Linux Desktop to Appear On Every Asus Motherboard 471
An anonymous reader writes "We first heard about Splashtop back in October, when the instant-on Linux desktop was announced. At the time it was a really exciting concept but Asus only rolled out the technology on high-end motherboards. Splashtop just announced that Asus will be expanding the desktop to the P5Q motherboard family and later on to all Asus motherboards. That's embedded Linux shipping over a million motherboards a month! The release also mentioned that the technology will be appearing on notebooks this year as well."
Is it really that exciting? (Score:5, Insightful)
But, in terms of Linux adoption, it's only exciting if people keep linux once they've finished building the computer, and the precedents here are hardly promising.
And, even if you like Linux (which I do), would you want to keep the version supplied with your m/b? On my first EeePC, I tried to get to like Xandros, I really did, but in the end I wiped it and installed Kubuntu. My Dark Side Brother played with Xandros until he broke it, and then installed XP. And it's going to happen even more with the EeePC 900, since the Linux version has a larger SSD than the Windows version (at least in the UK), so you buy the Linux version in order to install Windows.
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Insightful)
Still don't see the point of burning it into ROM (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ok this is good... Now I have a couple of quest (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ok this is good... Now I have a couple of quest (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft will remain a player, but they are being marginalized more, day by day. A few years ago, ASUS wouldn't have dared done anything like Splashtop.
Go ahead, fanoys, mod me down because you know I'm right.
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:4, Insightful)
Many people have their user-agent say they're using IE on Windows even if they're using Linux, bacsue dimwits still code their pages to not display if you're not using IE ("please upgrade to a modern browser? It's Opera's latest!") So web site metrics can't be reliable either.
IINM it was Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) who said "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and ststistics."
VERY useful ! (Score:3, Insightful)
no need. go bios, go linux, fix your hd, and install your os. or even, recover it.
i liked that.
Re:Still don't see the point of burning it into RO (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Still don't see the point of burning it into RO (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Still don't see the point of burning it into RO (Score:3, Insightful)
Also (Score:5, Insightful)
ASUS has great overclocking options in their BIOS too...until OEM's get a hold of them and put their customer BIOS in place that leaves out all the good stuff. This will be the same.
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I get fed up.
Then I promptly switch back to whatever OS I feel like installing.
Then I get fed up again.
And I think 'Oh, someone on slashdot said that this is the time to switch to linux! I should try it AGAIN!'...
then I switch to linux.
Until I get fed up...
Re:Year of the Linux of Desktop (Score:3, Insightful)
The Linux kernel manages computer resources (CPU, memory, devices) on behalf of applications. It pretty much stops after loading initrd and executing
Yes, it is possible to implement an entire application at this level (I've built installers that only use this), and I suspect that the Asus effort will be implemented at this level.
But double click installing of applications? Not the kernels responsibility.
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe instead they are informed of what software they wish to use, what OS it operates well with, and thus make a VERY INFORMED decision to not use an OS that would require substantial work to use with their software of choice.
Just because someone doesn't use Linux, doesn't mean they are stupid.
And with this type of prevelant attitude among Linux user's, you can bet that they will remain a very small minority.
The true competition to Windows isn't linux, not on the desktop. It's Apple, and will be becuase Linux lacks quite a few things that everyday people require.
Re:Year of the Linux of Desktop (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's one thing to have your OS die and you've got to reboot. It's another if your motherboard dies and you've got to buy another.
Re:Year of the Linux of Desktop (Score:5, Insightful)
Bad example since they all do include Apache, but I get your point. Ok, here is how it works. Lets take Fedora since I was talking about RPM based systems and I don't know nearly as much about Debian based ones.
Fedora is based in the USA and sponsored by Red Hat, Inc. so they can't include certain radioactive bits that almost everyone wants, like mp3 support. So you just hop over to rpm.livna.org and click on the link for your version of Fedora. It serves you up an RPM package for their repository and the browser does the right thing. Up pops a dialog box asking if you want to install the package and if you say yes it prompts for the root (administrator for you Windows folk following along) password. Once that one small package is installed all of the software maintained by Livna (safely outside the USA) is a part of your system.
But nothing much has actually happened yet. Next you launch the same package manager you use to add/remove OS components and you find that a lot of new things have appeared. And when Livna updates a package it appears in the list of packages that need to be updated right along with the ones Fedora updates.
Contrast with the Windows/Mac world. Each 3rd party application, game, utility, etc. has to have it's own mechanism to find out if it has been updated, code to bug you to update, etc.
The best comparison would be to imagine a world where Microsoft made Windows Update an open platform that everyone could use. So that one unlucky morning you booted up and the Windows Update gadget in the toolbar announced you had a critical update to IE, a couple of random Windows bug fixes, bug fixs from Adobe for Photoshop and Flash Player and a new version of your fav utility that displays your hard drive temp was available. Grr. there goes an hour and a couple of reboots.
And it all 'Just Worked.' You don't have an OS and a motley collection of 3rd party apps, you have a seamless System.
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not to mention Minwin, if Microsoft really does pull off a minimalist, modular version of windows, then it's just begging to be stuck on a ROM on a motherboard.
Plus, what better way to lock down a system than to have the OS as part of the hardware itself?
Re:Still don't see the point of burning it into RO (Score:5, Insightful)
Currently if I go to my banking site, I have no idea whether my system is currently owned, and some keystroke logger is busy sending off my bank passcode to somebody who is going to empty my account.
With a RO OS, I can reboot, and I'm much more likely to be able to complete the transaction without it being subverted.
Re:Still don't see the point of burning it into RO (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:4, Insightful)
preamble:
Very well said. I like to think of myself as well informed, but you can't pay me enough money to run Linux on a games machine I share with my teenage son. It's just too much damn work for a lower framerate.
In fact I would argue that the reason that my game machine is Vista on a quad-core is because I'm very well informed.
However, I could do all my work on a linux box but since I get 100% IT support with no arguments if I keep using whatever came with my corporate laptop why bother since it only makes my life harder and saves no money until the entire organization gives up on Windows?
Re:Year of the Linux of Desktop (Score:3, Insightful)
for example, i just had to add a mime type into IIS. it took about a minute, because i had to remote login through RDP. waiting for that to connect, then waiting for a usable desktop, then clicking through the drill downs, then switching to the right tab, then clicking some buttons took about 99% of that time.
if there was a text config file i could easily open it in notepad from my own desktop (because i would have it's drive mapped), ctrl-f for "mime" or something, and that would be it.
speed is actually one of the biggest advantages of command lines and text config files, once you're familiar with them. with a GUI, there's an absolute minimum amount of time a change will take. with command lines and config files, it's almost entirely dependent on how fast you can type.
Re:Year of the Linux of Desktop (Score:4, Insightful)
apt-cache search marks great app
Before you complain about not knowing the magic incantations, remember you're the one who raised the command line. It's easier to search for packages in the GUI tools that all modern distributions provide.
If a piece of software is overlooked by a distribution and the author wants to package it themselves, they can. They can provide a package and it will be just as easy to install as any other package on the targeted distribution. If they provide a repository, then it will be automatically kept up to date along with the rest of the system.
The reality is that package management on modern Linux distributions is far superior to Windows and Mac OS.
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Out of curiosity... (Score:5, Insightful)
Huh? Asus reported 350k the last quarter of 2007, and 700k for first quarter 2008. They project 1.2 million for second quarter. However, a majority of that will be the models that come with Windows.
Not even close. Apple sold 1.4 million laptops first quarter. Asus's 700k plus the rest of the Linux laptop vendors don't come anywhere near that.
Re:Can you roll your own Splashtop? (Score:3, Insightful)