Ubiquitous Linux, or, how to become a household commodity

By David M Williams
Sunday, 01 June 2008 07:00

Opinion and Analysis

Whether it was to your taste or not, there’s no denying the ASUS Eee Linux subnotebook was a massive sales success. Demand far exceeded initial production so it’s not surprising competitor models are on their way. And here’s why the hardware manufacturers are going to bring Linux to the masses far in advance of any amount of Ubuntu fanboyism.
I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of the ASUS Eee, or seen it in catalogues. It was a surprise hit of 2007 and in many respects was like bringing the One Laptop Per Child project to the developed nations (with reliable power sockets.)

While the stated target market was mostly young people and students, it was snapped up by adults for their own use who saw the value in its portability and applications. Mind you, after even just a small amount of use it becomes fairly apparent why the youth label is bandied about – the keyboard is far too small for regular, sustained, daily use by anyone with fat fingers or long fingernails – which pretty much covers a lot of men and a lot of women.

Nevertheless, the massive market popularity can’t be denied. This has been clearly observed by ASUS who have proclaimed a range of future Eee models to come and most recently by Elonex in the United Kingdom. This company has announced their imminent release of the Elonex ONE, a subnotebook that they claim is the first laptop available in the UK priced below 100 pounds – which converts to less than $USD 197.92 and less than $AUD 207.23, according to the XE universal currency converter at the time of writing. I couldn’t find an expected release date but Elonex are saying that pre-orders will be available for shipping soon.

Elonex are clearly sticking closely with the ASUS formula; the ONE offers wireless Internet, plus applications that provide e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and MP3 playing. Just like the Eee, the Elonex achieves cost savings by bundling freely redistributable open source software including, of course, the Linux operating system (specifically, Linos 2.6.21) . This means all the costs ordinarily spent on software licensing come straight off. And just like the Eee, the end user is insulated from any Linux complexity by a user-friendly tabbed interface with bold icons that serve as a launchpad. Like the Eee it also comes with a tiny 7” screen surrounded by fat bezels that could be removed to give more screen space without impacting the size of the device. Unlike the Eee, however, the native resolution is a more regular (though narrower) 640x480 instead of the bizarre 800x400 ASUS offer.

Like the Eee, the ONE specifically targets the education market. In fact, the marketing here is as much a part of the overall ONE concept as the technology itself. Elonex aren’t merely saying “here’s a low price, but functional, computer.” They are saying, “Every child should have a laptop. And here’s how you can afford it.” It’s an important distinction and they have a multi-pronged attack to drive it home.

CONTINUED