| Opinion: Linux desktop needs PC hardware vendor support |
Dec. 03, 2005
Despite great strides being made in recent months by numerous desktop-oriented Linux distributions, a fundamental flaw remains: a lack of real support from major PC makers. Now, the big vendors will say nice things about Linux. Some of them, like Dell, even sort of offer a Linux desktop.
What Dell actually wants, though, is to sell you an overpriced, underpowered Dell Dimension PC with an empty hard drive, a copy of the obscure, open-source FreeDOS operating system, and no support for Linux.
Such a deal!
The only first-tier PC vendor that offers a real Linux PC is Hewlett-Packard.
But even there, if you want a consumer Compaq Pavilion, you're out of luck. Professional PCs and workstations, yes; something you're going to see at your local Best Buy, no.
Only the HP Compaq Business Desktop dx2000 with a Celeron-D 2.66 GHz chip, an inexpensive, but also somewhat unimpressive, PC really fits as a consumer machine.
No, for the Linux desktop to really start going places it needs to be on brand-name, mid-line and better PCs at local and online stories.
Now, Linux desktops are available from smaller companies like Wintergreen Systems, a systems integrator that puts Linspire on computers for retailers like TigerDirect, and Techalign with MEPIX Linux.
But most people aren't willing to buy a second-tier or lower PC. If they don't recognize the name, they don't put down the cash. It's that simple.
You and I may know that underneath the case most PCs are all the same, but Joe Buyer doesn't see it that way.
The reason the big vendors will give you if you push them into a corner about not putting Linux on their machines is that there is no demand for them.
That's part of it. But, you know, if you put otherwise identical PCs on a store shelf and on some of them you had Red Hat Desktop or SUSE Linux 10 and on the other you had XP Home, and the Linux ones were a hundred bucks cheaper, I really think retailers and vendors alike would find that those Linux boxes would sell like hot cakes on a cold Vermont winter morning.
After all, Linux is a lot cheaper than Windows.
Don't believe me? Then why in countries where Linux is getting traction has Microsoft started offering a cut-rate, cut-down version of Windows, XP Starter Edition?
I'd think about buying one even if I couldn't even guess at how to pronounce "Linux."
So, what's the real reason I can't find a Linux-equipped Sony VAIO at Circuit City?
It's because, when push comes to shove, none of major PC builders wants to tick Microsoft off.
It's one thing to sell Linux on servers, but Microsoft owns the desktop, and it's not willing to share.
Yes, Microsoft was slapped on the wrist for its monopolistic ways, but the big OEMs know darn well that Microsoft can, and would, make their lives miserable if they started to really promote Linux on the mainstream desktop.
Still, as the Linux desktop gets better and better, and its price advantage becomes more and more attractive, sooner or later, one of the big boys is going to break ranks and offer Linux as a full-fledged desktop choice.
Here's hoping that day comes sooner rather than later.
Even if you love Windows, you should hope for that day. It's the only way you'll ever see a reasonably priced Windows operating system again.
If you found this eWEEK.com article by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols informative, be sure to check out eWEEK.com's Linux & Open Source Center for the latest open-source news, reviews, and analysis.
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