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The Economist Suggests Linux For Netbooks
Trepidity writes "In its roundup of how to choose a netbook, The Economist suggests that users 'avoid the temptation' to go for a Windows-based netbook, and in particular to treat them as mini laptops on which you'll install a range of apps. In their view, by the time you add the specs needed to run Windows and Windows apps effectively, you might as well have just bought a smallish laptop. Instead, they suggest the sweet spot is ultra-lite, Linux-based netbooks, with a focus on pre-installed software that caters to common tasks. They particularly like OpenOffice, which they rate as easier to use than MS Word and having 'no compatibility problems,' as well as various photo-management software." Besides which, does Windows offer spinning cubes for coffee-shop demos?
The big problem here is whether you'll be allowed to buy a mini notebook with 1GB and a 120-160 MB hard disk without Windows. Microsoft certainly does not want notebook vendors selling them that way, and has effective strategies to induce them not to do so.
I expect they start with legal bribes, price structures effecting both the vendors larger systems and the smaller ones, and if that doesn't work the patent portfolio comes out and they discuss whether you'd like to cross-license on their terms or be sued.
All of which means you won't see many of the Linux machines at retail. So, the customer has to self-install, which is beyond most of them.
Bruce Perens.
The target market for netbooks is generally "normal people", who are more or less by definition not editing Word documents with mathematical formulas in them.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
In my experience, OpenOffice certainly does open some documents in a way that looks strange. In the vast majority of those cases, those documents also look strange when moving between different versions of Word. So, compatibility isn't absolutely 100% perfect with a specific version of word, but it is damn near 100% compatibility if you consider "Word" as a whole, rather than "Word" as the exact specific version of Word you happen to have installed on the specific system you use most.
And, most of those documents are indeed stuff like formulae which aren't widely used, and for which Word is sometimes not really the best tool for the job. When I worked in academia IT, I had the insane good fortune to work in a department where everybody was comfortable with the idea of using latex for their papers. I think I had to deal with fewer than half a dozen issues related to latex in the whole time I worked there. OTOH, when I was in Windows support, I'd call half a dozen MS Word issues a light week!
I'm not quite as cynical as you in that I don't think Microsoft can stop this revolution.
In order to make money they have to charge something for their software. Linux will always be cheaper than a Windows machine.
Apple were smart in positioning themselves as the luxury computer brand.
Linux has made inroads in cheap ultra-portables. Windows has no-where to go. It's too slow for ultra-portables, it's too low quality for a luxury product.
Ultra-portables are probably the future of computing. We're getting to the point where mobile contracts are being sold with a free ultra-portable.
To me, it's much like what happened when the RIAA got in bed with Walmart. The RIAA stabbed record stores in the back by dealing with Walmart.
The record stores had their interests aligned with the RIAA. The more music they sold, the more money they made and the more money the RIAA made.
However, Walmart was a different animal. To Walmart, music was just something that took up shelf space. Suddenly the RIAA was competing with every other product.
The RIAA found that it couldn't dictate the terms any more because Walmart had no qualms about dropping their product if they couldn't get a good deal. The RIAA, owing a good chunk of its revenue to Walmart, suddenly found itself to be Oliver saying: "Please sir, can I have some more?"
In the past Micrsoft could bully system builders because they are like the record stores used to be . They have a vested interest in selling units which is mutually beneficial for both the system builder and Microsoft.
However, computers are now becoming so cheap that they're being given away as a part of other deals. The people crafting these deals don't give a crap if it's Microsoft or not. They can't be bullied because their main line of business has little to do with Microsoft.
Economics is a force more powerful than any individual company. Microsoft is not above this. Vista, to me, just confirmed that Microsoft is just another company. They don't need to make too many more mistakes before it starts to hurt really badly.
I think we're beginning to see the end of the Microsoft monoculture.
openoffice.org-dmaths
Formula editor improvements for OpenOffice.org
This is a package you can install on ubuntu to add additional support to openoffice concerning formulas. Have you tried this?
It means more people will view the web through a browser that is not IE. More people will use an office suite that supports ODF. More people will want music and videos without DRM. Even if not a single extra Linux app will be written (which I doubt), Linux as a platform will be supported better.
Netbooks increase the application space, which means more opportunities for niche software. For example, now that netbooks are so cheap, more companies will give their employees one to use on the road. So now there's more opportunity to add value by writing code for a particular business need that just opened up because of the cheap netbook? Or for charging for modifying gpl software to cater to a particular need, and contribute back to "the community" at the same time?
Too hard?
-System->Preferences->Search and Indexing
-Uncheck "Enable Indexing"
And lastly in 8.10 it is off by default.
We have an XML open standard: Office Open XML. The free software community just refuses to implement it because they hate innovation and enjoy kicking puppies.
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
I bought an Asus EEE PC 900A from Bestbuy. At $280, it is a bargain. However, I really hated Xandros on it (disclaimer, all my machines are either Debain or kubuntu). What kind of f*ck head installs an OS on 4GB SSD and leave on 100MB or so for updates. What is more, after my first update attempt the disk became full and update applet stopped in middle of a download. After several reboots, the applet always started automatically and always hanged. Wireless was also similarly not connecting. Add this to the fact that several programs took forever to run, I said f*ck with Xandros, and installed Ubuntu-eee. The difference is like night and day. I suggest EEE PC with ubuntu to everybody. Install once and leave it there. The moral of the story? If a dedicated linux user since 1994 is frustrated with a linux based netbook, why the regular people shouldn't be? The manufacturers MUST use Ubuntu-EEE or similar stable, easy to use and efficient distro.
LaTeX
Typesetting system well-suited for typesetting math
This is a package you can install on ubuntu to add support for typesetting math-rich documents. Havee you tried this?
I'm the sort of person who's always getting asked to help people with their computers. (I guess all geeks have this experience, but I think I do it more than most, because I'm good at explaining things, which is also what I do for a living.) My experience with this is that most people who use computers outside their jobs use them three things, and three things only: web surfing, email, word processing. Unless they become interested in the technology for its own sake and are in danger of turning into computer geeks (and that's certainly a growing demographic!), they're not interested in expanding their skill set much past this point. Indeed, they tend to resist getting in deeper than they actually have to.
Now, I could be mistaken, but it's my perception that these are the people who are driving the growing popularity of Linux-based netbooks. It's hard to see who else could be driving it — previous attempt to get people to adopt Linux as an alternative to Windows have failed miserably. We all know why: there's too much application lockin on this platform. But if the only applications you're running are the three I just mentioned, application lockin ceases to be an issue.
Maybe I'm wrong, and it is all about the form factor and battery life. But I don't think so.
The blurb may be a little misleading, since it seems to suggest that this is some kind of recommendation from the Economist, which doesn't do product reviews in general.
This is part of a (very interesting) collection of "end of year technology roundup" type articles (see for instance my favorite article on quieter tank treads). All the writer really says is "if you buy one of these the point is low cost and simplicity -- so don't be tempted to spend extra on Windows, or you might as well buy a laptop".
The author is actually kind of against the choice of Linux in a way, as he makes it sound like adding extra software is a royal pain: "Admittedly, installing third-party software can be a bit of a fiddle, and some of the advice available online threatens to lure users into the tangled depths of the Linux undergrowth, where few people will want to venture"...
JF
+++ BEGIN MESSAGE +++
Dear Earthlings and in particular readers of Slashdot,
We are a species from, what you call, the Pleiades, who have been watching your planet for a number of weeks. Our mission is to ascertain whether contact with your planet would be mutually beneficial.
We were of the belief that a cultural exchange, and maybe some donation of hardware -- particularly something to help you with pollution and climate change, so that you don't all die soon -- would be a good thing. However, our anthropologists were worried by the number of stupid people down there who may jeopardise the mission, and cause harm to you or us. We resolved to keep monitoring for a little while longer, to continue assessing you. I can now inform you that we have made our decision. The reason we are posting it on this site, and beneath this comment, is the parent post was the deciding factor; it made our course of action clear.
Nosbig, joke comprehension is an indicator of intelligence (or lack thereof). That you mis-understood the parent's joke is forgiveable, but speaking out about it is not. If we made contact, and during the first meeting made a joke about sharks with frickin' laser beams. Could we be sure that you would not shout, "They've got lasers! They're going to try to kill us all!!1!one" causing mass panic? It's this sort of stupidity that worries us, and means contact cannot be made at present.
So, there will be no gifts of technology or cultural exchanges, you have Nosbig to thank for this. Presently we will be f*cking back off to the Pleiades, our home and native land. However, all is not lost: we will be observing Slashdot tradition when someone misinterprets a joke, but as we will be flying approximately 2,500 kilometres over Nosbig, and there is no sound in space, I have ordered the entire crew onto the bridge, where we will all shout *WHHHOOOOOOOOOOSH* the moment we pass over him. I expect a joke has never flown so far over someone's head as now.
Good bye and good luck Earthpeople, hope the lifestyle comes together.
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CARRIER LOST
Flying Toasters?
THATS BRILLIANT!
Maybe we could make a program that only runs after the screen has gone black...we could call it...After...Black. Or something.
I'm the tech director for a small girls' school and we've decided to experiment with the Dell Mini 9s... That is, until our rep at Dell informed us that we couldn't purchase the mini's in quantity as a school with Linux installed.
Now, we want Linux because I don't want the girls filling these things up with crap software, slowing them down, killing them with viruses, etc.
In addition, there's something to be said for such a quick startup time. Teachers want their students ready to be taught as soon as possible. What we don't need is little Ashley's Facebook virus-laden netbook taking 5 minutes to get to a usable state.
The end result (after some complaining) was that they would offer the netbook to us for the same cost as the XP version - which smells pretty suspicious to me, no?
Dell is not as serious about Linux as people seem to think they are. Just because consumer models are available does not mean corporate and educational versions are as well.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."