HP: In a Race to be the King of the Linux Desktop etc. at Robert Pogson

HP: In a Race to be the King of the Linux Desktop etc.

Published by Robert Pogson March 16th, 2011 in technology. 4 Comments

HP has been a part of my life for ages. In the 1970s I used their high-voltage power-supplies. I bought their first ink-jet printer. I have used their printers in every school from the 1990s until this year. I have used many Compaq PCs at work.

Now, HP is becoming a part of my career as Linux advocate. They intend to push WebOS/Linux everywhere:

HP plans to ship 100 million WebOS connected devices per year. That sounds a lot like what I have been telling Dell to do for years, have a unified approach and push.

Since HP is the top PC unit seller according to IDC, this target amounts to a major share growth for Linux. HP ships about 18 million PCs per quarter, 72 million per year. This will make them also the largest unit shipper of Linux desktops.

- Robert Pogson

4 Responses to “HP: In a Race to be the King of the Linux Desktop etc.”

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1 nightgoblin Mar 16th, 2011 at 3:14 pm

Think of WebOS on desktops more as a fast boot environment like Splashtop rather than full-blown OS.
2 Robert Pogson Mar 16th, 2011 at 3:24 pm

It is a full-blown OS and it is likely all that most people will need. It is an extreme example of Linux booting next to that other OS. Linux wins. What will happen when people realize they don’t need that other OS? Na Na Na, Hey! Hey! Goodbye!

There are a lot of good technical reasons WebOS makes sense, besides speed of booting. Integration with smart-thingies is perfect if everyone runs the same OS. HP will catch a wave with this one. It remains to be seen whether they will be open about protocols so that other suppliers can participate. I think HP will see the advantage in that. It squeezes out M$ or at least cuts them down to size and makes developers more comfortable. Whatever happens, M$ will have little they can do to stop the wave for a year or two by which time everyone will be partying on the beach.
3 oe Mar 16th, 2011 at 3:37 pm

UNR on a cheapo ASUS netbook is running Matlab 2010 with aplomb, OpenOffice, Octave, and Gnumeric, too. The same netbook bogged down with default XP and MSOffice 2010 on it (it was the default software install – now paved over). Its been more of a full blown OS than Windows or Leopard (I haven’t put HackOS/X on it but apparently ASUS eee’s take to it well based on the blog boards….)
4 Robert Pogson Mar 16th, 2011 at 3:46 pm

I have several Atomic boxes in my home (my son…). I also installed one as a new PC for a teacher who got his own office and the boss wanted him to have a new PC. That one was an eeeBox. The Intel Atom is a very nice chip. It has enough computing power for just about anything ordinary users do. The only short-coming I have with one system is some jerky video but that’s on Ubuntu and it’s bloated. Atom can even run some 64bit software which is surprising in a system intended to be small and cheap. Intel has a different view of small and cheap…

When you get to web-applications and terminal servers, an Atom is a very decent chip althouth ARM and Via make somewhat more suitable stuff. There are hard drives that use more power than that CPU.

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My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.