HP to bring the Penguin to Asia
Given a recent spate of problems with my antiquated computers (both of which are well beyond retirement age, in computer years), I’ve been thinking about getting a new computer sometime soon. The real question was whether to break down and do so in June or wait until my holiday bonus in December.
As fate would have it, this morning my boss showed me his copy of The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which featured an article about HP’s plans to sell Linux-based PCs starting in June. Well, that certainly makes the decision a whole lot easier!
Wired is running the following:
Asian penguin: HP plans to become the first company to trumpet personal computers that run the Linux operating system in Asia, HP’s Japanese unit said.
Other details, such as when the sales will begin, haven’t been set yet.
The HP computers will use an operating system made by Tokyo’s Turbolinux, and will include the company’s OpenOffice.org 1.1 suite of software.
Turbolinux 10D is a nice distribution, so I’m sure it would appeal to Japanese who are looking for an alternative to Windows. (Coincidentally, it also shares its name with another 10D I’ve got my eye on.)
I’m already sold on the idea. The only thing left to do is persuade the wife that it’s time to buy a new computer…which may be harder than getting all of Asia to buy Linux-driven PCs from HP. I’ll try every bit as hard to achieve the former as HP will the latter. With any luck, we’ll both be successful.
Update
Nevermind. This blip from Yahoo News just came in:
Although the deal doesn’t target consumers who buy home PCs, the announcement by the world’s largest computer maker could greatly boost Linux on desktops and laptops.
In that case, I might as well wait until December after all.
Does this mean you don’t want that machine anymore?
I’d never turn away such a generous offer, UB! If you are still willing to part with it, I will gladly take it off your hands.
Eventually, though, I will buy some new hardware. If I can do so without contributing to Microsoft’s monstrous mountain of moola, so much the better.
If you’re looking for out-of-the-box Linux, your best choice is probably Knoppix. In itself, it is a Debian-based “Live CD,” ie a complete distro packed with applications that all run off your CD drive without ever writing to your hard drive unless you want it to. It features very good hardware auto-detection and now comes with an easy-to-use installer script that lets you set it up on your hard drive, either as a straight install or as a dual boot with some other OS such as, um, a version of Windows that may already be installed on a box. Once you install it on your hard drive, it basically becomes Debian, a distro with much better community support than TurboLinux.
Apart from the regular edition:
http://www.knoppix.org
there’s also a Japanese edition:
http://unit.aist.go.jp/it/knoppix
Thanks for the information, Rudolf, but I am already quite familiar with Knoppix. I use it all the time to show my coworkers (most of whom have never seen Linux before) what a real operating system is like.
My enthusiasm for this particular bit of news stems from my desire to see PCs with Linux pre-installed go on sale here, not simply the desire to use Linux (which I do every day). My enthusiams for Turbolinux stems from the fact that it comes bundled with ATOK X, which my wife (a non-techie) would no doubt find a lot easier to use than Canna/kinput2, etc. By taking this route, HP is making it easier for even non-geeks to embrace Linux.
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