Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

100% Free Software Compatible PC Launches

Posted by kdawson on from the of-by-and-for dept.

crimperman writes "The Open-PC project has announced that its first PC will be available at the end of February for €359. They claim the mini-ITX desktop machine is energy efficient, consumer ready, easy to upgrade, and — significantly — uses only hardware that has free software drivers available. As you'd expect, it comes with GNU/Linux which is running KDE (a €10 donation to the KDE project in included in the price). Interestingly all the key decisions on design, pricing etc. have been made by the community via online polls. The spec of the machine is pretty reasonable for the price: Atom 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 3GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel 950 graphics."

5 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. Mac — and skip the VM by mattdm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or run Linux natively. I have a slightly dated 24" iMac with an ATI Radeon GPU. I ran OS X for a few days and then got frustrated with the limited and over-intrusive UI, and with the tediousness of dealing with the various software ports projects. (The latter aren't awful, and I don't mean to disparage the people working on this, but it's nothing like just having yum or apt-get already there and just waiting to install thousands of excellent free packages.)

    So I installed rEFIt, and shrunk OS X down to a tiny partition I never boot into. Instead, I run Fedora 12 with all open source / free software drivers, including sound and 3D-accelerated video. (I think maybe the webcam doesn't work, but I don't really care.) Definitely the nicest Linux workstation I've ever had.

  2. Re:Mac by _merlin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's compare:

    Mac Mini: 549 Euro
    OpenPC: 359 Euro

    Mac Mini: 2GB RAM
    OpenPC: 3GB RAM

    Mac Mini: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
    OpenPC: Intel GMA950

    Mac Mini: Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz
    OpenPC: Atom N330 1.6GHz

    Mac Mini: 160 GB HDD
    OpenPC: 160 GB HDD

    So for 190 Euro more, you get OS X, a much faster, 64-bit, virtualisation-capable CPU, and a real GPU with dual display support, but lose 1GB RAM. I see no mention of I/O on the OpenPC, either - the Mac Mini has USB ports for days and FireWire 800.

  3. Nice idea, and... by zogger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nice idea, and I keep wondering why Ubuntu doesn't do this, in an "it's up to you" option deal how to go about things. Normal distro, then take your chances on whatever hardware you got, or, something they can make money at, a set of a small variety of competitively priced machines-netbook, notebook, desktop, server- that they sell, that their main devs, for at least the long term releases, do absolute testing on so that everything "just works" 100% guaranteed, along with recommended peripherals.

      Sort of like the apple model of matched software and hardware, *but* with the distinction of no hissy fits from the company about using other hardware, either. Buy their gear, with their software preinstalled, you get priority warranty and useability support. Buy or build your idea/choice of hardware, you get such support as exists today, which is hit or miss, go lurk on the forum if you have any problems.

  4. Open Spec vs. Open Source Hardware by starseeker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This raises an interesting question - whether a PC like this, which purports to use hardware that is fully documented, is sufficiently "free" for every possible scenario. A "more free" approach would be to use "open source hardware" (insofar as is legally possible, I believe things like GPS hardware have disclosure limits imposed by the legal system). By "open source", I'm referring to hardware that includes not only API documentation but hardware descriptions usable for chip production - things like OpenSparc and the OpenGraphics card. I doubt there are enough such pieces to form a fully functional PC (particularly when it comes to things like monitors) but for the sake of argument let's assume there are.

    In theory, of course, the fewer restrictions on any IP related to making the computer work the better, but in practice modern PC hardware is not something that can be realistically produced (at least today) by any hobbyist. The physical hardware also doesn't benefit from the "cheap copy" properties of software, so the in-depth knowledge of how to make the hardware is hard to apply even when present. Also, such designs are (to my knowledge without exception, at least in the PC hardware arena) well behind the maximally performing hardware developed in non-open contexts. So the price to pay for full hardware knowledge is quite steep in terms of performance. The only real end-user applicable argument is that full hardware knowledge means the potential for better software support.

    So a question for those in the open hardware community - is there potential for driver development using information of the kind available from OpenSparc and OpenGraphics to develop better performing drivers than can be achieved with the information (say) considered sufficient to permit inclusion of hardware in a product like the one in this article? If not, are there any other benefits (aside from the admittedly non-trivial one of being able to learn anything you want to about your computer) to an "open source" hardware platform?

    --
    "I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
  5. It's not about the cost. by Bunzinator · · Score: 3, Interesting

    All the good folk who are say they can "get a better machine, for less, and it's even got Windoze installed!" just totally miss the point.

    There are many people out there like me who'd happily pay EXTRA to get a machine that is completely free of Micro$oft or Apple, and doesn't count as a sale for either of them. I will not contribute to either of these organisations in any way.