Prebuilt/turn-key Linux laptop availability (was: Prebuilt/turn-key PC options)

Ben Scott dragonhawk at gmail.com
Sun Aug 19 23:35:24 EDT 2012


On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 10:35 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen
<rozzin at geekspace.com> wrote:
> I'm less concerned about the `Windows Tax', though, than I am about
> the whole EUFI `Secure Boot' business and the issue of whether
> I'll even be able to buy a new laptop to run Linux in the future.

  This is likely less of an issue than it's made out to be.  Much like
the Intel processor serial number and TPM, it's a feature that's
available for use.  None of the hardware makers are much interested in
forcing you to use it, because it would only cost them.  MSFT would
doubtless be happy about it, but they're already walking a fairly
careful line thanks to anti-trust.

> The *smart* course of action would have been to just bypass
> the whole system--bypass the whole vendor/manufacturer/Microsoft stack
> that put Windows onto your laptop in the first place: find out who's
> *really* making the things (e.g.: Compal or Clevo) ...

  They're generally doing contract work with someone else's designs.
You can't just buy a Dell design without it going through Dell first.

> Maybe we would have had to buy a hundred of them to make it viable--

  You're off by a few orders of magnitude.  100,000 would do it.
Prolly 10,000.  Maybe 5,000.  The economies of scale that yield the
price points for consumer electronics are fairly staggering.

  Now, if you're okay with each laptop costing $2000 each, then sure.

  But prices keep coming down, and designs keep getting more and more
integrated, so it does get more viable -- but not without other
trade-offs.  Raspberry Pi is basically a cell phone SOC and a
break-out board, which is great until you want a faster graphics chip
or more RAM.

-- Ben


More information about the gnhlug-discuss mailing list