No, you cannot run Linux on it. There is all sorts of dedicated hardware inside the OQO that is not available to the general public (e.g. you). It would take months if not years to reverse-engineer all the hardware; and then you would get sued under the DCMA.
I'd recommend a nice Mini-ITX PC. You get to build it yourself, and you can run whatever you want with it.
I remember hearing about OQO a long time ago; I was even invited to an early meeting where the prototype was shown. (It looked just like the "machine" they keep trotting out for press photos.)
If they introduced this three years ago, it might have sold. Now, there's the Cappuccino PC, which has been through several revisions since its introduction. Likewise, I can build a Mini-ITX PC for a fraction of the price of this new OQO. Furthermore, I can run any OS I want; this OQO can only run Windows XP. Yuck.
I'm afraid that I can't endorse the OQO. Sorry, guys. Next time don't produce so much vapour.
I commend timothy, a so-called "editor" at Slashdot, for trying to write a summary of his experiences at CES. However, the following reviews are done by more qualified journalists. I recommend them instead.
The two most recent Grand Theft Auto titles have sold around $500 million worth of units. I guess people care more about fun gameplay than fapping to 17-year-old CGI girls and pressing "X" every few minutes during a crappy movie.
Hey, I think if you mount your firesphere to the secondary snap-in to your auxiliary weapon, you can go from 9996 to 9998 damage per strike! Get to work, fanboy!
I'll happily buy one or both of these calculators for my school-age children, provided that they can run TI Linux. Frankly, I have grown weary of the proprietary, closed-source interfaces that plague graphing calculators. They're essentially small computers; can't they run a real OS?
Sincerely, Seth Finklestein Linux on Calculators Expert
I disagree that the "Rumo[u]rs of iPod mini [are]... All True." The rumours, if I understood correctly, stated that the iPod mini would cost UKP 65 or USD 115. Instead, we get a product that is USD 249, just USD 50 less than the 15GB iPod.
Let's see. You can get four gigabytes of storage for USD 249, or 15 gigabytes for USD 299. To fool Joe Sixpack into buying this moronic "mini" product, they made it in different colours. I'm not fooled. I'm staying away.
Does TiVo play XviD, DivX, Windows Media Video (through mplayer), DVDs, CDs, MP3s, and Ogg Vorbis? Can I use TiVo to fetch pictures off my digital camera? Can TiVo play innovative Linux games like Frozen Bubble? Can you choose the Linux distribution that your TiVo uses?
I'm proud that you've chosen such a limited, featureless TV box. Congratulations.
Let me cut you a situation here. Joe Sixpack buys a $199 bundle containing an iPod and $99 worth of iTunes songs. Joe Sixpack doesn't use his $99 worth; he buys five Bruce Springsteen songs and is distracted by a pick-up truck commercial on ESPN. Apple just made $95 in pure profit because Joe Sixpack has no attention span.
Trust me. Although I shudder at the thought of Apple products being sold to Joe Sixpacks like him, Apple stands to make a lot of money this way.
Or they could develop games correctly, obviating the need to "download" so-called "patches" for a console game.
For 26 years, games were tested and released according to proper software engineering practice. As soon as Microsoft started developing "game consoles," people assumed that they could ship shitty games and make it up using "patches.".
I'm boycotting Xbox, and all my followers are too. Are you?
Google, the verb, has been mentioned on Law & Order. _THAT_ tells me it has entered the mainstream.
So has "UpYourButt.net." Several times in the course of a one-hour show, in fact.
If you ignore the TLD and go to upyourbutt.com (as Joe Sixpack is likely to do) then you will notice that NBC has advertised hard-core pornography on its evening programmes. I'd like to publicly shun NBC for its poor judgment.
Sincerely, Seth Finklestein Television Watchdog, not Television Watcher
If you owned a net cafe, I would assume you would have Visio, Pro Tools, and Photoshop licenses for every seat. What? That's too expensive? My solution would be to allow customers to bring in media containing software which they have properly acquired. Once their session is done, you simply use a trusted program like dd or an untrusted program like Ghost to safely restore the original image.
Of course, I wouldn't expect you to figure all that out. Hire me as a consultant, or I will boycott your net cafe.
I boot my Macintosh laptop (a G3 Powerbook, with two batteries) off a USB key when I need raw access to the hard drive. It's similar to booting off the CD-ROM drive, but I still get to enjoy two batteries' worth of life!
It's simply brilliant. Pity that the Wintel "users" don't enjoy such a convenience yet.
A lot of good has come out of the "social networking" craze. I have personally blogged about a lot of this on my personal blog that I administrate myself. You'll notice that I have discovered a very unique piece of software called "Movable Type" that allows me to blog what I want without surrendering any information to the outside world. That's right: every time you go to Friendster, LiverJournal, or another so-called "community" site, you are subjecting yourself to a host of vulnerabilities. Read the privacy policies: these sites surreptitiously save data to your hard drive through the use of so-called "cookies"; they may serve intrusive ads that interfere with your web browsing experience; and they may fall prey to black-hat "crackers" (not "hackers").
Personally, I feel that every third-party site is not to be trusted. For the greater good of the blogosphere, I believe that the future lies in individually unique weblogs connected by a perfectly synergistic system of TrackBack pings.
Sincerely, Seth Finklestein Social Networking Consultant
Hard drives aren't designed to last for just one year. Your anecdotal evidence is not sufficient proof to make that claim. I'm sorry that your hard drives keep failing, but that's probably because you buy inferior-quality hardware.
Trust me, Mr. Nine. You don't gain credibility in the tech community by whining about the crappy hardware you buy. You gain credibility by citing relevant, useful sources as proof for your so-called "arguments." I, for example, use e-reliability.com extensively for my hard drive reliability studies.
Slashdot Mirror
My cheese grater isn't laser-guided, but it is highly powerful. And it can run Linux!
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Acclaimed Humourist
No, you cannot run Linux on it. There is all sorts of dedicated hardware inside the OQO that is not available to the general public (e.g. you). It would take months if not years to reverse-engineer all the hardware; and then you would get sued under the DCMA.
I'd recommend a nice Mini-ITX PC. You get to build it yourself, and you can run whatever you want with it.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Pundit
I remember hearing about OQO a long time ago; I was even invited to an early meeting where the prototype was shown. (It looked just like the "machine" they keep trotting out for press photos.)
If they introduced this three years ago, it might have sold. Now, there's the Cappuccino PC, which has been through several revisions since its introduction. Likewise, I can build a Mini-ITX PC for a fraction of the price of this new OQO. Furthermore, I can run any OS I want; this OQO can only run Windows XP. Yuck.
I'm afraid that I can't endorse the OQO. Sorry, guys. Next time don't produce so much vapour.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Miniature Computer Expert
Could you please post the text? I don't register for web sites just to read "humourous" articles.
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Information Liberatore
For you Americans out there in cyberland, Duke Nukem Forever will ship on 1 December 2005. Oh wait, maybe it's 14 November 2004.
.
Just be glad you don't live in New Zealand, where it won't ship until 31 December 2006
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Humourous Game Release Date Expert
You clearly have no idea of the atrocities that can be committed by someone who calls himself a Slashdot "editor."
Frankly, middle-school newsletters have more qualified editorial staffs than this so-called "news" site.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Media Gadfly and Cybersecurity Expert
I commend timothy, a so-called "editor" at Slashdot, for trying to write a summary of his experiences at CES. However, the following reviews are done by more qualified journalists. I recommend them instead.
Wireless Week, High Fidelity Review, Stereophile, CNN.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Media-Savvy Internet Pundit
What a wonderfully uncreative idea. Speakeasy started doing this before Sonic.net even opened for business. Why can't everyone just use Speakeasy?
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
DSL Reliability Pundit
I'm brilliant. The morons that call me a "twit" turn signatures off. It makes them bloody simple and bloody simple to troll.
I'd like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God for making this happen.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Read My Signature, Damn It
The two most recent Grand Theft Auto titles have sold around $500 million worth of units. I guess people care more about fun gameplay than fapping to 17-year-old CGI girls and pressing "X" every few minutes during a crappy movie.
Hey, I think if you mount your firesphere to the secondary snap-in to your auxiliary weapon, you can go from 9996 to 9998 damage per strike! Get to work, fanboy!
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Real Game Player
...you should know that Linksys has no respect for the GPL, and only agreed to release its source code for $10 after threats of litigation.
This is not a company that you should support.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Open Source Company Watchdog
I'll happily buy one or both of these calculators for my school-age children, provided that they can run TI Linux. Frankly, I have grown weary of the proprietary, closed-source interfaces that plague graphing calculators. They're essentially small computers; can't they run a real OS?
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Linux on Calculators Expert
Good. Now all you need is to lower it to USD 115, so that the article I read would become true.
Go ahead, I'm waiting.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Impatient Troll
I disagree that the "Rumo[u]rs of iPod mini [are] ... All True." The rumours, if I understood correctly, stated that the iPod mini would cost UKP 65 or USD 115. Instead, we get a product that is USD 249, just USD 50 less than the 15GB iPod.
Let's see. You can get four gigabytes of storage for USD 249, or 15 gigabytes for USD 299. To fool Joe Sixpack into buying this moronic "mini" product, they made it in different colours. I'm not fooled. I'm staying away.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Gadget Know-it-all
Does TiVo play XviD, DivX, Windows Media Video (through mplayer), DVDs, CDs, MP3s, and Ogg Vorbis? Can I use TiVo to fetch pictures off my digital camera? Can TiVo play innovative Linux games like Frozen Bubble? Can you choose the Linux distribution that your TiVo uses?
I'm proud that you've chosen such a limited, featureless TV box. Congratulations.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
TiVo Advocate
Let me cut you a situation here. Joe Sixpack buys a $199 bundle containing an iPod and $99 worth of iTunes songs. Joe Sixpack doesn't use his $99 worth; he buys five Bruce Springsteen songs and is distracted by a pick-up truck commercial on ESPN. Apple just made $95 in pure profit because Joe Sixpack has no attention span.
Trust me. Although I shudder at the thought of Apple products being sold to Joe Sixpacks like him, Apple stands to make a lot of money this way.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Not Elitist
Or they could develop games correctly, obviating the need to "download" so-called "patches" for a console game.
For 26 years, games were tested and released according to proper software engineering practice. As soon as Microsoft started developing "game consoles," people assumed that they could ship shitty games and make it up using "patches.".
I'm boycotting Xbox, and all my followers are too. Are you?
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Gaming Advocate
Nah, just pretend like it's available. It worked for Katie.com and Fear.com!
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Domain Consultant Extraordinaire
Of course I am. Don't you know how to read? The credits?
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Famous Actor and Compensated Endorser
Google, the verb, has been mentioned on Law & Order. _THAT_ tells me it has entered the mainstream.
So has "UpYourButt.net." Several times in the course of a one-hour show, in fact.
If you ignore the TLD and go to upyourbutt.com (as Joe Sixpack is likely to do) then you will notice that NBC has advertised hard-core pornography on its evening programmes. I'd like to publicly shun NBC for its poor judgment.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Television Watchdog, not Television Watcher
If you owned a net cafe, I would assume you would have Visio, Pro Tools, and Photoshop licenses for every seat. What? That's too expensive? My solution would be to allow customers to bring in media containing software which they have properly acquired. Once their session is done, you simply use a trusted program like dd or an untrusted program like Ghost to safely restore the original image.
Of course, I wouldn't expect you to figure all that out. Hire me as a consultant, or I will boycott your net cafe.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Will Consult for Food
I'll thank you not to use the terms "Michael" and "goodness" in the same sentence.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Search Google for "Michael Sims"
I boot my Macintosh laptop (a G3 Powerbook, with two batteries) off a USB key when I need raw access to the hard drive. It's similar to booting off the CD-ROM drive, but I still get to enjoy two batteries' worth of life!
It's simply brilliant. Pity that the Wintel "users" don't enjoy such a convenience yet.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Macintosh Advocate
A lot of good has come out of the "social networking" craze. I have personally blogged about a lot of this on my personal blog that I administrate myself. You'll notice that I have discovered a very unique piece of software called "Movable Type" that allows me to blog what I want without surrendering any information to the outside world. That's right: every time you go to Friendster, LiverJournal, or another so-called "community" site, you are subjecting yourself to a host of vulnerabilities. Read the privacy policies: these sites surreptitiously save data to your hard drive through the use of so-called "cookies"; they may serve intrusive ads that interfere with your web browsing experience; and they may fall prey to black-hat "crackers" (not "hackers").
Personally, I feel that every third-party site is not to be trusted. For the greater good of the blogosphere, I believe that the future lies in individually unique weblogs connected by a perfectly synergistic system of TrackBack pings.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Social Networking Consultant
He didn't jump to that conclusion. You did.
Hard drives aren't designed to last for just one year. Your anecdotal evidence is not sufficient proof to make that claim. I'm sorry that your hard drives keep failing, but that's probably because you buy inferior-quality hardware.
Trust me, Mr. Nine. You don't gain credibility in the tech community by whining about the crappy hardware you buy. You gain credibility by citing relevant, useful sources as proof for your so-called "arguments." I, for example, use e-reliability.com extensively for my hard drive reliability studies.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Researcher Extraordinaire