HP Linux: too many penguins for the notebook?
With rumours flying about HP launching its own flavour of consumer Linux, Leigh Dyer wonders whether Xandros, Linpus, SUSE and Ubuntu are quite enough for notebook users.
Rumours are flying around at the moment about HP launching its own version of Linux. After reading the headline I just assumed that HP would be looking at the server space, but no -- instead, the rumours suggested that HP would be producing its own Linux variant for consumer systems, like laptops.
Just a year ago, it would have been a crazy idea, but today, for better or worse, it'd be following in some very popular footsteps.
Why tweaking Linux worked for ASUS
ASUS virtually created a new market segment overnight with its Eee PC. Designed from the ground up to be both small and inexpensive, the Eee PC shaved costs everywhere it could, and its most bold move was to ditch hard drive storage and Windows if favour of much smaller flash storage and Linux.
Cost was obviously a factor in choosing Linux, but it was a better technical fit as well. When the Eee PC was released, Microsoft was already heavily pushing Vista, but it was far too power-hungry for the Eee PC to handle.
Even if XP had been an option then, the 2GB of flash storage in the cheapest systems would have been to small to fit the OS and applications. It's plenty for a customsed Linux system, though, even after adding a full suite of applications.
Computer, or appliance?
Out of the box, a Linux-based Eee PC is really more like an appliance than a computer. There is some capability to install or upgrade software if you're willing to mess about with the system's internals, but it's really designed to be used as-is, rather than giving the user a lot of scope to customise it.
It made sense, then, for ASUS to extensively customise its Linux system. It added its own core UI to keep everything accessible on the small screen, and added the right applications to handle a wide range of typical tasks.
HP is battling XP on netbooks
If HP has this kind of Linux appliance model in mind, then customisation makes sense for them as well, but appliance-style netbooks are definitely on the decline.
Most offer XP as an option now, which you certainly don't want to leave at the factory defaults, and the other Linux options are fully-fledged user-customisable systems. It's also very common to see Eee users replacing the standard OS with an alternative, like Ubuntu.
Why Dell's Ubuntu approach gets the thumbs up
With customised Xandros in the Eee PC, Linpus on the Acer Aspire One, SUSE on the HP 2133 and Ubuntu on the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, there's already quite a range of Linux systems in the retail market.
While it's great to see so many systems shipping with Linux, even if they don't all offer Linux in the Australian market, the proliferation of Linux options must be confusing to new users, and if HP introduces a new option, it'll only get worse.
Users in the market for a Linux system could end up with one of nearly half a dozen options, all with different interfaces, feature sets, and troubleshooting procedures, depending on the vendor they've chosen.
If there's any truth to the rumours, then I really hope that HP follows the Dell model. Dell has adopted Ubuntu as its consumer version of Linux, and makes only minor customisations to make sure that all of the hardware works out-of-the-box -- customisations it then submits back to the Ubuntu developers wherever possible so that they're automatically included in future releases.
That way, Dell automatically gets all of Ubuntu's improvements, while the larger community gets Dell's improvements as well. It's a classic open-source win-win scenario.
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