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The Linux distillery The new wave of Linux Lite lean, mean and green
The Linux distillery The new wave of Linux Lite lean, mean and green | The new wave of Linux Lite lean, mean and green |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Thursday, 26 June 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 3 The decision whether to convert operating systems can almost be seen as a religious proselytising process. The target has to be persuaded that such things matter, that there is a different worldview than that which they had previously adhered to, that a conscious decision must be made to change, and that they must operate in a different manner going forward. Maybe it’s no small wonder the most common Linux command line shell is the “Bourne Again SHell” (or BASH.) Yet, times are a-changing, just as Bob Dylan proclaimed. Linux-based PCs began to get notice last year due to some interesting pricing decisions. Now, Dell has been bundling Ubuntu with a line of its desktop PCs and specialised local computer stores have been providing their own custom-built systems with variants of Linux for some time. Yet, these were all, for the most part, conventional desktop systems with conventional pricing. In some cases there was no variation in pricing despite saving on “the Windows tax” – the cost of a Microsoft Windows license. And worse, in other cases the Linux option was more expensive, perhaps because the supplier received systems with Windows pre-installed and were charging for the time they expended loading Linux instead. Last year, however, we saw two machines come to light which received attention due largely to their sales tag. The first was the Everex gPC which sold on the stores of the expansive, and highly accessible, Walmart chain. The gPC was cheap, really cheap. It was hardly high powered but it was cheap! This has to be understood; it was at a pricepoint that turned it into a commodity item which could be easily justified by most punters, whether on the spur of the moment or as a second (or third!) computer, for students, or whatever reason they need to give themselves. Then came the ASUS Eee Linux PC. CONTINUED |
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