HP Releases New Netbook GUI For Ubuntu 261
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.'"
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...).
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?
Re:Not in the UK (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why 8.04? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just guessing, but 8.04 is a Long-Term-Support release.
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.
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.
Mythtv (Score:1, Insightful)
This looks handy for mythtv; everything is large and looks sharp at the same time.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
Re:Pretty cool, actually (Score:3, Insightful)
FOSS Humiliated By HP (Score:0, Insightful)
In just a short time HP took what the open source clowns had been working so hard on and getting nowhere in the market and created a polished and commercial quality UI for their hardware.
Just tried out the latest Ubuntu vmware image to check the progress once again. And no surprise:
* The same old shitty font rendering, layout, spacing, kerning, and on and on
* The most basic UI widget spacing and alignment completely ignored - hell, the one off stuff I've thrown together in Interface Builder looks commercial quality compared to the app and system UI shit in Ubuntu
* Even something as trivial as the damn Solitaire app that has mass market appeal to average users looks like some piece of shit shareware title from the mid-1990s.
So keep patting yourselves on the back about 'teh power of open source'. Don't cry when more and more companies take your shit and actually do something commercial grade and useful to use for people outside of 30 year old Star Trek fans still living in the parents basement.
Keep spouting that +5 Insightful Slashdot bullshit:
* You can change the theme and make it look 'pretty'
* You have version 0.2367, version 0.2368 is supposed to be much better. Just grab a source tarball
* If's free, stop complaining
* Well --I-- think the (shitty)fonts/colour choice/UI spacing/widgets/etc look great!
* Who cares about silly little 'nitpicking' UI problems, we can spin the whole desktop as a cube! Take that Microsoft and Apple. Linux is 'ahead'!
Re:FOSS At Its Best (Score:1, Insightful)
Please. That's a terribly narrow-minded viewpoint. Sure, many people older than, say, 50 can and do use computers. However, they still intimidate the heck out of many, if not most, of that age group -- even those that do use them regularly. Making it easier is always good (provided that doing so doesn't sacrifice functionality for those who do understand it).
Re:FOSS At Its Best (Score:1, Insightful)
Older generations always come up during these netbook discussions. I have to point out that most of the older people I know *want* a desktop with a large screen, and a giant keyboard with big easy to hit keys. There's no way my parents could read the tiny text on my Eee, let alone hit the tiny keys.
Netbooks get bought up by young geeks who know they only need web and e-mail. An easy-to-use specialized linux interface would do better on the basic desktop at Best Buy.
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.
Re:FOSS Humiliated By HP (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A way to unseat Windows dominance (Score:5, Insightful)
The Secret Of HP's Success (Score:1, Insightful)
The engineers, managers, and artists who worked on this woke up, got to work by 9 to 10am, worked all day with a 1 hour lunch break, and went home at 5pm.
The junior programmer who wanted to work on adding cool new features was given a stern lecture from his boss and ended up doing the messing and unrewarding work of fixing existing bugs and problems
The weirdo who wanted neon pink and green as the default UI color scheme and then demanded there be a UI option to support his personal choice was fired
When one engineer's code was causing problems in another engineer's code and tried to say it wasn't his problem, he got a serious talking to by his manager and he fixed his code
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.
black GUIs... (Score:2, Insightful)
a. use the internet
b. edit any kind of document
At this point you have to either:
a. get blinded everytime you use google
b:
import internet
internet.colour = not internet.colour
Re:Excellent! (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.
Re:Why A New UI? (Score:2, Insightful)
Probably because the number of halfway competent users is far, far less than half the number of users :p