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Linux Business HP

Hewlett-Packard Brings Linux To Select Desktops 131

Posted by Zonk from the fun-for-the-whole-family dept.
Tatey writes "Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's largest PC manufacturers, has announced it will start selling Linux-based PCs aimed at the consumer market ... in Australia. For the time being it appears the HP Linux models will only be available down under, with prices starting at $AU600 (just under $500 USD). 'This PC is a low-end business PC. It comes powered by any of a variety of AMD processors. These range from the 1.60 GHz AMD Sempron 3000+ processor to the speedy 2.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 5600+ processor. The dx2250 can hold up to 2GB of RAM. For storage, it maxes out with a 250 GB hard drive. It comes with a variety of optical drive options, ranging from ordinary CDs to a DVD+/-RW LightScribe, Double Layer/Dual Format drive. At this time, it is not clear exactly what options HP will be offering with the RHEL-based system. Previously, HP had offered this desktop computer with a choice of Vista Business, XP, and FreeDOS. In the latter case, this was almost always replaced by users with a Linux distribution.'"
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Hewlett-Packard Brings Linux To Select Desktops More

Hewlett-Packard Brings Linux To Select Desktops

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  • Talk about condescending (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    >>Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's largest PC manufacturers ...

    • I've never understood the whining (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      One thing I've never understood about all the whining over PC manufacturers not offering teh Lunix pre-installed: isn't anyone who wants teh Lunix going to install it themselves?

      The only thing I can figure is that the FOSSies are seeking to get PC manufacturers to indoctrinate new FOSSies, who will not know enough about computers to know they aren't getting Windows.

      • "The only thing I can figure is that the FOSSies are seeking to get PC manufacturers to indoctrinate new FOSSies, who will not know enough about computers to know they aren't getting Windows."

        Or, more likely, they don't like to serve Microsoft and want to stop paying taxes to it.

      • People like their OS preinstalled. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by symbolset ( 646467 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @02:24PM (#20453985) Journal

        That way they don't have the chicken/egg problem of how to download and burn the installation disc.

        HP is very GNU/Linux savvy. They have a Linux landing page [hp.com]. They certify six different distributions [hp.com]. Their Insight Diagnostics [hp.com] are actually a custom Linux distro for performing system diagnostics and repair on their systems. HP supports [hp.com] open source software, and has for a long time. They support organizations such as the Free Software Foundation, Open Source Software Institute, and the Linux Foundation. The home of the Linux kernel, kernel.org [kernel.org] runs on donated HP servers.

        They often sponsor community events like the Linux Kernel Developer Summit, the Debian Conference, the International Free Software Forum, GNOME User and Developer European Conference, the Desktop Linux Summit, the Libre Graphics Meeting, and LinuxWorld. HP has not only supported Open Source projects, they have over 100 of their own [hp.com]. They have over 1,000 open source printer drivers. It's nice knowing you can plug in the HP printer and it will just go. Once upon a time printer drivers in Linux were a severe pain point.

        So if you're considering buying a PC with Linux on it, apparently you could do worse than go with the HP one. (Full disclosure - I don't work for HP and I don't sell their stuff, but I do work in the business so of course I deal with their stuff somewhat. My opinions are my own, YMMV, yadda yadda.)

        Now that Microsoft has decided to sell PCs [theregister.co.uk] it's natural for other PC sellers to consider their options. Every Windows + Office sale is a profit center Microsoft can use to subsidize their attack on the PC market much like they're funding their attack [theregister.com] on the game [theregister.co.uk] console [theregister.co.uk] market [reghardware.co.uk]. If you're a company that is already in the business of selling PCs, subsidizing your competitor is a very bad idea -- especially if the competitor can offer themselves considerable discounts on software.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by datapharmer ( 1099455 )
          I am really surprised by this - thanks for the info. I had been kind of against buying HP products since i've been screwed by several of there scanners not being supported very long under windows and never supported under linux or mac. I sure wish they would open source the code to those!

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by ozmanjusri ( 601766 )
            I have a HP NC6400 laptop which came with SLED 10 pre-installed, and it's a great little machine. Much better than buying a Windows laptop, then wiping it - even has a little green "Designed for SuSe Linux" sticker where those Windows ones normally go.
          • Go for the scanner/printer combos. They work great. Their tech support is royally shitty, but I don't expect /.'ers to need to call tech support too often, and I *do* expect them to be willing to argue with the "tech" who says formatting won't delete anything.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by God of Lemmings ( 455435 )
          And despite all of that certification, they still ship their laptops with microsoft compiled DSDT tables that don't meet the ACPI spec.

        • They have over 1,000 open source printer drivers. It's nice knowing you can plug in the HP printer and it will just go.
          That would explain why it was so easy to setup my PSC 2335 all-in-one. Glad to know that buying an HP printer will mean it is most likely easier to setup than others. Please mod parent +1, Informative.

  • Nice. (Score:3, Informative)

    by cp.tar ( 871488 ) <cp.tar.bz2@gmail.com> on Monday September 03, 2007 @10:28AM (#20451625) Journal

    While RHEL isn't every Linux user's choice, at least they're now getting a real, usable OS instead of FreeDOS.

    • Re:Nice. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by morgan_greywolf ( 835522 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @10:31AM (#20451655) Homepage Journal
      RHEL Workstation isn't bad. It has a lot of the desktop usability of Ubuntu and support from Red Hat. HP and Red Hat have a long-standing business relationship as HP already sells workstations and servers with RHEL pre-installed.

    • FreeDOS (Score:1, Redundant)

      by nurb432 ( 527695 )
      Its a real OS, and more then useable.

      YOU may not like DOS, but that doesn't negate its usefulness. You might be suprised how much its used these days, and how much support is still out there.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cp.tar ( 871488 )

        Oh, come on. Who uses DOS on a laptop? And what for?

        However, if you point me to readily-available software utilizing all the capabilities of a given laptop, from gigs of memory to wireless networking, card readers and so on, I not only might, but will be surprised.

        • Don't be an idiot. There are many uses for an older laptop, often running DOS.

          I have one on a test bench at work right now. It logs the data coming out of the serial port of a PIC controller that I've set up to measure on/off cycles on appliance timers. All that was needed was the 'lowest end' laptop I could get IT to allocate out of their junkpile.

          I also recently deployed two Dell Optiplexes as DOS machines for similar logging functions. It was faster just to partition 200 MB of the 8GB hard drives whe

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cp.tar ( 871488 )

            Don't be an idiot. There are many uses for an older laptop, often running DOS.

            Oh, I'm sorry. I was under the impression that we were discussing new laptops from HP.

            You know, the ones TFA is all about.

            I still contend that people generally don't buy laptops with FreeDOS to run DOS on them. And while older laptops most certainly are usable with DOS or any other OS that'll run on them, a new laptop with wireless networking, gigs of ram and hundreds of gigs of HD space are, simply said, overkill, i.e. over-expensive.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Hucko ( 998827 )
          Xstrata (nee Mount Isa Mines) for hooking up to the various PLC devices around their mines (as of +2 years ago). I'm sure other mining/industrial companies are in the same position. Their favourite PLC device suppliers were still delivering the PLC programming software on (MS) DOS in 2005. I think some of the more progressive companies were moving to Windows 3.11.
        • Some manufacturers still run DOS-based manufacturing tests, perhaps because DOS boots so quickly. The major reason for HP and Dell to offer FreeDOS is that their contracts with MS forbid them to sell "naked PCs". As for why FreeDOS and not Linux... at a guess, it avoids the question of which Linux, and those who immediately replace it with Linux can't claim technical support for either OS.
        • Who uses DOS on a laptop? And what for?

          We use FreeDOS on a lot of laptops running logging and test software for locomotives (GE Dash 9s, mostly). Engine and brake management computers don't change much over decades of production.

          It's also used for a lot of other similar tasks where you want to be able to exclusively control the serial port of the laptop - signaling and switching software testing, for example.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cp.tar ( 871488 )

            And do you buy brand-new laptops for that? (Hey, AFAIK many new laptops don't even have a serial port.)

            • And do you buy brand-new laptops for that?

              Yep. Down time on a locomotive is expensive, and the environment they're working in is hard on a laptop. Having a reliable computer to troubleshoot them with is essential.

  • Don't miss.... (Score:4, Informative)

    by martin_henry ( 1032656 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @10:29AM (#20451637)
    ...the two most important words in the summary: in Australia.

    • ...the two most important words in the summary: in Australia.

      Yep. A real drag.

      Probably just testing the market to see if it is worth ticking of the Redmond monopolistic gorilla. For offering Linux to the US or Canada - Ballmer will have a fit.

    • I work in IT Support in Australia. Most of my clients (some in the outback) are stubborn and technically inept. They have a real "fuck it" attitude.

      If Linux on the desktop is going to fail anywhere, it's going to fail in the Australian outback. Considering this, perhaps it's a good place for HP to start.
      • Most of my clients (some in the outback) are stubborn and technically inept. They have a real "fuck it" attitude.

        I'm "in the outback" (Cloudbreak).

        Our "fuck it" attitude comes from having to deal with support that takes weeks to get replacement equipment to site, and tries to administer our systems from airconditioned offices 3,000km away.

    • It makes sense for HP to do this. Linux people in Australia are clamoring for a mainstream manufacturer to supply Linux, so essentially HP has a monopoly (among mainstream manufacturers) on Linux computers. People will pay a premium to get a new computer that "just works" with Linux.

      If they released in the US, they'd be fighting an already entrenched Dell for market share. In addition, they can work out the kinks in a small, pilot market before rolling it out in the US, saving themselves mistakes that might

  • What I want to know is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by VE3OGG ( 1034632 ) <`VE3OGG' `at' `rac.ca'> on Monday September 03, 2007 @10:31AM (#20451665)
    What is the cost of this computer with XP/Vista in comparison. We have seen this happen before where Dell shipped FreeDOS systems that actually cost more than with Windows (which means there is definitely malarky going on there).

    I must applaud both DELL and HP however, for starting to realize that they should offer the customer what they want, and not what some third party dictates them to.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by cp.tar ( 871488 )

      Well, I've seen HP laptops with FreeDOS. And they're usually priced lower than comparable HP laptops with Windows.

      Of course, I cannot guarantee that they're comparable in every single component, but that's my general impression.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by EvilRyry ( 1025309 )
        However buying the machine with Windows+Works+other BS, then returning the said software for a refund as described in the EULA usually works out to be much cheaper than any other option.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by ricegf ( 1059658 )

          HP is way ahead of you. When my wife purchased one a few months ago, it came with *2* EULAs - Microsoft's and HP's. Microsoft's promised a refund if you reject their EULA, and HP's limited Microsoft's promise to a refund for all hardware and software only.

          In other words, you can return everything or nothing. You can't return just the parts you don't want for partial credit anymore.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gvc ( 167165 )
      The advantages of a pre-installed and supported Linux distro are substantial and worth paying for.

      A Linux system like RH is way more functional out of the box than vanilla Windows + junkware. The integration effort to install an OS and application suite and configure them so that it all "just works" is non-trivial, and valuable. Then there's support. Think what you will of the quality of HP's help desk, they have to write Linux scripts for their operators.

      • Oddly, this is not necessarily true with RHEL. The "5Server" version does not seem to include OpenOffice, the "5Client" version does. I have no idea why. This is actually a good reason to buy the HP, throw out the RHEL with the registration and update difficulties, and install CentOS which doesn't have the weird registration requirements to get update, maintains the "centosplus" repository of software more recent than RedHat is willing to upgrade to in a server-class release, and generally is a lot easier
        • I'm not being funny but why would you need Open Office on a mail server or whatever ?

          • I'm not being funny but why would you need Open Office on a mail server or whatever ?
            For translation of incoming .doc to .odt perhaps? And what about a database server used by apps developed with OOo Base?
            • Why do you need rsh, Bluetooth libraries, PCMCIA and Coolkey utilities on a mail server in the RHEL "base" installation"? If you're going to bloat a basic install with such nonsense, why not make more useful real utilities at least available on the installation media and supported packages. That way, if you have to, you can read your customer's Word documents and PowerPoint presentations to support the media they may use.
            • "And what about a database server used by apps developed with OOo Base"

              You mean people would actually use that rather than MySQL/PostGRE/whatever?

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by tepples ( 727027 )

                And what about a database server used by apps developed with OOo Base
                You mean people would actually use that rather than MySQL/PostGRE/whatever?
                I was thinking more of a wizard to get MySQL or PostgreSQL set up for use with OOo Base clients.

    • We have seen this happen before where Dell shipped FreeDOS systems that actually cost more than with Windows

      That's probably because most of the crapware that 3rd parties pay Dell to shovel into their systems won't run properly under FreeDOS.

    • What is the cost of this computer with XP/Vista in comparison. We have seen this happen before where Dell shipped FreeDOS systems that actually cost more than with Windows (which means there is definitely malarky going on there).

      No malarky, Red Hat charges for RHEL. Prices range from $80 to $339 depending on whether or not you want support for 2 CPU sockets, more than 4 GB RAM, virtualization, server applications (apache, samba, nfs). Keep in mind that Red Hat is offering support.

      https://www.redhat.c [redhat.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by westlake ( 615356 )
      We have seen this happen before where Dell shipped FreeDOS systems that actually cost more than with Windows (which means there is definitely malarky going on there).

      Mass market retailer sells a gazillion Windows system bundles.

      Many will ship pre-loaded with $200 OEM MS Office. Many will ship with upgraded wideo and other options.

      The plain vanilla FreeDOS PC sells in purchase orders of 100-1000 units. No problem there.

      It is servicing the Geek who expects mass market consumer pricing and service on a "n

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by w000t ( 1141427 )
        I seriously doubt supporting geeks (whom, except for hardware problems, would probably prefer to handle problems on their own) is more expensive than supporting users that don't know what an OS is.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Skapare ( 16644 )

      ... Dell shipped FreeDOS systems that actually cost more than with Windows (which means there is definitely malarky going on there).

      The "malarky" is some combination of bulk deal with Microsoft for a lower per-unit price, money received to insert tryware and other junk, and economy of scale of both sales and support for Windows based products ... passed on to the buyer in the form of lower costs. Compare that with Linux where the software is mostly free, cuts off the tryware and junk revenue stream, and

    • Take a look at this. [arstechnica.com]

      That article clearly suggests Dell make around $50 to $60 by having all those ISP trials and software demos pre-loaded. All OEMs put the same crap on their machines, so it's fairly reasonable to assume that they all make broadly similar amounts. Now, purely for the sake of argument, lets pretend that the only cost differential between a Dell with FreeDOS and a Dell with Windows is the OS licence (it isn't of course, but what the hell).

      So, Dell lose $60 of revenue from having no "cr
    • Similar spec, slightly better maybe: Sempron 3600+, 512M RAM, 80GB hard drive, GeForce Go 6100 video card, 802.11, wired eithernet, modem, 2 usb ports, firewire, s-video, etc. Windows Vista Home. $350 USD.

      (it was slightly slow playing video games, understandably slow due to the shared memory on the GeForce card: Vista + video game had ~256M while the card had 256M. I added 1 gig of RAM (total of 1.5 gigs) for $40, it is now quite zippy. I had considered downgrading to XP but don't think I will anymore)

  • FC works (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mdsolar ( 1045926 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @10:40AM (#20451739) Homepage Journal
    One of the systems sounds close to mine. FC works on this with just a few issues with the video driver (answered here on slashdot). This sounds like a smart move.
    --
    Rent residential solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html [blogspot.com]

  • 2008 year of Linux desktop after all ...? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by suv4x4 ( 956391 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @11:09AM (#20451953)
    I used to laugh at people who kept saying Linux for desktop is coming, and I'm not that big of a fan of the Linux desktop as well (I'm a fan of the Linux servers).

    But what I kept saying is they need vendor support. No support, no lunch.

    Now HP and Dell, the hardware vendors, offer desktop support. Those are big players, we know the smaller players will follow though quickly.

    Something's definitely going on, I remember the same excitement as Firefox was making its first steps eating at IE's market share.

    • Re:2008 year of Linux desktop after all ...? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by enrevanche ( 953125 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @11:42AM (#20452255)
      I think that this is allowing PC manufacturers to learn how to support Linux on the desktop.

      With windows, manufacturers really can't distinguish themselves that much. With Linux, in the long run, this will allow them to become more like Apple, allowing them to provide a product that they have more control of. Microsoft requires that most of the branding of the PC be MS branding. Linux will allow a PC manufacturer to make this branding more their own.

      They've been under the Microsoft whip for a long time now. They've helped stop a large a part of the server market from going to Microsoft. The next step will be to take control over the desktop. Even if they will eventually just use Red Hat or Ubuntu, they will be able allowed customize them substantially more than with windows.

      Also, this will allow them to negotiate better with MS.

    • Re:2008 year of Linux desktop after all ...? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by myrdos2 ( 989497 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @11:51AM (#20452339)
      Yeah, but I remember this excitement last year... and the year before that. In the last few years, I've seen tremendous improvements in the ease-of-use of Linux, and yet there has been no corresponding increase in the number of users:

      http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp [w3schools.com]

      The number of Linux users has been roughly flat for the last three years. To me, Linux is ready for the desktop, and has been for quite some time. However, the simple truth is that most people buy a computer to run software, the vast majority of which is for Windows. Sure, Linux comes with a TON of its own stuff, which makes it useful to many, many people.

      But even more people want to run commercial software that is Windows-only. Like games. Or business apps. Or the CD that came with their camera. Face it; if Wine worked with 100% reliability, Windows would be dead.

      You can rant and rave about improvements in reliability, security, efficiency, GUI elements, and so forth, but at the end of the day what people care most about is: "Will it run my software?".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by init100 ( 915886 )

        Or the CD that came with their camera.

        Which usually just contains crappy file transfer software and an evaluation version of some photo album software. Gnome does the file transfer part and for the album part there is Picasa.

      • "Yeah, but I remember this excitement last year... and the year before that. In the last few years, I've seen tremendous improvements in the ease-of-use of Linux, and yet there has been no corresponding increase in the number of users:"

        I remember it differently. I don't remember business jumping at the hype, nor that homogeneous feeling. It seemed just restricted into a few people (altough I've recently being one of them).

        And it is quite likely that a migration into Linux will be fast if it ever happen.

      • "The number of Linux users has been roughly flat for the last three years."

        I don't know who w3schools are, but I'm very skeptical of those figures being representative of the majority of users. 3.4% in 2005? Seems high, even now.

        I'm hugely impressed with the ability of modern distros to just work with stuff. Plug in a USB anything, and it's detected and operational. Even modern cameras. Install printer drivers, and you can print documents, spreadsheets, whatever. Web, email, p2p, anything. And unless you ar

        • "The number of Linux users has been roughly flat for the last three years." I don't know who w3schools are, but I'm very skeptical of those figures being representative of the majority of users. 3.4% in 2005? Seems high, even now.

          This is what they say about web browsers: (perhaps the same will hold for the OS)

          W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use Internet

      • You can rant and rave about improvements in reliability, security, efficiency, GUI elements, and so forth, but at the end of the day what people care most about is: "Will it run my software?".

        You're right, unfortunately. Allow me to expand on that statement...

        "Will it run my software?"

        Most Linux advocates will immediately say "90+%, Yes". But that's a simplified question with a misleading answer. How about this?

        "Will it do everything I need it to without requiring some cryptic commands to be entered into an archaic-looking text window, or some emulation program?"

        For people who only want to use Office applications, Email, and the Internet- They will probably get by alright, but for anyone who wants to do any

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by suv4x4 ( 956391 )
        Yeah, but I remember this excitement last year...

        I don't. And my excitement is more accurate meter, so there we go.

    • I used to laugh at people who kept saying Linux for desktop is coming, and I'm not that big of a fan of the Linux desktop as well (I'm a fan of the Linux servers). But what I kept saying is they need vendor support. No support, no lunch. Now HP and Dell, the hardware vendors, offer desktop support. Those are big players, we know the smaller players will follow though quickly. Something's definitely going on, I remember the same excitement as Firefox was making its first steps eating at IE's market share.

      Looks to me like they are going about it the right way too. And Linux distros getting easier hasn't hurt either. Idiot/PR exercise doomed to failure way:- Launch with maximum publicity. Advertise the Linux boxes as ideal budget systems etc. Get as many new users after a cheap system, but with little or no computer knowledge.

      Result.. Supply lines not ready for demand, support network not up to speed, and too many new users get their first experience of Linux the bad way. The whole thing can be dismissed

    • I used to laugh at people who kept saying Linux for desktop is coming, and I'm not that big of a fan of the Linux desktop as well (I'm a fan of the Linux servers).

      Yeh. I've been hearing the wrong predictions for years, and thought they always would be wrong. It looks like the reality is starting to catch up with the predictions. I tried Xandros, in 2006, and that was the first time I was really impressed, and Ubuntu this year, and was the even more impressed.

      Maybe the wow starts now.

  • So sometime this week... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bealzabobs_youruncle ( 971430 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @11:11AM (#20451965)
    Steve Ballmer will line up the Windows Vista development team and break chairs over their heads... While I love reading stories like this, and no doubt it is partially due to the massive improvements in desktop Linux over the last couple years, a great deal of the inertia behind this is likely PC makers frustrated with Vista and consumer indifference. Dell showed just enough success with Ubuntu on consumer machines that now all the larger PC makers have to dip their toes in the pool.

    In theory we should now started seeing more and better drivers and more Linux versions of popular applications. If the right approach is taken I think some companies will provide code/docs/etc.. Any way you slice it, it's good news.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Nossie ( 753694 )
      I actually agree... to the extent that I think if anything Vista has helped linux gain marketshare. I upgraded to Vista beta and expected/hoped the OS to mature into retail... when it did not mature and I was so frustrated with the crapware and DRM Microsoft provided I didn't want to go back to XP, Aero is damn fine looking WHEN it works

      So I stopped dabbling in linux like I have done for the last 10 years and now use Linux-Compiz / OSX entirely ...

      The only thing that would have stopped me really is Games,

  • Linux on all models (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nukem996 ( 624036 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @11:30AM (#20452143)
    What Dell and HP really need to do is install Linux on all, or at least most models of their computers. They currently only install Linux on a cheaper model that many power users(which is the majority of the Linux user base right now) don't want. We want the high end stuff. As long as the system has drivers for everything(free as in freedom or free as in beer), and most systems do, you should be able to select Linux just like you can select what ever version of Windows you want.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by kabz ( 770151 )
      Respectfully, I disagree. If Linux depends on customers (the power-users) who already know about Linux, then no progress will be made beyond where we are now.

      HP is putting Linux on lower-end machines selling to people who probably don't really care about Windows, **providing** that all their documents still open and their music plays.

      If this comes off, and they sell enough machines, then maybe we'll see them roll it out across some other countries.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )
      Don't worry, it's coming. What will happen now is a classic case of "bulletpointytis", in which any hardware producer looking to become a supplier to Dell and HP will have "Linux compatibility" as one criterium. It might not be very important, but supporting Linux isn't really that hard. Those are typically the kind of features you implement so you have an impressive list of features when it comes down to crunch time. "Well, it doesn't do that but look at everything else it does" or "Well, it's not cheapest

      • ...any hardware producer looking to become a supplier to Dell and HP will have "Linux compatibility" as one criterium...

        It's certainly required for suppliers of server components.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Skapare ( 16644 )

      If you want high-end power machines that run Linux, build them yourself or go buy them pre-configured here [laclinux.com] or here [penguincomputing.com]. In the mean time, the more non-geeks we can get to be using Linux, the more hardware manufacturers and applications developers will have to consider Linux compatibility. Once we get to the point where all hardware works in Linux (either because they make it use an existing interface, or fully and openly document the new one they design, or provide kernel license compatible open source driver

    • Sure, many Linux users are power users, but you've got to start somewhere. And the money isn't with the power users, as that pool is too small. It seems to me that starting with the low-end is a good idea. More people go from low-end systems to high-end than starting with high-end and then moving to low-end systems.
    • I don't think so. When Dell started out with this current Linux experiment, there were a few hiccups that needed sorting out. Better to have this sorted with techie users than the knuckle dragging Joe Subnormal.

      I think they are going about it the right way. Get used to offering a choice of OSs on a small range, and gradually build up the range and the publicity. Not much use getting thousands of orders if 70% come back within a few weeks because some twit didn't realise that they couldn't run the latest Win

  • Australia is a shrewd choice (Score:3, Funny)

    by dwalsh ( 87765 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @11:33AM (#20452163)
    Everything works backwards down there - Summer is in December, colder in the South, water spirals down the drain in the opposite direction ... and Linux on the desktop.
  • "Penguin meets Kangaroo"

    ...so what ?

  • Smaller companies have been doing this for a while (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Skapare ( 16644 ) on Monday September 03, 2007 @12:21PM (#20452597) Homepage

    Smaller companies have been doing this for a while. Why do we need to go to big companies like HP when we can get computers from places like Los Alamos Computers [laclinux.com] and Penguin Computing [penguincomputing.com]? Oh wait, geeks now want dirt cheap computers instead of top of the line machines?

    • Oh wait, geeks now want dirt cheap computers instead of top of the line machines?

      Not everything that happens in the Linux world is about what geeks want. (Shocking, but true.) The #1 goal of Linux advocates has always been to break Windows' desktop monopoly. If big companies like HP and Dell are seriously marketing Linux/PC bundles, they must think there's a market for them. That would mean that corporate buyers and ordinary consumers (that is, the non-geeks who actually buy 99% of all compute

    • I use dirt cheap computers, and not top line ones.

      Changed atitude since dirt cheap computers started running everything I needed (somewhen around 2003).

  • Don't forget that HP was one of the whores provided by Microsoft to vote yes to OOXML in Sweden. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/28/123 7255 [slashdot.org]

  • DOS? (Score:2)

    by fm6 ( 162816 )

    Previously, HP had offered this desktop computer with a choice of Vista Business, XP, and FreeDOS. In the latter case, this was almost always replaced by users with a Linux distribution.
    Almost always? Are there there still people who consider DOS their primary working environment?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by nxsty ( 942984 )
      Well, they could of course have replaced it with something else than Linux, like BSD or a pirated windows. I don't think many people kept FreeDOS.
    • Here in Greece the majority of the businesses are still on DOS. Some of them on real DOS, others on DOS programs running under (guess what) Win95 or 98. There are also many informatics companies, some in the stock market as well, with their primary products being available for both DOS and Win.

  • In Latin America... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Stormwatch ( 703920 ) <`moc.liamtoh' `ta' `oarigogirdor'> on Monday September 03, 2007 @02:21PM (#20453953) Homepage
    This isn't really new: HP sells PCs with Mandriva across Latin America.

  • Previously, HP had offered this desktop computer with a choice of Vista Business, XP, and FreeDOS. In the latter case, this was almost always replaced by users with a Linux distribution.

    not completely true. most (if not 100%) of the machines that come with FreeDOS are build-to-order configs. ie, for a rollout for a specific customer. FreeDOS costs a few bucks, and saves the company from having to buy OEM XPP or Vista or whatever if they already own the licenses thru a license agreement of some sort. The machines are generally imaged for the customer with their own licensing and whatever software/settings they need. this can save $5000-$10000 or more on a decent-sized rollout or refresh.

  • I used to wish and long for high end PC's. With specs like these I find myself wishing and longing for low end PC's. Anyone else?
  • nVidia or ATI/AMD? Wee, considering that ATI/AMD still doesn't have 3D support for their R600-series 3D cards (in Linux, of course), my short term bet is on nVidia.

    Still, stranger things have happened.
  • " it maxes out with a 250 GB hard drive" Looks like someone copied the Windows version of the promo. :P

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