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Out of the Netbook craze, a new category was born: the Nettop. The Nettop is supposed to be the desktop equivalent of a Netbook, being inexpensive and small. It’s not a bad idea, but I agree with the author of this OSNews article that they are a bit over hyped, but for a different reason.
Netbooks were revolutionary in that they were both small and cheap, but their price alone is not the main reason they are so attractive. An average netbook usually costs between $300 and $400, while a standard notebook starts at about $400 and up. In other words, the price difference is something between $0 and $100, $200 at the most. While that is increasingly becoming a very noticeable difference, the usually inferior specs and, thus, often shorter lifetime mean that netbooks can’t quite compete without something else going for them. That something else is, of course, size. Having a portable, extremely small computer has a lot of value on its own. When you add in $50 to $100 of savings, the deal changes from being just attractive to being irresistible for many people.
Nettops don’t have this advantage. While there are exceptions, most people don’t care about slicing every inch off the size of their desktop computer, if they even have a desktop computer. Plus, the price savings get squeezed even more with low-end (yet usable) desktops hitting the $300 mark.
Without the size advantage and with further squeezed price savings, nettops just don’t have a lot to stand on.
Really their only hope is to make their small size valuable with software. If a nettop shipped with home-theatre aimed software, it might have a better chance, since there the size is of significant value. Without some differentiation along these lines, nettops really have little chance, it seems.
What To Look For In Fedora 10
Previously, I covered some features that might be included in Fedora 10. Today, here are some interesting features that have already been approved.
Fedora 10 will feature two new desktop environments: Sugar and LXDE. Sugar is the desktop environment used on the OLPC XO laptop, making it a very interesting choice for Fedora. Perhaps more US schools will adopt it? It will definitely be interesting to see where it goes.
LXDE is a lightweight (and modular) desktop designed for everyday use. Although I have not used it myself, it seems to be a fairly promising desktop for older and lower-end computers, making it a good choice for inclusion in Fedora or any Linux distro.
Another interesting “feature” of Fedora 10 is going to be better support for HDTVs and remotes. Improving support for these pieces of hardware is a very good move, in my opinion. Linux has a lot of potential on HTPCs due to all the incredible software out there for HTPCs, so making all the hardware work out of the box would be great.
Finally, there is First Aid Kit. The plan for this feature is to create an easy way of using common recovery methods to rescue a messed up system. There is really almost nothing you can do to prevent people from accidentally messing up their systems, so the best approach is to create tools, like this, that can fix these problems.
Between this and the artwork, I think Fedora 10 will be a good release.
Today I saw the news that Cirgon is shipping a Fedora-based HTPC. I was glad to see the news, but, unfortunately, I was not impressed by the implementation.
Ideally, a Linux-baed HTPC could be a killer product. It would be a small, inexpensive, low-power computer (all of which Linux is very good at) that you would place under your TV. Most people would buy it for its ability to stream/play music, videos, and photos. Perhaps it would also have some TV functionallity. This alone would be pretty cool, but if you just add WiFi, and ethernet port, and a little software, this device could hook up to the internet and let you surf the web, watch YouTube videos, and, perhaps best of all, play Hulu TV shows and movies. A device like this, at least in my opinion, would be incredibly attractive.
In addition, since it would really just be a customized computer, you could easily make desktop functionality such as a web browser and office software available. If you are thinking “who would ever use their TV like a computer?” you have probably never tried it. It is really useful/entertaining to be able to look something up quickly and, better yet, be able to show people something without everyone having to stare at a small laptop screen. People might not buy the device for its computer-like abilities, but they would probably find them useful in the long term.
Once people get used to doing computer-like tasks on their Linux-based HTPC, they might even try out Linux on their regular desktop. My point is, a Linux HTPC could be really great. Unfortunately, the Cirgon device, called the Encore Media Server, didn’t quite do as well as it could have.
First, the $2000 price point. How is this $2000? I can’t figure it out. If you can, please leave a comment. Second, there is no WiFi and, presumably, no web browser. Great.
So when I saw the headline, I was excited, but after look closer, I looks like nothing more than some random box that a few people might buy. Oh well. Perhaps I am missing some hidden perk, but I doubt it.