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HP has announced their new ProBook business laptop line. The laptops feature an LED-backlit screen (14″, 15″, or 17″) and a choice of red or black (excuse me, “glossy merlot” or “noir”). More interestingly, though, they also feature the option of SuSe Linux pre-installed for $50 to $100 less than Vista.
The new ProBooks are one of HP’s first experiments with Linux on non-netbook end-user computers. Considering that the original Mini 2133 didn’t prove to be a huge success and they switched to Ubuntu rather than SuSe, it is surprising to me that HP would use SuSe on the new ProBooks. These are business notebooks, though, so it may simply be that most of their customers use SuSe.
HP’s ProBook is already being seen as a more consumer-oriented business laptop, so it will be interesting to see if HP intends to bring Linux to the home laptop line. I wouldn’t bet on it anytime soon, but I’d say there is a decent chance they will eventually bring Ubuntu to some of thier home PCs if the Linux ProBooks sell well.
Linux On One HP Desktop: A Small Step, But Still A Step
Today HP has announced they will ship Linux on their HP Compaq DC5850. If you’re like me, your first reaction as soon as you saw it was a small business PC was “yawn.” One desktop and not even a consumer one? Big deal, right?
Well, it might not be. It seems that HP is toying with Linux more and more. FIrst on their Mini(Note) and now on this desktop.The big question is, will HP start selling more computers with Linux?
It is not implausible that HP would begin to sell Linux on more of their computers at all. After all, Dell is already doing it. Everything kind of makes sense. First HP offers SLED and then (soon) Ubuntu on their Mini(Note) consumer netbook. Now, they are trying SLED again, this time on a business desktop. All of this would fit with trying to figure out if offering Linux on a larger array of computers would make sense. Still , nothing is certain and it is difficult to predict what will or will not happen and when.
If indeed HP is considering a wider roll out of Linux, that would be excellent news. That would mean that the number one and two computer makers would both be offering Linux. After that, it seems likely that the rest would follow shortly.
Selling Linux on one computer model might be a tiny step, but it is a step that could lead to another and another. Do you think this a sign that HP will be selling more computers with Linux soon or is that too far fetched?
HP Mini 1000 First Impressions
Today HP announced the HP Mini 1000, the successor to their HP MiniNote 2133 netbook. The new specs are similar to the old ones (512MB, 1GB, or 2GB memory, hard drive or SSD, which is new, fairly large keyboard, etc.), but the look is much improved. It looks great! And that matters when people are going to be carrying it around all over the place.
Plus, they finally did the art model right. The entire machine is colored to match the artwork on the front, which just looks much better that previous laptops with art.
Not everything is great, though. One of the best things about the previous MiniNote 2133 was the screen. Alongside all the super low-res screens, the MiniNote had more pixels per inch of screen than most desktop monitors do. Unfortunately, HP cut back on the number of pixels this time.
However the hardware turns out, the most interesting piece of news is the custom Ubuntu-based Linux distro being offered as an option. We have already seen the Inspiron Mini’s software well recieved, so I am guessing that this will be just as well received, if not better.
If you are interested in one of these, you can buy it right now from HP with WIndows, starting at $400, or you can wait, as I assume you will want to, until January to buy the Linux version, wich starts at $380, just $20 cheaper than the Windows version. I can’t wait to see the real reviews of the Linux version.
In many ways, Microsoft has little to worry about, at least not for now. Sure, they are losing market share steadily, but for their lead to be toppled it would take years and years, or would it?
Microsoft’s agreements with major OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) such as Dell and HP are highly confidential (which is a warning sign in itself), but by most accounts, the agreements give Microsoft a lot of power over these OEMs. This is part of what gives Microsoft so much power. As long as OEMs continue to sell Windows exclusively, which Microsoft essentially ensures with their agreements, they have a large part of the market all to themselves. These strangle-hold agreements may also be a weakness, though.
From the information we have, it appears that Microsoft controls OEMs not by making them love Microsoft, but by threatening them with increased licensing costs, something that could quickly kill any OEM. What this means is that most OEMs probably wish Microsoft has less of a monopoly. In fact, both Dell, by selling Ubuntu on some notebooks, and HP, with their rumored custom version of Linux, have indicated this.
It appears that Dell, HP, and others probably have two options: restrict their Linux stuff to remote areas of their businesses, or declare a revolution by offering Linux on all their computers. I suspect that any single OEM that tried this would get killed, but if several major OEMs did it together?
Let’s look at the pros and cons from the perspective of OEMs:
- PRO: Good chance of toppling Microsoft’s power, freeing them of restrictive licensing deals.
- PRO: Reduce costs by cutting out Windows licensing fees all together.
- CON: Potential technical problems and initial negative customer response.
- CON: Some possibility of getting absolutely crushed. In this case, the company in question could probably recover, but not without losses.
While we do not know exactly how bad the license with Microsoft is, it seems unlikey that any major company would take the risks involved. If I were Microsoft, I would, however, be somewhat concerned. If OEMs did “revolt,” Microsoft would be in deep trouble. Arguably, despite the low probability, this is Microsoft’s most immediate threat. Could it ever happen? Would it work?