It seems to me that Google, with its almost ridiculous surplus of CS PhDs and no legacy desktop OS baggage to drag around is almost perfectly suited to taking Linux and building a power user desktop OS on top of it. If they did, they could build the hardware, too, or at least spec it so that there would be a lot of hardware options that all "just worked" out of the box.
As Apple built a beautiful consumer OS on top of a *nix core, Google could build a power-user OS on top of Linux for the business / developer / smart, skilled people-with-work-to-do market that its PhDs ought to understand more than they understand consumers.
With their money, they could come up with the next gen business platform and build into it the web services orientation they live for and make the hardware / OS / drivers combo to rival Apple, but for influencers instead of the consumers. (They have enough money to buy nvidia if they can't get Linux drivers.)
Who else is better positioned to produce the next gen power-user platform as Windows fades and Apple makes it clear they are a consumer electronics company?
They should first build an IDE for Android rather than keep piggybacking forever on Eclipse which is not very lightweight or suitable for a specific purpose, let's say.
> Canonical added the idea of connecting the laptop to the cloud, so that users could develop on LXC containers, replicate the environment on the actual client, and then jettison it to the cloud via the JuJu service deployment and orchestration framework.
This is a very nice idea (although with mobile share plans, we may see 4G support gain popularity in laptops, making this less of a factor). However, I feel that the hardware was neglected to the point that software gimmicks can't make up for it.
I wrote about my experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon on HN a week back[0], and the hardware simply blows the XPS 13 out of the water. The fact that installing Xubuntu (which is much more pleasant for devs and power users than Ubuntu) on an X1 Carbon is laughably easy doesn't help Dell's case.
- it must be cheap, $300 is fine, because a Laptop can easily be stolen, or damaged.
- it must be light, less than 2lbs, because I don't own a car, and still want to carry my laptop around
- it must boot Linux from network to boot into backup cycle.
- the hardware must be 100% supported by free drivers.
- it should not bundle a Microsoft tax.
I don't care much about the preinstalled OS. I'll replace it anyway. I see no sense in bundling a spyware Ubuntu, and even less in some cloud service crapware on a developers laptop. I don't know if other developers think similar, but I fear that the hyped Sputnik will just give Dell the excuse to abandon Linux laptops again, because of low sales.
The class of $300, 2lbs Linux laptops created fear for Intel and Microsoft instead. Thats why they are no longer sold.
> The class of $300, 2lbs Linux laptops created fear for Intel and Microsoft instead. Thats why they are no longer sold.
No, the reason they generally aren't sold is because consumers don't want them -- most consumers would rather have a tablet, as evidenced by sales. It's not some massive conspiracy, it's just that your needs are not the needs of most consumers.
If by "custom" you mean rebranded consumer hardware coming with some Linux distribution I'm never going to use preinstalled, the answer is likely to be "no."
Clarification added later that I never anticipated to be needed: my point here is that there are more significant departures from mainstream needed to call something a "custom Linux laptop for developers": most likely, significant hardware changes.
I'm suffering through the usual problems of setting up a new linux transportable laptop right now. It is an ASUS R900V, and Ubuntu 12.04 currently has problems with wifi, graphics, and sound! I would love to be able to buy a transportable (large screen 1920x1080, 8GB, fast cpu) for a reasonabl price in Europe, and that is well supported by Ubuntu.
[+] [-] SiVal|13 years ago|reply
As Apple built a beautiful consumer OS on top of a *nix core, Google could build a power-user OS on top of Linux for the business / developer / smart, skilled people-with-work-to-do market that its PhDs ought to understand more than they understand consumers.
With their money, they could come up with the next gen business platform and build into it the web services orientation they live for and make the hardware / OS / drivers combo to rival Apple, but for influencers instead of the consumers. (They have enough money to buy nvidia if they can't get Linux drivers.)
Who else is better positioned to produce the next gen power-user platform as Windows fades and Apple makes it clear they are a consumer electronics company?
[+] [-] gvb|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkuntz2|13 years ago|reply
Well, not exclusively, if I recall correctly, they get to choose Goobuntu, Windows, or OS X.
[+] [-] zmjones|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fakeer|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jiggy2011|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vhf|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] w1ntermute|13 years ago|reply
This is a very nice idea (although with mobile share plans, we may see 4G support gain popularity in laptops, making this less of a factor). However, I feel that the hardware was neglected to the point that software gimmicks can't make up for it.
I wrote about my experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon on HN a week back[0], and the hardware simply blows the XPS 13 out of the water. The fact that installing Xubuntu (which is much more pleasant for devs and power users than Ubuntu) on an X1 Carbon is laughably easy doesn't help Dell's case.
0: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4848375
[+] [-] kephra|13 years ago|reply
my requirements for a Laptop are:
- it must be cheap, $300 is fine, because a Laptop can easily be stolen, or damaged.
- it must be light, less than 2lbs, because I don't own a car, and still want to carry my laptop around
- it must boot Linux from network to boot into backup cycle.
- the hardware must be 100% supported by free drivers.
- it should not bundle a Microsoft tax.
I don't care much about the preinstalled OS. I'll replace it anyway. I see no sense in bundling a spyware Ubuntu, and even less in some cloud service crapware on a developers laptop. I don't know if other developers think similar, but I fear that the hyped Sputnik will just give Dell the excuse to abandon Linux laptops again, because of low sales.
The class of $300, 2lbs Linux laptops created fear for Intel and Microsoft instead. Thats why they are no longer sold.
[+] [-] hdevalence|13 years ago|reply
No, the reason they generally aren't sold is because consumers don't want them -- most consumers would rather have a tablet, as evidenced by sales. It's not some massive conspiracy, it's just that your needs are not the needs of most consumers.
[+] [-] jdboyd|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] illicium|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acc01|13 years ago|reply
Clarification added later that I never anticipated to be needed: my point here is that there are more significant departures from mainstream needed to call something a "custom Linux laptop for developers": most likely, significant hardware changes.
[+] [-] VonGuard|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fharper1961|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chank|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AYBABTME|13 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] ErikAugust|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gauravvijay|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Karl_Rove|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tubbo|13 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] pootch|13 years ago|reply
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