“A Lindows system—or any Linux system—engineered with this in mind would be hard to make into a Windows XP machine without someone developing a Windows XP personality module. Whatever the case, I believe the $199 computer will be a hot commodity and could become even hotter if Wal-Mart actually decides to carry it in stores and not just on the Web.” Read Dvorak’s column at PCMagazine.
Dvorak: Lindows and the $199 Computer
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..than any of my machines. Two years ago I spent $2700 on a 700MHZ Dell, and 6 months later I spent another $2700 on a 700MHZ laptop.
$1499 will buy a similar laptop running at the latest MHZs. The sweet spot has definitely dropped significantly.
$199 might be good for a server to throw in the closet and serve MP3s, files, etc.
I’m looking to upgrade in the next 6 months. My pile of secondary hardware is growing larger and larger.
Just make sure you replace Lindows with something a little more secure (ie anything not running root by default) before you turn it into a server
I find it interesting that the pull quote chosen for the abstract for this article is one from the end and is refering to a hypothetical instant-on Lindows machine that has the OS in ROM. Note that such a machine does not exist, it’s just mentioned in a line of thought from Dvorak.
Currently there isn’t anything prohibiting one of these $199 Wal*Mart boxes from having WindowsXP installed on them. The article abstract seems out of context and a little misleading to me.
I have wanted an instant-on PC for years now, so I usually leave my running 24/7. And I love taking the idea of the commodity PC to the extreme and it only costing $99 or $199. But to be locked into a particular operating system, when there are currently so many to choose from would be moving backward.
Currently there isn’t anything prohibiting one of these $199 Wal*Mart boxes from having WindowsXP installed on them. The article abstract seems out of context and a little misleading to me.
Walmart does sell the same PC with XP (home edition) for $100 more. Most people can’t buy a non-upgrade copy of xp for less than $100.
And the quotes are wrong also. You are supposed to say that there is a significant amount of space (or any space, for that matter) between two parts of an article you quote. By putting them in two quotes. You can’t just smash them together. If you have a sentence you cut something out of you put a “…” in the aforementioned cut section. If you need to edit a sentence you have to put brackets around the parts you put in like such:
[John] Dvorak: Lindows and the $199 Computer”
However you HAVE to follow the context and spirit of the sentence and what the author is saying.
There’s a Linux kernel patch for suspend-to-disk:
http://falcon.sch.bme.hu/~seasons/linux/swsusp.html
Might be worth a try if you want instant on badly.
The basic idea of an OS in ROM is not suited to us techies but for the home user its brilliant.
Zero corruption. When did you last have to reinstall the OS on an Amstrad CPC464 or a spectrum?
Add a HDD for bug fixes applications, and documents, and away you go.
You’d have to implement Apple-style monolithic binaries for applications to avoid the need for a Registry and installers/uninstallers, and onviously prefs files for the OS would ne stored on the HDD – but can you imagine the reliability once you got it right? No more disk errors. No more accidental damage of system files. If you get a virus you just reboot the machine and its gone.
When software gets better ( No OS is really ready for embedding yet except perhaps a PDA OS ) it’s worth considering
You know you can actually get that with Linux today. Mount your root partition read only. Have seperate partitions for /home and /var; sim link /usr/local to something like /home/usrlocal. When you want to install new software install to /usr/local and config files to /usr/local/etc = /home/usrlocal/etc.
Didn’t the Acorn A3000 and A4000 have part of the OS in rom, back in the mid 90’s?
http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/26821.html – even if you have a volume license, you cannot install WinXP on one of these Lindows boxen
sorry, but the adavantages of having Linux wired in a ROM escape me. What would the pros be?
OS incorruptibility can be easily obtained by making the root partition read only, as someone already said, with the difference that i can make the root partition writable and easily update the kernel with patches any time i want, which would be much more inconvenient to do with a ROM.
So what other advantages dos an OS-in-a-ROM offer? Speed? I don’t think so.
The fact that you cannot install any other OS? But this extra-cheap computer is going to have an HD, right? and even Joe User can boot from CD and install software …
And which part of the system would be in the ROM? A whole Linux distro or just the kernel? And even if only the kernel, which parts? One of the strenghts of linux is that it lets you compile parts of the kernels as modules and load them when you need them. So would the ROM kernel include all modules? and what would the advantage of having the OS in a ROM be if I am stuck with a big and slow kernel?
And what does the fact that computer is extra cheap have to do with having the OS on a ROM?
Perhaps it’s just me but I find most of Dvoraks articles sloppy and misinformed …
Fred, it sounds like you’ve never used one of the ROM-based computers, like the C64, Atari 400/800/1200, etc. The nice thing about those machines was this: You turned the thing on, and literally within a couple of seconds, it was ready for you to start banging away on. You didn’t worry about upgrading, you didn’t worry about recompiling the kernal, you just turned it on ans used it.
A computer like that is *not* aimed at someone who enjoys and is comfortable with kernal compiling – it’s aimed strictly at someone who’s interested in using a computer without having to deal with any of the underlying structure. It’s a terrific introduction for young kids to computing, and it’s also great for anyone who doesn’t want to deal with the hassles of registry corruption, DLL dependencies, etc.
It’s a very, very rare day when I find myself agreeing with even *part* of Dvorak’s usual rantings; in this case, I think he’s actually on to something.
Fred, it sounds like you’ve never used one of the ROM-based computers, like the C64, Atari 400/800/1200, etc.
ehhh … no, indeed, i confess 🙂
Ok, so i have to think of this thingy more like an embedded device, which you turn on, use it, and turn off, i take your point …
but then i would say that whatever os would be used on such computer is ultimately immaterial, as it had to be windows or compatible with it – right? which makes me think that perhaps it is not such a brilliant move on lindows’ side to enter this market, the OS would be more or less invisible to the user, and they could be substituted any movement by any linux kernel with wine ….
To both of you, when I speak of the benefits of an OS held in ROM, I wasn’t referrring specifically to Linux
Matter of fact, I think linux is inherently unsuitable for this sort of task, far better to use an OS which uses a driver model instead of a kernel module model for compatibility.
I was thinking in terms of Palm OS, or Windows CE, actually
Also, I don’t believe theres any real benefit to a read-only master OS partition for several reasons.
If its software-protected, it can be damaged by virii
If its on a hard disk it can get corrupted – Prevention of which is the main reason for Flash ROM OS’s
If it’s on a hard disk its limited to HDD speeds
Hard disks can fail.
Dave hit the nail on the head. Make it an appliance with expandability – something you just turn on and use. And which can’t get virused like a PC or Mac
“With Moore’s law still in effect, you’d think that something would have come along by now selling for $99 or so”
Ahh another misinterpretation of Moore’s law by none other than Mr. Dvorack. That’s like saying Newton’s 2nd law of thermodynamics implies Taco Bell should bring back the 49cent soft shell taco. Gotta love those non-technical tech sites.