Interview: Tim Pearson, CEO at RM plc on interoperability and software patents
,----[ Quote ]
| John Spencer talks to Tim Pearson Chief Executive of RM. RM is the largest
| most successful supplier of ICT to the UK education market and, for good
| measure, is British too. Tim has been there from the start and so is really
| now Mr RM. This autumn he gave the school ICT world a jolt when RM announced
| its Asus miniBook. It retails to schools for only £169 and runs Open Source
| software throughout. The miniBook has preceded an avalanche of new products
| and new thinking.
|
| [...]
|
| More seriously, it's been hard to forecast when we have no real experience
| selling at this price point before, neither have we ever sold a machine with
| a Linux-based client OS before.
`----
http://www.siriusit.co.uk/myblog/is-becta-loosening-microsofts-grip-on-uk-schools.html
Also on the Linux laptops:
WannabEees: Eee PC vs Elonex One vs OLPC vs EasyNote XS vs MSI Wind and more
,----[ Quote ]
| Bored with making MacBooks for Steve Jobs, one day Asus decided to create its
| own stylish laptop and flog it on the cheap. The result was the Eee PC -- a
| Linux-based ultraportable notebook that wowed consumers, shocked rival
| manufacturers and is slowly but surely revolutionising an industry.
|
| But Asus is no longer alone. Since the Eee's launch, many of its rivals have
| begun to create similar alternatives -- each designed to pilfer a piece of
| the budget ultraportable pie. Some are trying to beat the Eee on price, some
| on specs, but they're all tiny and they're all camped out in the bargain
| basement. They're all real products, and a few are already available, so
| we've included links to our full reviews for those.
`----
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49295979,00.htm
What’s This “Linux” Thing and Why Should I Try It?
,----[ Quote ]
| Lately, Linux has been receiving quite a bit of notice. Between the ASUS
| EeePC, the One Laptop Per Child project, Dell’s new Ubuntu line, Intel’s
| Classmate PC, and Everex’s Green PC, Linux has been getting a lot of
| attention from computer manufacturers. It seems every new computer in the
| last year has had Linux, but to most people that doesn’t mean anything. It
| probably leaves you wondering, “what’s this Linux thing everyone’s talking
| about?”
`----
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/whats-this-linux-thing-and-why-should-i-try-it/
Related:
Norhtec to Release Yet Another Sub-$300 Linux UMPC
,----[ Quote ]
| According to Barnes, the Gecko laptop will be announced soon, and will hit
| the market at a sub-$300 price tag, in order to compete with the other
| 7-inchers of its kin.
`----
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Norhtec-to-Release-Yet-Another-Sub-300-Linux-UMPC-80456.shtml
The £99 laptop: how can it be so cheap?
,----[ Quote ]
| A new laptop computer for just £99 sounds like the kind of offer found in a
| spam e-mail or on a dodgy auction website. But the British company Elonex is
| launching the country’s first sub £100 computer later this month and hopes to
| be making 200,000 of them by the summer. It will be aimed at schoolchildren
| and teenagers, and looks set to throw the market for budget laptops wide
| open.
|
| Called the One, it can be used as a traditional notebook computer or, with
| the screen detached from the keyboard, as a portable “tablet” – albeit
| without the planned touchscreen that Elonex had to abandon to hit its £99
| price tag. Wi-fi technology lets users access the internet or swap music (and
| homework) files between computers wirelessly.
|
| [...]
|
| The secret is simple: open-source software. The One runs on Linux, which is a
| rival to Windows but completely free to use. Open-source software can be
| freely swapped or modified by anyone who wants it. In the past such operating
| systems (there are several of them) have been outgunned by the more
| sophisticated Windows programs. However, an open-source operating system is
| ideal for low-cost devices as it performs well on less powerful, cheaper
| hardware.
`----
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article3374812.ece
Low-cost laptops make PC makers mull margins
,----[ Quote ]
| “Computers have been an exception. If you look at consumer electronics, a DVD
| player was about $800 10 years ago – now they sell for $20,” she says. “The
| [computer] industry has been able to keep the price flat by focusing on
| gazillion-gigahertz machines running really bloated software and that’s
| worked for years since the IBM PC revolution.”
|
| [...]
|
| OLPC found a strong uptake for a “give one, get one” campaign it launched in
| North America in November. It discovered consumers were willing to pay $400
| for an XO – the price meant another XO would be given free to a
| developing-world child. It is now launching OLPC America to extend the cheap
| laptop concept for children in the US.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cfba14f4-cf64-11dc-854a-0000779fd2ac.html
How will Linux win the OS wars? From the bottom up!
,----[ Quote ]
| So therefore, best way to win the war of the operating systems is not to go
| after the high end market.
`----
http://www.raiden.net/?cat=2&aid=352
Linux Has Won, Windows is Gone
,----[ Quote ]
| Sorry Windows you have already lost this battle. There is no way to reverse
| this and no amount of incentives that Microsoft can offer to convince people
| and governments that they will be safe if they switch back to Windows. Lets
| be honest here for a moment. Would your trust America's nuclear technologies
| to be run on Windows? What happens when it bluescreens, yeah you get my point
| don't you?
`----
http://linuxhow2.com/News/Linux_Has_Won_Windows_is_Gone.html
|
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