Acer to release Ubuntu Linux laptops

[Marc Wiriadisastra]

Interesting and disappointing that both Dell and Acer release Ubuntu
laptops.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41336

I would have hoped Fedora would get more of a look in.

Cheers,

Marc

[Rahul Sundaram]

Marc Wiriadisastra wrote:
>  Interesting and disappointing that both Dell and Acer release Ubuntu
>  laptops.
>  
>  http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41336
>  
>  I would have hoped Fedora would gehavet more of a look in. 
Unlikely. OEM's usually need a commercially supported product with less 
moving parts and longer lifecycle which is why Dell ships RHEL, SLES and 
Ubuntu (LTS) and not Fedora or even regular Ubuntu versions. Other 
vendors resell these under various names too.  System76 for example. I 
haven't checked what Acer is doing here but I also came across this

http://osnews.com/story.php/18367/Acer-No-UK-Demand-for-Linux-Laptops

A growing Linux market is nevertheless good for all of us if they don't 
start putting in proprietary wedges in the name of getting things to 
work. While you can be slightly unhappy about the details (my chocolate 
wrapper in brown instead of blue), it is still important that we be 
supportive of these kind of efforts.

Rahul

[Karlie Robinson]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:

>  While you can be slightly unhappy about the details (my chocolate 
wrapper in brown instead of blue), it is still important that we be 
supportive of these kind of efforts.

+1

For the longest time it's always been Lin vs Win in our thinking when 
marketing Fedora.

I would think that now's a good time to begin tailoring our message a 
bit to play up the GNU/Linux to those just venturing away from Windows 
via Dell and now Acer.

The opportunity that presents itself is Infinite Choice.

If we stick with the candy analogy, there's more to life than just 
chocolate and we can inform new Linux users that they can behave like a 
kid in a candy shop.   There's White Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, With 
Nuts etc.  Then there's everything else.  Caramels, Lolly Pops...  All 
they have to do is figure out what suits their taste.

With a live disc, they can sample any one they like without commitment.

I feel that the greater good is done by getting people to try Linux in 
whatever form it may take.

While for some that may not be Fedora, the point is to get enough people 
using Linux and let the people sort out which is their favorite. Without 
a doubt a certain percentage will find their way to Fedora.

~Karlie

[Bryan Smith]

On Thu, 2007-08-02 at 10:13 -0400, Karlie Robinson wrote:
>  I feel that the greater good is done by getting people to try Linux
> in 
>  whatever form it may take. 
People are getting out, or at least trying to get out, from under the
serious risk of abandonware/hostageware and what I like to call "vendor
lock-out" (not merely just "vendor lock-in" in the case of
Microsoft ;-).  That is always a Good Thing(TM).

Not to tangent, but there is a greater, sound concept going on here.
Let us not forget that some consumers, especially those tied to the
"superstore model" of "upgrade now, you must" try Linux only to go
back
to Windows because of various issues, not due to Linux itself.  Because
of this, we should also recognize and promote Freedomware and, at a
minimum, Standardware, on Windows as well.  For when the user does
finally switch over to Linux, it will be far less painful because the
risk to their documents and their application requirements have now been
mitigated.

>  While for some that may not be Fedora, the point is to get enough
> people 
>  using Linux and let the people sort out which is their favorite. Without 
>  a doubt a certain percentage will find their way to Fedora. 
For any new user, I always say "their favorite" should be the distro
where they will receive the most support for what they are doing.

In a LUG or other community, I recommend finding someone who uses the
same applications to do the same things as they do, and run their
distro.  Not because it's the best distro, but because they will receive
the best support.

In the case of pre-installed Linux, whatever the vendor supports should
be their choice.

-- 
Bryan J. Smith         Professional, Technical Annoyance
mailto:[e-mail]   http://thebs413.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------------
        Fission Power:  An Inconvenient Solution

[Karlie Robinson]

Bryan J. Smith wrote:
>  we should also recognize and promote Freedomware and, at a
>  minimum, Standardware, on Windows as well.  For when the user does
>  finally switch over to Linux, it will be far less painful because the
>  risk to their documents and their application requirements have now been
>  mitigated.
>   
[snip]

>  For any new user, I always say "their favorite" should be
> the distro
>  where they will receive the most support for what they are doing. 
We're on the same page as you.  You may want to check out a couple of 
short articles we've written for our customer base at

"Replacement Windows" (our internal play on words)- 
http://on-disk.com/cms/index.php?wiki=Windows_Replacements

SOHO - http://on-disk.com/cms/index.php?wiki=SOHO

And yes, I'll admit that Fedora isn't in our Replacements guide because 
for our average customer, Fedora is a little more ooomph than they need 
for their first foray into Linux.

We've found that 'baby steps' are more helpful for first time users - 
especially if they are a very basic computer user.  It's simple 
Psychology where if the first attempts are easy, they are more likely to 
try other things.

As they take control over the basic functions, they gain confidence to 
try other things.  That's when the branch out and begin trying more 
distros.  That's the point they find Fedora.

The users that go directly to Fedora (at least the ones I talk with) for 
a first time out are those who are already advanced Windows users. 
They're looking to build their first server or wanting to explore Fedora 
to see if they'll have a shot at RH certifications for promotions at work.

Acer to release Ubuntu Linux laptops -- might want to include CinePaint ...

[Bryan Smith]

On Thu, 2007-08-02 at 11:26 -0400, Karlie Robinson wrote:
>  We're on the same page as you. 
I figured as such, just wanted to [re-]point it out.

>  You may want to check out a couple of 
>  short articles we've written for our customer base at
>  "Replacement Windows" (our internal play on words)- 
>  http://on-disk.com/cms/index.php?wiki=Windows_Replacements
>  SOHO - http://on-disk.com/cms/index.php?wiki=SOHO 
Also don't forget to mention CinePaint (fka FilmGIMP) along with The
GIMP.  It does 16-bit/channel color (whereas The GIMP only does 8-bit),
and it's what you want to use for most RAW image editing.  That can save
hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.

<Tangent=ON>
I'm a complete and absolute noob to photography.  But I've found the
included capabilities of CinePaint to be quite adequate.  It even has a
solid HDR plug-in.  CinePaint plus UFRaw (for importing/converting) my
12-bit color PEF (Pentax RAW) shots from my Pentax K100D (a $300+
uber-entry level dSLR) and $50-250 el'cheapo polycarbon lenses.  I'm not
even an amateur, I'm a novice, but CinePaint gets the job done well for
myself.

I'm going to try to take a nice bracket set of Pittsburgh the weekend
and use CinePaint to show off what you can do with an el'cheapo dSLR and
freedomware for under $500 in hardware.  I'll blog it when I have a
chance.
</Tangent>

-- 
Bryan J. Smith         Professional, Technical Annoyance
mailto:[e-mail]   http://thebs413.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------------
        Fission Power:  An Inconvenient Solution

[Tejas Dinkar]

I actually wrote this mail a while back, but sent it from the wrong
email address, and it got rejected.

On Thu, August 2, 2007 8:07 am, Rahul Sundaram said:
>  Unlikely. OEM's usually need a commercially supported product
> with less
>  moving parts and longer lifecycle which is why Dell ships RHEL, SLES and
>  Ubuntu (LTS) and not Fedora or even regular Ubuntu versions. Other
>  vendors resell these under various names too.  System76 for example. I
>  haven't checked what Acer is doing here but I also came across this 
I pity the fool who mentions acer around me.

Acer Laptops (at least the Travelmates in india) comes with a distro
called `Linpus` which is configured to be a piece of crap.

It has root only login, into text only terminal. And that too with no
password

is X installed? NO
do wifi, networking card work? NO
Does ACPI work? Ha Ha Ha ROTFLMFAO

As of Fedora 5, everything on the laptop works more or less (Battery
Support for the laptop works as of FC5)

I could never understand why they don't just ship laptops with some decent
working distro, instead of their ridiculous thing.

The answer came to me while i pulled this same rant in a LUG meet.
Someone speculated that they are just selling the laptop `without the 
windows tax on it`. They don't really expect people to use the laptop 
with linux on it. They expect people to pirate windows and install it.

It's just that they can advertise the laptop as `comes installed with
Linux` (machines with no OS installed are sometimes seen as pro-piracy)

I just can't help but wonder if this bit with Ubuntu is a similar play.
-- 
Tejas Dinkar
http://gja.in