quicken, that would go a long way to filling the major gaps in the software library.
Of course, there is still the problem of games, but I think that is becoming less-and-less of an issue as consoles take over the market.
Hell, Dell should just *buy* Canonical, and spin off their own version of Linux that fixes all the usability problems that make it not-as-good-as Windows for general desktop use.
I just wonder whay you can only by the lowest end of the netbooks with linux on them.
I want the top range HP netbook with 2 GB RAM, and the 60GB flash drive AND SLED10 please! If you deduct the cost for windows, about $100 that puts it at about the same price as the entry level Windows one with the 160GB spinning platter HDD.
If people stop saying "This is the year..." next year, we'll know that this year really was the year.
Until then, it's still just a meme.
Anybody want my mod points?
Why do you think the Gates Foundation has sold so much Microsoft stock?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
http://www.geo-talk.com
Pretty much everywhere and easy to use?
If you are talking vendor support wise, I can understand. Drivers for more wireless cards might be opened up, but it doesn't mean another vendor will open up a pci TV card driver.
A perfectly valid point of concern. I think, though, that at least some of the larger distributions, like Debian, would almost certainly remain.
To go somewhat off topic, the one concern I have is that the hardware companies start doing the Tivo and lock down their machines so they only do certain specified tasks. This would certainly be something a bit off on the horizon, but even the potential demise/greatly increased cost of a general purpose computer makes me anxious.
Most of these companies (asus, acer, etc) are taking in 10-20% profits. Nothing razor about those. But no sense in throwing away money. If they can lose Windows AND have a better platform, then they will do it. Finally, These are chinese companies. They all want to remove the American influence. Once MS is gone, it will be pretty easy to remove Intel and AMD and other American companies.
Of course, it means they have to pay for the licenses for the codecs.
Perhaps every sale even sends a little bit of money to M$.
Nice way to leverage the free cost of free software while at the same time selling out to proprietary interests and immoral anti-competitive laws like patents.
Although it was a one-off payment, they even got some money out of the Samba team. Novell are long gone. It seems they're the ones (proprietary interests) dictating the terms under which free software is now developed and used.
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
However, it's likely that once the buyers bring the unit home, a bootleg version of Windows gets loaded on it. Linux is preloaded just to show that the unit is working.
On the other hand, netbooks aren't really living up to the name. They're coming in with more memory and more disk space -- case in point is the Deep Blue H1 (not sure what the designation is in other countries): 1GB memory and 40GB hard disk, and all of $300.
Is everbody using linux the "win"-situation?
Well, i also offer it preinstalled as an alternative to windows (and even add the propritary gfx drivers and some user-wanted software).
On the other hand i dont usually recommend it.
I dont really like the idea of selling linux, i prefer to use it.
Someone with no linux knowledge will probably just be coming around to often asking for help (you know the time and money thing?).
I give advice freely in the local lug, but this just doesnt really scale into a pc-shop.
And you know the goddamn thing about it? Probably linux will win the sub-notebook market and the mobile phone market just as it won the router market, but nobody will really notice or even bother or even know whats its running.
Face it, we are weirdos doing things most people dont understand and thus often enough fear.
People dont usually understand what i do when i look in to dsl router via telnet. Not even when i drop to cmd to figure out the ip address via ipconfig. Stuff that looks weird, but well, thats what the "guys who get the thing to work do*".
You think youll look less like a weirdo if do that stuff on a phone or subnote?
*Call it Hacker/technical personell/whatever
This is exactly it. Manufacturers are learning that if they ignore the WinTel platform definitions and just give us the good tech that makes sense, we'll gobble it up.
Some of us will even think of new and clever things to do with it. It sounds scary, but that's where you build the brand values that matter in the long run.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I imagine Microsoft is being short-sighted and deciding they don't want to promote another platform like Windows Mobile that will never sell a $300 Office or any of their bread and butter.
Yeah-- These guys
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=office+chairs+in+redmond,+wa&ie=UTF8&z=12
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Is anyone paying attention in Redmond?
More like, is anyone paying attention TO Redmond?
I was GOING to complain about snl2587's unique combination of "zero content post" plus "score of insightful," but that injustice pales in the face of the one before me. You see, I just couldn't live with myself knowing that I didn't do EVERYTHING IN MY POWER to let you know:
You suck.
Or is this poorly executed anti-linux rhetoric some sort of pro-linux troll?
-- arstchnca
--
The nettop is not intended to replace your laptop. That is what your "desktop replacement" laptop is for.
The nettops are way cooler than that and if you would get out of your "can't" rut you could probably think of a few applications in your life that are worth the three hundred bucks to you.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
How can a scripting language suck cum from an anus? It doesn't have a mouth, lips or lungs.
Yes, I admit it, I'm a KDE fan. It's a helluva lot easier for me to tweak it to my liking.
As much as I like it, though I have to admit, for what I mainly use my computer (photography) windows (shudder) works best.
I still haven't figured out how to calibrate my monitor in linux.
Save your personal attacks: I'm not the moderator, and the post was never intended for an "insightful". At all. I had just spent seven hours doing full Windows re-installs on a server pool so, frankly, I was a little anti-Microsoft.
Linux has always done well with Servers. Thanks in no small part to the Techie/Admin.
Low end consumers at one end, and a constant battle for the hearts and soul of the server. I guess the middle ground is (eventually) going to have pressure from both ends.
Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
i can imagine the oems really grasping this opportunity to get away from microsoft. if one considers that ibm even sold off their notebook business to get out of their contract with microsoft, the emergence of a new market must be a god-send to the oem of today.
What desktop? My Xandros EEE is my main computer now. If I find an external TV card for it, I have no reason to boot up the old desktop anymore. It's just taking space.
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
Microsoft is mentioned 4 times in the linked-to article:
With iPhone 2.0 software, iPhone does even more for your enterprise. It supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, delivering push email, calendar, and contacts.
With support for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, PDF, JPEG, and now iWork, attachments can be viewed exactly as they were designed to.
And now that iPhone has built-in support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, users get all the benefits of push email.
Support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and industry-standard corporate security standards allows IT professionals to seamlessly integrate iPhone into their corporate environments.
Whether this counts as "running Microsoft software" is hard to say.
Who cares? There are all sorts of other mobile phones that us silly mainstream people use running Windows Mobile - and guess what, they cost a lot less and do the same things! I'm guessing that means people in Redmond are paying attention.
You can be sure that there will be at least one distro aiming any ninche, no matter how small. By the way, wasn't Linux only good for the server?
Rethinking email
I wasn't particularly enamored with the distro pre-installed on the eee. Other than a nice webcam and skype implementation (which is not FOSS, so really, what is the point?), I found it a big cludgy, unnecessarily kid like, a little unreasonably slow, and basically not nearly as clean or simple as standard Ubuntu, OS X, or Windows XP. Now, if they put out a Linux eee clone that was even cheaper, and ran faster and basically looked and felt like a clean XP install.... Then, yeah, I think people would enjoy their Linux time and want to use the OS again in the future. In it's current implementation, it was much better than sugar, but I'd only rate it somewhere in between windows 98 and mac os 9 in it's feel and speed and look. Not a very high mark on my scale.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Nintendo of America might be.
Debian, one of the largest Linux distros (maybe the largest), is completely community driven. It will have desktop support as long as there are programmers using desktop computers.