Yesterday, Tom’s Hardware posted a review of the KPC, a $200 PC that runs Foresight Linux. ($99 refers to the barebones version, which means the version with not all the parts installed.) The interesting thing about the review was the amount of time they spent on the operating system, and the conclusions they reached (spoiler: mostly positive.)

Most reviews of inexpensive Linux PCs tend to view Linux as not as good as Windows without really appearing to have investigated Linux for more than a few minutes. You would not expect Tom’s Hardware to be much different, since their main audience is Windows gamers, so I would expect them to be biased towards Windows, if anything. Surprisingly, however, they spent three pages of their review discussing the operating system. There were some weird parts of the review, such as complaining about Firefox’s compatibility with some web pages but not about Open Office being incompatible with some Office files, but overall the review seemed very reasonable and concluded that Foresight Linux was quite good.

It is not fair to judge based on only one review, but it seems like this review might be a lesson to other reviewers. Don’t assume Linux is not as good as Windows, try it out and investigate for yourself before coming to any conclusion.

Computer hardware is constantly getting  better. Intel and AMD are constantly trying to have the better, faster, cheaper chips. Graphics cards achieve higher benchmarks and lower price points every month. 2GB, or even 4GB, of RAM is becoming commonplace. Everything is getting faster and costing less at the same time and this will probably remain true forever. Microsoft and most Linux distributions view these same hardware improvements differently, though.

When Vista came out, one of the big complaints about it was that is was so resource demanding. Although perhaps not quite as extreme as with Vista, it seems quite reasonable to expect that with each new release of Windows, you will need a slightly, or perhaps not so slightly, better, faster computer than before.

This is not at all true of Linux. Phoronix recently published benchmarks comparing Ubuntu 7.10 (the current version) to Ubuntu 8.04 Beta (the beta of the version that will be out very soon.) What did they find? Ubuntu 8.04 is only very slightly slower than Ubuntu 7.10. Even more impressive, when the did comparisons with even earlier versions, 7.10 had actually improved on former versions.

What all this means is that Windows is becoming more and more resource reliant while Linux essentially maintains its requirements. Microsoft is already seeing the effects of their sloppiness in bad reviews of Vista and having to extend XP’s life, but unless they change soon, they will see it even more, and pay for it too.

In the future, it seems likely that a computer with Windows will cost far more than a computer with Linux, not because of the price of the operating system (since hardware manufacturers are constantly pretending Windows is free, when in reality it is not) but because the hardware required to run Windows is so much more expensive than the hardware required to run Linux.

Returning to the present, Linux is already well on its way to removing all the road blocks to switching. Even when there are no road blocks left, though, Linux will still not win mainstream adoption, until it gets a simple reason to use it: it’s cheaper.

Of course, Linux is cheaper right now. It’s free, while Windows costs hundreds of dollars. Well, as you probably know, most places like Dell get it for much less than that. I don’t think anyone knows for sure (and it almost undoubtedly varies for deal to deal), but a safe guess would be that places like Dell get Windows for around $40 (just a guess). In addition, we repeatedly see cases of an identical Windows and Linux machine costing exactly the same price. It is not fair to give Windows an advantage like that, but it seems to be the reality. No longer will it even matter, though, when a Linux machine costs so much less than a Windows machine, just because of the hardware.

Just by continuing to use minimal resources, Linux is constantly becoming a more and more attractive option, and eventually this may be the single most important factor in winning Linux’s mainstream adoption.

HP has announced the rumored HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, a UMPC that runs SuSe Linux or Windows Vista, according to Reg Hardware and HP’s press release. Not much new has been discovered, since almost all the specifications were leaked. For anyone who did not see the leaked specifications, the basic specs of the HP 2133 are 7/9in screen, VIA C7-M processor, 5GB solid state or a hard drive, up to 2GB of RAM, weighs just over 2.5 pounds, and costs around $500.

The most interesting thing about the HP 2133, however, is not the specifications, but how HP decided to target it. Because of the slightly more premium specifications, more professional look, and slightly higher price, I would have expected it to be targeted at a higher end market than the Eee PC. HP is going to sell it to business people (and presumably individuals), but they are also targeting education.

This seems odd to me, since the Eee PC seems so much better suited to the task. HP notes that the 2133 “is smaller and lighter than many math or science books,” but the Eee PC is even lighter. In addition, the Eee PC is also less expensive by at least $100, which makes a big difference when you are buying 1,000 for all the kids in your school. Also, the Eee PC has an interface designed to be simple and intuitive. So why would to choose the HP 2133 instead of the Eee PC for eduction? I don’t know.

Recently Best Buy posted a price for the upcoming Windows XP Eee PC on their website. The price is $399, the same as an Eee PC with Linux and the same hardware. What is wrong with that? Lots! You can read my full post on this subject for more details, but the very short summary of what is wrong with pricing the Windows Eee PC the same as the Linux one is that either Asus or Microsoft is absorbing the cost of Windows. If Asus is absorbing the cost, it is not their business to determine the pricing of other operating systems or if Microsoft is pressuring Asus to absorb the cost, that is almost certainly anti-competitive,  and if Microsoft is absorbing the cost itself, that too is almost certainly anti-competitive. (Not that I am a lawyer.)

So basically, if the otherwise identical Windows version and Linux version cost the same, I will be furious and you will almost certainly be seeing more about it here in the future.

You may be wondering why I am not already furious. After all, hasn’t Best Buy confirmed the price is the same? (Best Buy’s page for the Windows version, Linux version) The reason is that I do not trust the numbers on the Best Buy site for two reasons.

First, the picture on the Windows page shows the Linux interface and the Linux page shows a blue screen of death. (Really just a blue screen without the death part.) Second, and much less significantly, the Linux version has an offer for a deal to save $10 on Norton 360, a security product for Windows.

For these two reasons, it is possibly nothing more than a mistake made by Best Buy. So until the pricing is confirmed, I will withold judgment.

Update: Dell appears to have added 2 new laptops to their lineup since I wrote this article. The Google cache (dated April 5) shows only two machines, as there were when I wrote this. Now, there are four! Strangely, I cannot find any announcement, leading me to believe this could have been some sort of a bug??? That would make sense, but everything was still working on the page, so I am confused.

I do appreciate Dell trying to sell Ubuntu machines, but frankly I am surprised they are selling any at all. Here is why:

Lets take a look at Dell’s huge (sarcastic) selection of two (yes, two) Ubuntu machines. One is a desktop the other is a laptop. That alone is bad enough, but if you look even further, it only gets worse.

Perhaps the most noticeable option missing is on the desktop side. You can’t even get a Core 2 Duo processor. The only processor option on the desktop is an Pentium dual-core. Come on, Dell.

Most of the rest of the configuration on the ONE desktop seems reasonable, except for the lack of an option to get a wireless keyboard and mouse. I don’t have any idea why that option is left out.

The notebook Dell offers is barely better, if that. First of all, you had better want a 13″ notebook, because that is your only choice. Plus, in order to figure out that the notebook has a 13″ screen, you have to click on the notebook and then look at the tech specs tab and you better hope you don’t click on the customize button before looking at the tech specs, or else you will never know how big the screen is.

If you do figure out how big the screen is and don’t give up trying, you had better also like black, because that is the only color choice, despite Dell’s massive number of banner ads advertising all the colors you can get. Introducing Dell’s new advertising slogan: “Dell. You can get a custom color laptop, as long as it runs Windows.”

Basically, you should buy from Dell if you (1) want an underpowered desktop with wire clutter all over your desk or if you (2) want a black 13″ laptop and don’t mind digging around the product details to find out the most obvious spec about your new laptop: the size. Otherwise, may I direct you to System 76 or ZaReason.

We already knew Asus was planning on releasing a new Eee PC, but today Digitimes is reporting on a few more rather important details of the upcoming Eee PC - it will have a touchscreen and possibly GPS support too. (The price is supposed to be $500 with 1GB of RAM and probably around an 8GB SSD.) Apart from this being a cool feature, though, how is this really important?

In the past, the Eee PC has mostly been about the hardware. Yes it is cool that it runs Linux, but there is nothing amazing about the software. Now that there is going to be a touchscreen on the Eee PC, software will be much more important.

If the touchscreen is only used as an alternative mouse, it may well become the kind of feature that gets old after 10 minutes. On the other hand, if Asus creates software the fully takes advantage of the touchscreen, it could make the touchscreen the main selling point of the device. I don’t think Asus will pass up an opportunity like this. Chances are there will be much more attention put into the software in the second generation Eee PC, which is good.

This increased attention to the software could be a way for Linux to stay the main operating system on the Eee PC, not just a secondary choice for geeks, when Windows is added as an option. Because Linux, and most of the applications that run on it, are open-source, Asus can modify them to work really well with the touchscreen, whereas with Windows, Asus will not be able to modify the software as easily. In this way, the Linux version of the Eee PC could have a significant advantage over the Windows version.

If you have been watching the Linux UMPC space, you may have noticed a new trend: style. Asus said fashion would be more important in future Eee PCs, HP has a rumored Linux UMPC that is very sleek, and, most recently, ECS announced a Linux UMPC that is designed to be very sleek. Apart from, obviously, just making Linux UMPCs look cooler, this new trend could also expand the market for Linux UMPCs.

Before the Eee PC, the few Eee PC-ish laptops were generally very high end, very expensive, and targeted at business executives. Although the Eee PC is a similar form factor and it is only $400, compared to over $2000, the Eee PC was not targeted at business executives at all. Now with the increasing attention being paid to making Linux UMPCs sleek, a Linux UMPC might be a reasonable consideration for business executives, not only expanding the Linux UMPC market, but also potentially making people more comfortable with using Linux in the office.

Although there are, of course, many other factors involved, Linux UMPCs with attention paid to style seem likely to expand the market considerably, not just for Linux UMPCs, but potentially for Linux in general.

A recent Computer World article suggested that the iPhone’s biggest competition might be the Eee PC. While I disagree that a device the size of an Eee PC could ever compete with a cell phone, it turns out there is a way that in the future a Linux UMPC could become a serious iPhone (or <insert name of smartphone>) competitor.

A company called Miu has created a concept phone/UMPC that would mix the two groups into one smartphone-sized device, according to Linux Devices. With many smartphones already moving towards being a small computer, it seems almost obvious that UMPCs will mix with smart phones to create serious competitors to devices like the iPhone. You could even argue that the iPhone itself is already a UMPCphone, but with it’s limited productivity features, it does not quite seem to be a full UMPC.

So how is this related to Linux? Linux already has a hold in the UMPC market and it is starting to become more important in smartphones, so Linux may well be the first choice for a UMPCphone. Apple’s OS X has very little hold in the UMPC world, if you even consider the Air a UMPC. Microsoft has had little success so far in the UMPC market and their smartphones have not be, lets just say, great. Although Linux’s smartphone territory is not yet established, Linux has a solid position in UMPCs and a growing presence in smartphones, making a likely choice for a UMPCphone.

Everex is bringing the CloudBook to Japan with one interesting addition - a touchscreen (and bluetooth,) according to Engadget and Impress. While this version does run XP, I see this as a minor thing. If you look at the history of the CloudBook hardware, it was originally running Windows. I suspect that when the touchscreen CloudBook is brought to other countries, it will more than likely run Linux again.

Adding a touchscreen will give the CloudBook a significant differentiating factor between it and the Eee PC. Although I am not convinced the touchscreen will offset the increased price (personally I do not see the appeal of a touchscreen on a UMPC), it will at least be interesting to see a real competitor to the Eee PC that stands a chance.

Just like with the Eee PC, ever since the gPC started the low-cost Linux desktop market (yeah, yeah I am sure there is some cheap Linux PC that came before it), many, many companies have rushed to essentially copy the design and call it their own. This is understandable in the case of the Eee PC, since it has done so well, but it makes a lot less sense in the case of the gPC, since the gPC and all the copies so far have basically failed. I can even understand some early rip-offs thinking they could do better, but after every product in the market flops, you would think the flow of these cheap Linux PCs would stop, but it has not. Shuttle just set a launch date of mid-April for their “KPC.” (Even the name is a rip-off.)

While I am saying that companies should stop copying a tried and failed idea, I am not saying that no one should try to enter this cheap Linux PC market. Just don’t do the same thing as everyone else. To figure out how to make a better cheap Linux PC, look at the Eee PC. One major factor, at least in my opinion, in the Eee PC’s success is that it has appeal to both geeks and regular people. On the other hand, the gPC has almost no appeal to a geek (why would they want another underpowered computer even if it were free?)

There are plenty of ways to increase the geek appeal of a cheap Linux PC, you just have to think of it as a little more than your average Dell PC. As one commenter named Robert Pogson pointed out in a comment on “Will Asus’s UMPC Success Carry into Linux Desktops?,” Asus could make their new cheap Linux desktop PC a “base station for the eee (backup, software repository, home files, printing…).” Or how about an inexpensive media center/home server computer? All of this could be done.

The cheap Linux desktop PC market is not hopeless, it just needs some products that are not copies of failed ideas.