Hewlett-Packard, the world's Number 1 PC maker, will try selling pre-loaded Linux on PCs in several countries as it expands a test program - evaluating a market that some competitors have already entered - and moves its personal computer business into a new generation of form factors and functionality.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-11-24
Personal opinion:
While Novell and Red Hat already have a lock on the corporate Linux desktop and server, I think that Canonical will eventually have to go into that sphere as well.
In fact, I think that Desktop Linux, and FOSS in general, will find its primary audience in business/government desktop computing. The current legal protractions in desktop computing involve office document formats (ODF vs. OOXML), and everyone has their sentiments invested in either side.
But do you hear as much emotional hoopla involving DesktopLinux/FOSS and *multimedia formats*? I don't.
I have not heard that much about the promotion of formats such as SVG, SMIL, and Ogg (Theora or Vorbis) within the last year or so, compared to the volume of the office document format war.
Instead, Linux (home) users are still begging Adobe to release a full version of both Flash 9 and Shockwave. The Xiph.Org project is still working under the shadow of Thomson and Fraunhofer: http://www.news.com/2100-1023-249710.html Nevermind that we don't have an open source competitor to Adobe's or Microsoft's multimedia offerings.
So does DesktopLinux/FOSS have a chance in the home desktop computing field? Not any time soon.
Does it have a chance in the corporate desktop computing field, which doesn't demand that much multimedia? Hell yes.
So I think Canonical's pursuing a fruitless endeavor in the home desktop computer, and should instead focus on the more lucrative corporate desktop, offering a competitive alternative to Novell, Red Hat, and maybe Mandriva. Another startup in the future will probably appeal to high-end home desktop PC vendors like Alienware, Velocity Micro, and Falcon Northwest.
By that time, there will be greater, and hopefully better, efforts for multimedia on the FOSS-based home desktop. Canonical just doesn't seem to truly have their priorities in that area.
Unfortunately, neither does any recognizable Desktop Linux distro vendor at the time of writing.
Edited 2007-09-20 22:29
Member since:2006-03-12
"But do you hear as much emotional hoopla involving DesktopLinux/FOSS and *multimedia formats*? I don't.
I have not heard that much about the promotion of formats such as SVG, SMIL, and Ogg (Theora or Vorbis) within the last year or so, compared to the volume of the office document format war.
Instead, Linux (home) users are still begging Adobe to release a full version of both Flash 9 and Shockwave. The Xiph.Org project is still working under the shadow of Thomson and Fraunhofer: http://www.news.com/2100-1023-249710.html Nevermind that we don't have an open source competitor to Adobe's or Microsoft's multimedia offerings. "
I disagree with your two points. The first albeit you could be right, but its not just the format, its the DRM and they cannot be separated unfortunately for content. we have see the *Microsoft* solution which vendors are both wary off and hoping to rise on the back off, but Microsoft with the exception of games is not a content provider. You see in China's own HD, and the steps taken with blu-ray using Mpeg2 technolgy just so they have an alternative to Microsoft Lock-in. and without bringing up the PlayForSure solution offered by Microsoft. We are also seeing the start of the anti-trust cases. We have seen the overreaching DRM that has a side effect of moving codecs, from perhaps the better solution of the CPU doing the lifting to hardware solutions. I suspect very strongly that Apple will not encumber *their* OS offering. I suspect the final outcome of these large companies is DRM encumbered closed format not tied to any platform, and I don't just mean OS I mean hardware with little OS.
I bring up your second point and perhaps make a different one. I cannot see Adobe continuing as its doing. Its only a matter of time before it either Open-sources and I use the right term *everything*...and its made moves that way with loosening its licensing restrictions on its formats, or is forms closer ties/absorbed by Apple or Google, for obvious reasons. Microsoft have made no smalls about it being the a market it wants, and because have low level control of just about everything, as we have seen from history of Netscape, Realplayer, OpenGL, Wordperfect ignoring Microsofts own crooked dealing; one misstep and the faithful leave you, Only Microsoft is is in a position to retain Microsoft Dominance. Although personally I will not shed a tear when one Monopoly swallows another Monopoly.
Member since:
2005-07-07
elsewhere's point still stands.
The Canonical support one can buy with a Dell PC is aimed at individual consumers, not at businesses.
There is a reason why Dell currently doesn't have Linux PCs in its business section and why the respective request is ranking quite highly on IdeaStorm.
Right now, Novell and Redhat have a larger network of support partners which can handle support for the customers HP is aiming at