OSNews

The reliance of the device on USB looks like a big problem. People are going to run out and buy $40 apollo printers and $50 Umax scanners then expect them to work right away with this. Most OSNews readers know not to expect too much from the cheapo stuff, but general consumers just expect stuff to work...and 75% of peiphials sold don't include anything but windows drivers. What's worse is that most of the manufacturers are downright antagonistic to Linux. The first time users have to wait 6 months for an OSS driver for their "cheap" printer they're going to be upset..after all, it works with windows, something must be wrong with the mini-server!

For this to really work, they'll need to do some serious Linux advocacy! Again, they need to be in contact with Lindows guys because this is the part of the game where first impressions count. For both Rumba and Lindows, they can only gain serious share if they can get Tux stickers on as much stuff as possible. This also means they can't keep the drivers & such to themselves, but really have to get the stuff out there for everyone OSS. This also means FreeSoftware gurus have to bend a little on the proprietary driver model and try to find some middle ground to start making things less painful for manufacturers. But it's exactly this kind of product that will make periphial manufactures wake up and start supporting OSS, It's good dealings for them because these are solid products with companies that may be willing to pay a little [and have sales numbers] to "grease" the developer wheels a bit.