Distrowatch has an interesting editorial, discussing Lenovo offering Linux on laptops and what the (Lenovo) blog based web-survey on the topic has uncovered.
You will recall that I think Zonbu is squandering the Linux momentum Ubuntu has generated (and spent a lot of money to generate) in favor of using Gentoo. I think this is a sub-optimal business decision and I discussed it in this previous post.
While I disagree with the editorial conclusion that consistent support for one major Linux distro is not necessarily a good thing (of course it is, it will lead to higher quality and a more consistent experience for all Linux users), they do make some good points about the positioning and marketing of various distributions…
My favorite quote is:
Attached to the blog entry is a poll asking readers what Linux distribution they would most like to see supported on a ThinkPad? The choices offered are comprehensive (and extensible), ranging from many user-friendly Linux distributions, including PCLinuxOS and Linux Mint to the more difficult ones, represented by Slackware and Gentoo, and even some non-Linux operating systems, such as FreeBSD or OpenSolaris. The results of the poll are rather predictable; those of you who don’t like Ubuntu will be shocked to learn that, at the time of writing, just over half of the 17,000+ voters have chosen Canonical’s flagship product, while Debian GNU/Linux (11.2%) and Fedora (5.3%) are distant second and third.
You can read the whole editorial here: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20070910#feature
-Mr. Zonbu
Real life with the Zonbu Mini-PC 