Cheap Solid State Computers Could Kill Microsoft

Eh-Wire writes "This is an interesting point made by a Clayton Hallmark on IndyMedia out of Argentina. He predicts that cheap Asian computing appliances with an Open Source Operating System on a chip will be the ultimate MS killer. References to the US$220 Mobilis out of India suggest the begining of newer, more powerful, and cheaper things to come. Mr. Hallmark also points to the success of the Wal-Mart cheap PC as proof the end is near for proprietory software. Overall an in interesting and thought provoking read."

Kill MS?

[nother_nix_hacker]

Wouldn't cheap solid state computers be a little blunt and heavy? Surely an axe would do the job better? No software needed either.

Ahem...

[Ziviyr]

Since you are reading this on a computer, you are a slave to MS and you should care. /sarcasm/ Yes, I care deeply.

(switches screens on Linux system)

solid state?

[dunkelfalke]

you mean like... no tubes anymore?

Endless Opportunities

[jamesl]

The opportunities are endless. They could put it into a waterproof box and let it run the fuel injection system in a low cost automobile -- made in India, of course. And with a little screen, they could combine it with a GPS receiver to make a "portable map" for fishermen and hikers. And maybe it could include a calendar and address book (all open source) and call it a "personal digital assistant". And games -- good gosh, the games it could play. Does Nintendo know about this?

Re:Not that likely...

[Anonymous Coward]

As a Canadian I can tell you that the British Empire is alive and well unfortunately. I've already had to swear two oaths to the Queen in my lifetime. (One when I took a government job and one when joining the Artillery.)

And Canadian policy is dictated from London. Hence Canada's enthusiastic support for the invasion of Iraq.

Re:Ahem...

[Fred_A]

Whenever I meet such single minded people, I just assume that PC==Linux and go on from there.

So any office document will be in one of OOo's format, any tool will be based on the expected contents of /usr/bin, and so on.

When they finally notice that something is wrong, some get enlightened (others additionnally require some vigourous whacking).

Re:Not that likely...

[Hognoxious]

I recommend they buy Intel (or AMD) and Seagate, then almost give the CPUs/disks away

I recommend you send your MBA back and ask for a refund.

woohoo .. thats 30.000 laptops for *me*

[dk.r*nger]

Famous computer visionary Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab is developing and promoting a $100 laptop with proposed specifications including a 500-MHz processor, 1 GB of memory, an XVGA display, and free Linux. He envisions 200,000,000 million of them being distributed to countries like China in two years.

That's 200.000 billion. With about 1 billion people currently living in China, that's 200.000 laptops each. Allowing for you know, like, supply and demand to kick in, that will level out to about 30.000 laptops to each of 6 billion people on earth.

Now, I can't decide: should the joke be about the inherent need of IPv6 or (ooh) a beowolf cluster of these? Sweeeet ..

And who will shell out the $20 million billion these things will cost?

Ah, the joy of an extra factor 10^6 here and there ...

Re:Not that likely...

[budgenator]

A freind of mine was crossing into Canada, and had forgotten about a porn tape in the car, of course Canadian Customs found it and the agent said "Well we'll just have to confiscate this for the Queen". My friend couldn't resist telling the Canadian "I don't think she'll be amused".