DesktopLinux: Linux is about to take over the low end of PCs

The tipping point, as noted by the team over at DesktopLinux.com:

Opinion — Sometimes, several unrelated changes come to a head at the same time, with a result no one could have predicted. The PC market is at such a tipping point right now and the result will be millions of Linux-powered PCs in users’ hands.

The first change was the continued maturation of desktop Linux. Today, no one can argue with a straight face that people can’t get their work done on Linux-powered PCs. Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, OpenSUSE, Xandros, Linspire Mint, the list goes on and on of desktop Linuxes that PC owner can use without knowing a thing about Linux’s technical side. People can argue that Vista or Mac OS X is better, but when Michael Dell runs Ubuntu Linux on one of his own home systems, it can’t be said that Linux isn’t a real choice for anyone’s desktop.

What else do they have to say?

First Impressions: Real life with the Zonbu Laptop Review

I’ve had the Zonbu laptop for a few days now so I wanted to share my initial impressions and do a review.

I will be doing an additional piece when the Asus 3e laptop and entry level Acer arrive.

In the mean time, let’s take a look at the latest addition to the Zonbu line-up…

Is gOS VS. Zonbu just like Betamax Vs. VHS? gOS selling out at Walmart..

Over at The Inquirer they are reporting that the sub-$200 gOS Linux PC from Everex is selling out at Walmart stores nation wide (that is, if your nation is the USA).

They point to its reasonable specification, Ubuntu (nee Debian) base and its attractive Enlightenment based desktop as the reasons. And of course, that amazing price.

How did this happen? How did Everex/gOS get the slip on Zonbu, when gOS is an inferior (albeit promising) desktop experience for new users? Is this Betamax versus VHS all over again? I’m afraid that it may be.

I have a hunch how it happened and I’ll share it with you here…

Tom’s Hardware reviews the ASUS 3e PC

The team over at Tom’s Hardware (an excellent site for the geekier among you) have posted a brief review of the ASUS Eee laptop. A laptop, incidentally, that has been garnering rave reviews for it’s Debian (surprise!) based Linux desktop.

I suspect it would be equally, if not more, compelling with the Zonbu OS installed. At least for the mainstream users.  They liked the unit and said it held a lotof promise, but for its relatively small keyboard:

One big advantage of the is being able to connect standard peripherals. Either Linux or Windows XP is a far more capable operating system than any of the alternatives, but the limited storage means you can’t install as many applications as you might want. Performance isn’t the limitation you might expect, but the cramped keyboard may prove the real stumbling block.

You can read the full review here: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2007/11/19/a_linux_ultra_portable_laptop/

-Mr. Zonbu

What applications do home users really use?

I read an interesting post and comments over at Download Squad recently. It was entitled “What programs do you load after a fresh windows install?” and it outlines many great programs to improve your desktop experience. Most I had heard of, a few new gems I hadn’t.

Two things struck me. One, now that I use my Zonbu as my principle home desktop, I don’t load things. I don’t worry about things. They’re just there. I don’t re-install windows. In fact, I just bought a brand new fancy-pants quad core PC, almost exclusively for gaming. I haven’t hardly loaded a thing on it except Call of Duty 4 and Test Drive Unlimited. I do all my nuts-and-bolts stuff on the Zonbu.

And secondly, as you look down the list of apps that the authors and subsequent comments suggest, the vast majority are freeware and/or open source. In fact, most of them are available on Linux (with the exception of the spyware and anti-virus tools).

What that left me with was the distinct impression that the operating system itself is largely going away and applications are going cross platform…

Fluxbuntu – not a bad start, I like it

This distribution deserves more detail here, and it will get it in a later post, but so far Fluxbuntu is looking like a solid candidate for a base to build a Debian/Ubuntu derived distro for the Zonbu.

The installer, which is lifted from the server installer, is text based.  It’s attractive and relatively self explanatory for anyone who is fiddling with different distros on their box.

Some initial observations:

gOS is a problem for Zonbu, but not because gOS is good right now…

I only have time for a brief update, but I did spend an hour or so last night playing with the gOS that is shipping on the $189 Ever machines available at Walmart and other places.

It represents a major problem for Zonbu. And not because its good right now, it’s not ready for prime time. Virtually every edge of it is rough and I would say it is six to twelve months behind where the Zonbu OS stack is (although it does have a few “eye candy” things that make it look polished at first glance).

Because the low cost desktop Linux space is at a critical inflection point, if the gOS team (who have secured the holy grail of retail distribution with Walmart et al.) don’t execute well, they could give the entire market space a back eye.

While I can’t comment on the Everex hardware (other than to say I’d enjoy more processing power in the Zonbu, and the Everex is higher spec), the software just isn’t ready for “regular” end users. Especially not in the way the Zonbu OS is. This means that a lot of people could rapidly get turned off after spending a few hundred dollars to bring a PC in to their daily lives – leaving them with a negative impression that Linux isn’t ready for the desktop of that its too hard to use/too unstable/not intuitive etc. Not good…

Does anyone like the beeps during boot-up?

I’ve been meaning to mention this one for a while.  I hate the beeps (I think there are 3 or 4) that were introduced during the boot sequence around the time of the release of 6.907.

The screen is fairly descriptive/indicative of how the boot is going and you can always press CTRL-F1 (which maybe they should mention on the graphical display) to see the detailed console output.

I find the beeps irritate me and disturb the silent environment the Zonbu helped create in the first place.  Beeps are not very Zen.

What do you think, fellow Zonbu users?

-Mr. Zonbu

Test drive the Everex gOS

I have to admit I have more than a passing curiosity about the Everex gOS product.

I’ve been saying for months that Zonbu should do a LiveCD so people can see what the Zonbu OS is all about, and how nice it is before they buy. Sadly, no LiveCD yet. You can, however, try a LiveDVD of the gOS product which is also optimized to run on Via C7 based machines.

You can get all the details and the ISO download for gOS over at the Think gOS site: http://www.thinkgos.com/

I’m downloading it now, I’ll post my findings here this weekend. A few things I noticed already and like:

• Ubuntu (Debian) Based
• A dock/launcher a la MacOS
• If you want, you an unlock and install apps on your own

-Mr. Zonbu

Linspire review – running on a Koobox affordable PC

Desktoplinux.com is carrying an interesting review today of the Freespire 2.0 release of Linux.

The tester installed in on some low-end PC hardware from Koobox which is based on a mobile Pentium chip (lower power, lower heat) and also uses an Intel 915 graphics chip (if it used a newer chipset like the 945 it would mean things like Compiz should work on it and the video challenges Zonbu has been wrestling with won’t be present). In fact, the MiniKoobox looks like Zonbu’s big brother, with a built in DVD drive and a faster processor (but less memory): http://koobox.com/minikoobox.php

It’s a great review and it goes to show that there are many roads that will lead to the same place – affordable desktop linux running on low power devices…