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HP Releases New Netbook GUI For Ubuntu
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Fri Feb 06, 2009 02:02 PM
from the user-friendly-the-new-goal dept.
from the user-friendly-the-new-goal dept.
dan of the north writes to tell us that a new custom version of Ubuntu aimed at netbooks and based on 8.04 Hardy Heron has been released by HP. Targeted to the HP Mini 1000 Mi, the netbook customization comes complete with OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Pidgin, and a few others. "Overall, HP has created one of the best thought out Linux interfaces for netbooks. The software is designed so that users who have never used Linux should have no trouble performing basic tasks. But experienced Linux users can always fire up a terminal window by hitting Alt+F2 and entering 'gnome-terminal.'"
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FOSS At Its Best (Score:5, Insightful)
HP has taken a solid product improved it and is using it to improve the value of it's own product.
Everybody involved benefits (except microsoft...).
Re:FOSS At Its Best (Score:4, Informative)
I heard that they just used Elisa Media center....
http://elisa.fluendo.com/ [fluendo.com]
Parent
Re:FOSS At Its Best (Score:5, Insightful)
I would. Taking a free resource and creating a GUI to make what your customers want easier to do and more easier to understand is far from a bad thing. It's an improvement to get more attention and more computers on linux.
This would be perfect for older generations who do not understand the difference in computers and really only understand what they can do with the software that boots up and opens in front of them. Having something like this for an older parent might be all they need and might make their computer use more efficient. For those of us like me... I still want to be able to do everything and never have it change... most of "us" realize we're a bit too picky at times.
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Re:FOSS At Its Best (Score:4, Insightful)
Having something like this for an older parent might be all they need and might make their computer use more efficient. For those of us like me... I still want to be able to do everything and never have it change... most of "us" realize we're a bit too picky at times.
The two things I need is a decent taskbar and Alt+F2 for "Run...". This one has it, so it's perfect.
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Re:FOSS At Its Best (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, stop with this older generation stuff...
Those days are past. There are precious few parents old enough such that they have not gleaned any experience with computers by now. Those that haven't are well into their 80s and have more than likely lost interest in anything but pictures of grand kids.
Well, maybe not grandparents, but people who don't want to learn, or maybe aren't tech inclined. My grandfather is somewhat decent with computers, but my parents can barely click a mouse (even when told to, they ask "what?" and click slowly). I've run into lots of 20-somethings who can barely do anything besides open the default word processor (my girlfriend comes to mind). It's not an age thing.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:FOSS Humiliated By HP (Score:4, Informative)
all the niggardly little details
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
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Re:FOSS Humiliated By HP (Score:5, Informative)
The root of that word is not ignorant person but "Negro", referring to the race of people with Black Ancestry. Negro itself comes from the Latin word 'niger' - which means 'black'. The usage of the word to mean ignorant person is but the start of the racist connotations it has acquired in the US.
WRONG. Here's a summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggardly [wikipedia.org] for you. You might be particularly amused by the item on the Economist magazine. The "racist connotations" to which you refer are nonexistent, except perhaps for a few (mostly Americans, apparently) whose grasp of English is as poor as yours.
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Not in the UK (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Not in the UK (Score:4, Insightful)
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The links says it will be a download (Score:2)
Re:Not in the UK (Score:5, Funny)
You mean I'll have to have a goat on my computer? But I prefer sheep!
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Re:Not in the UK (Score:5, Informative)
Add the HP repos and grab the glassy-bleu-theme.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1021351 [ubuntuforums.org]
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netbook (Score:5, Interesting)
I almost got the HP Mini 1000 but decided on a different netbook due to the proprietary VGA cable needed to connect the HP to a larger screen. I went with the Samsung NC10 instead, and I am not disappointed in the least. The first thing I did was to install Ubuntu on the Samsung, and it works just fine for the most part (the function keys to control brightness being the only thing I had to work around). I got a 2GB stick of RAM for it, and honestly don't find it underpowered in the least. I think it's a great machine to bring on the road to get some coding done; I don't think it's limited to simply web browsing and email.
A way to unseat Windows dominance (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A way to unseat Windows dominance (Score:5, Funny)
Oh we'll see about that.
In 15 minutes, I'll be in a meeting with some HP people I know. And I'm going to one thing very clear to them: Keep selling Linux on your Netbooks and I will fucking kill you. I've done it before and I will do it again.
With push overs like these HP fuckers, I won't even need the chair this time.
Yours Truly,
Steve B
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Re:A way to unseat Windows dominance (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:A way to unseat Windows dominance (Score:4, Interesting)
... In other news, a new Windows 7 edition has been released by Microsoft for exclusive use by OEMs in their netbook products (a "netbook" is defined as a laptop with retail price below $400). The so-called "Windows 7 Net Home" costs $5, with the more advanced "Net Pro" version going for $10. EULA for the software restricts the ability to install it on non-netbook computers, and the corresponding checks have been added to the Windows activation system.
Parent
Pretty cool, actually (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, it makes sense that a computer system company (HP, Dell, etc) would actively pursue releasing a linux distro that works well/specifically designed to work well with their specific hardware, etc. (I presume this is going to include drivers for all of the included hardware in the mini), and is "easy" to use and looks good...
I'm surprised more companies haven't done this, actually.
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:4, Insightful)
S/LINUX/UNIX
What, like Apple?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Eh... yeah, Unix, too, I guess. I'm not as much of a fan of Unix, having used solaris/hp-ux/aix.
Apple is a bit different in that they have a proprietary OS that they license only for specific hardware (isn't that still the way it is? or no? I could be behind the times here). I'm not a fan of that.
I also just generally dislike the "I'm cool, I have an Apple. I'm artsy. PC users automatically get -5 points for using a PC even if their [music, art, web design] is great." thing, but that's neither here nor
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:5, Insightful)
Apples are easy to use, and optimised for certain tasks... and this is possible because Apple only has to deal with a very limited set of hardware components and configurations.
HP contributing to a Linux distro in order to optimise for their particular hardware configuration is similar to what Apple did.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is a bit different in that they have a proprietary OS that they license only for specific hardware (isn't that still the way it is? or no? I could be behind the times here).
Not exactly-- really it depends a bit on what you consider the "OS" to be. The underlying OS [wikipedia.org] is open source, and "free" in the FSF sense. The graphical layer that runs on top is proprietary and only licensed to be installed on Apple hardware. You can take their OS and replace the graphical layer with X11 and Gnome, and the whole thing runs.
Now a lot of people would say this is splitting hairs, saying that since you can't run OSX apps on a "free" system, you can't say the OS in "free". It's a valid objection. However, I still think it's noteworthy that code for the kernel and lots of other stuff is available to developer to look at and copy.
I also just generally dislike the "I'm cool, I have an Apple. I'm artsy. PC users automatically get -5 points for using a PC even if their [music, art, web design] is great."
Me too, I guess, insofar as there are Apple users who act that way. I don't let it stop me from using a Mac when it happens to be the best tool for the job (which sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't). Also, lots of Mac users aren't really like that. A fair amount these days are normal computer geeks who just happen to want a Unix system that is also formally supported by Photoshop (or some similar needs).
But really, we're straying off course a bit here.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I also just generally dislike the "I'm cool, I have an Apple. I'm artsy. PC users automatically get -5 points for using a PC even if their [music, art, web design] is great." thing, but that's neither here nor there (not sure where it is, I guess) :)
You can ignore that if you want. I used a Mac clear through the nineties, during the time when it was clearly unpopular to do so. Apple's rise in popularity doesn't directly effect my computing experience.
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm surprised more companies haven't done this, actually.
It's not that surprising when you consider that Microsoft has made a practice or retaliating against OEMs who sell non-MS systems. I don't have good citations here, but I remember reading that Microsoft used to put things in their deals like, "If you advertise or openly sell non-MS desktop systems, we'll raise the cost of your OEM versions of Windows $X per copy." Even if X is a pretty small number, it can add up to be a lot of money for big OEMs.
Parent
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:5, Interesting)
Except all their doing is fancying up the interface, the drivers are already there for everything. I installed vanilla Ubuntu Netbook Remix on one of these pre-Xmas and it ran perfectly out of the box:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=997590 [ubuntuforums.org]
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Excellent! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I've sort of been waiting for this. It makes a lot of sense to me that OEMs would want their pre-installed OS to be something that they could control completely, even if they don't technically "own" it.
Once upon a time, every computer company came out with their own hardware and software package. You had Apple, IBM, Commodore, etc. Some of the reason that everyone came out with their own software was because they weren't allowed to just take each others' software, but some of it was also that they each had different ideas about what was important.
That model fell apart because it was too expensive for everyone to develop everything themselves from scratch, and also because it was too annoying to deal with all the incompatibilities. However, by turning to Microsoft as an alternate solution, everyone sacrificed a lot of power and control over their own products.
Now that there are credible FOSS operating systems just sitting around waiting to be used, the problems of "starting from scratch" and "dealing with incompatibilities" are pretty much gone. If I were running Dell or HP, I would have had people working on custom/rebranded Linux or BSD distributions for several years already, including packaging systems and servers that would allow my company to control updates too.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Ancient, ancient, tired troll. Go to bed, troll.
You can't put a Playstation game in a Wii. And yet they sell both Playstations and Wiis. It's fucking amazing.
Why 8.04? (Score:2)
Why are they using 8.04? Shouldn't it be 8.10?
-Taylor
Re:Why 8.04? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just guessing, but 8.04 is a Long-Term-Support release.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
8.04 is LTS, wheras 8.10 is not.
Re: (Score:2)
LTS.
8.04 gets Long Term Support from the developers, where 8.10 gets more limited support. You can expect them to upgrade to 10.04 since it'll be the next one with LTS.
Re:Why 8.04? (Score:4, Informative)
8.04 has become the equivalent of Debian stable. It works for the vast majority of people and if there are specific apps you want to upgrade, you can find newer versions that integrate perfectly with your system. My machine has about 3000 packages installed on it. I only care about 15-20. I just hand upgrade those packages and let the reset sit at their stable state.
Parent
installing the HP packages? (Score:2, Interesting)
Mini 100 specs are the same as most netbooks... (Score:4, Interesting)
With that said, I do not see there being any problem installing this on other brands.... Specifically in my case, the Samsung NC10, which has identical hardware.
One thing I did not check out was the keyboard layout, and how the extra function keys (volume, brightness etc) are mapped, and whether those will work with this distro.
And it won't even... (Score:5, Insightful)
It won't even come bundled with toolbars, trials, demos, etc that their Windows computers come bundled with.
This is excellent to see.
So what is it made of (Score:2)
The linked article was rather sparse with technical details. What's the window manager? What are the building blocks? Doesn't look like a vanilla gnome setup...
Theme available to download? (Score:5, Interesting)
I *think* this was posted on Lifehacker yesterday, that you could download and install the theme that this uses. Here's the link:
http://lifehacker.com/5147379/get-hps-dark+themed-mini-look-on-your-ubuntu-desktop [lifehacker.com]
I tried it last night, on 8.10, and didn't have much luck. I'd really like a dark theme, but none of the ones I find seem to work well. Sure, I'll grant that the theme *did* look good. But it screwed up the controls so that iGoogle looked like crap and I couldn't read half the HTML elements. I like the window border of the theme, but if I only use that I lose the all-black task bar. All in all, I thought Firefox looked pretty bad under this.
Also, I still didn't like the icons. Why do 99% of the gnome icon themes suck? They all have this ugly volume control, and ugly 4 bars for the wireless connection. I've found some nice minimalist OSX-like icons themes, but they are always black and don't work well with the dark interfaces!
I did like the mini-style of the theme. Changing back to some of my others I realized how much space is wasted on some of the menus and the bars. Just my $.02.
Its about time.... (Score:5, Insightful)
For almost 25 years Microsoft has been dictating the OS and hardware for personal computers. Both consumers and producers alike have suffered.
Better systems not supported by Microsoft languished.
Companies with really good ideas run bankrupt when Microsoft copies them and incorporates their knock-off into DOS/Windows.
Before Microsoft, system companies competed on features and support. These days everything is about price and with "windows" being the price point, the HPs and Dells of the world have to play ball with Microsoft.
If, however, the Windows stranglehold can be weakened in that people accept that they don't NEED windows, then that opens opportunity for Linux and other systems.
It is about time the OEMs started flexing their muscle. Once they free themselves, they opportunities will grow!! Economic growth for sure!
best foot forward with Ubuntu (Score:5, Interesting)
Ubuntu is simply the sane thing to put on a desktop machine these days, especially for users who may not already be familiar with Linux.
It was always really frustrating to me in the past to see hardware companies selling machines with Linux preinstalled, but with some crappy version of Linux that was bound to create a bad impression of Linux in general.
Back when Fry's was selling Great Quality boxes for as low as $180, I bought several of them. They had something called ThizLinux on them, which was apparently a distro that GQ created themselves. No documentation for ThizLinux came with the machine, and googling for ThizLinux turned up a Chinese-language web site with no English translation. The printed docs that came with the machines were actually 90% information on how to wipe ThizLinux off your hard disk and install Windows. The impression any user would get from this was probably that Linux was crap, and nobody really wanted it.
Same deal with the Everex gPC, which I reviewed a while back [lightandmatter.com]. This may be a little unfair, because what I bought from them was a beta of their gOS distro, and now they have a newer version out, but basically it sucked, and I very quickly decided to replace it with Ubuntu. IMO it was just foolish of Everex to put out their own distro. I think they were imagining that by making it look slick (and a lot like MacOS) they would attract users. But in reality it worked so poorly that I think they were shooting themselves in the foot.
Re:How is this new? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Win+R (Score:5, Insightful)
From an ergonomic standpoint, "ALT+F2" is easier to press in almost all scenarios than "Windows Key+R"
If you hunt-and-peck:
- ALT+F2: Thumb on alt, Index finger on F2. One does not need to bend their wrists upwards
- WIN+R: Thumb on Win, index on R. One has to rotate wrist, elbow, and shoulder.
If you use home row:
- ALT+F2: Same as the hunt-and-peck
- WIN+R: Bending either the left or right thumb inwards, extending index finger to the R key.
If you have a DVORAK layout:
- ALT+F2: No fucking clue, I don't use DVORAK keyboards because the name reminds me of John Dvorak.
- WIN+R: Same as above
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