That's a good question, and I have several answers for it...
1. I have an old Compaq 5304 I "upgraded" to a K6-2 400Mhz/96M ram/10G hdd.
The whole system set me back about $20. Under Windows98, this system has
640x480 graphics, no LAN, no Modem, no Sound because the old drivers are no
longer supported by Microsoft nor Compaq/HP. Under the newest release of DSL,
however, the old box is fully functional and surprisingly quick (this is the
same box I installed Debian/Xfce4 which runs just as well). I feel it would
be dishonest to sell a system with an unsupported OS no matter how low the
price.
2. Windows comes "free" even on old hardware, and that's great, but what
about other apps? I know a college student with a brand new e-machine
"rental" (...shudder...) running XP home, who was typing up her homework in
Wordpad because she can't afford MS Office (until I gave her Open Office),
and another who needed PowerPoint (she runs Impress now). There are thousands
of Open Source apps available for Linux at no cost, and even "Oogie" (my
aforementioned K6-2 box) will happily run most of them. All this for FREE,
and NO "CLIPPY" to screw it all up for you!
3. Some folks just like to roll their own. I hand roll my own cigarettes,
listen exclusively to Indie Music, touch-type on a Dvorak keyboard (6 months
of Mavis Beacon on MS at work, and I still can't do QWERTY), and run Linux on
all my computers at home. I'm too old and stubborn to play "Mother May I"
with Bill Gates & Co., and it bothers me to see others caught in his software
web.
4. Speaking of Dvorak, any Linux user can set it up with a few clicks in
their profile. With MS, it takes an IT Department, and they refuse to do it
for me at work. Better I should struggle along with "Mavis" then for them to
reconfigure the OS on my computer.
I could go on, but that's enough for now. Suffice to say I don't intend to
flood the market with Linux Laptops. I just want to be able to offer an
inexpensive (under $200) alternative to those who are really interested in
it. These are the people who have the potential to become die-hard converts
to Gnu/Linux and Open Source in general.
That, and of course there's the simple fact that I enjoy doing it!
Stu
On Wednesday 03 May 2006 14:00, Mark Phillips wrote:
> Stu,
>
> I am curious about your plans. You mention using older hardware. What type
> of hardware? At what price do you plan to offer your laptops?
>
> A few experiences:
>
> I had an old Inspiron 3000 laptop, and to be perfectly honest Windows 98
> ran much faster than a vanilla Debian install. Windows 98 for word
> processing and browsing is sufficient.
>
> I installed Debian on a PII with a 100 MHz bus and still found Windows to
> be faster.
>
> I installed Win 2K on a PIII 500 MHz system and Debian - the response time
> was about the same, although at first, Windows was more responsive. As time
> went one, Windows got slower and Debian remained constant. It was my kids'
> machine, and they installed a lot of Windows games that may have had
> something to do with the change in performance.
>
> Checking Dell's refurbished equipment web site, they are offering a
> latitude (P4, 2.3 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB hd) for under $300. It comes with
> Windows XP installed. Adding Linux takes a little bit of time, but is
> getting easier and easier to accomplish.
>
> My point is that I can get a good laptop with Windows for around $300, why
> would I buy an older laptop with Linux on it? Also, there are times when I
> need Windows - for example for editing my home videos. The GNU stuff is
> still too young and takes a lot of fiddling to get to work, and needs a
> really fast machine. I have edited a lot of videos on Windows PII laptops.
> I am looking at QEMU as a way to run Windows and Linux simultaneously.
>
> I am not saying you have a bad idea, I like it a lot. You would have saved
> me some time configuring all those older machines! I am just curious how
> you think it will work?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark
>
> On Wednesday 03 May 2006 03:23 am, stu wrote:
> > On Wednesday 03 May 2006 07:08, Empty wrote:
> > > Wagner, Steven G wrote:
> > > > If anyone could post back with a short list of what you like about
>
> Ubuntu
>
> > > > (if you like Ubuntu) I'd be interested in hearing. I was under the
> > > > impression that it is just a very easy, kind of novice distro that
> > > > works with a lot of hardware, etc. and installs quickly. Am I missing
> > > > something?
> > >
> > > I like it because it is Debian enough for my tastes, with solid
> > > hardware support. It recognized my 10/100/1000 Ethernet out of the box,
> > > *and* my IPW2200 wifi card... To me it is aimed more at the desktop
> > > crowd. I prefer to save my brain cycles for getting something big and
> > > important working rather than mucking with constant patching etc.
> > >
> > > ~Ben
> >
> > If / when I get started on this project, I plan to try several different
> > Distros. For the reasons both of you have mentioned above, Ubuntu is
> > clearly a reasonable choice since I'm looking to introduce new users to
> > Linux in an easy to swallow form! Considering the older hardware I'll
> > likely be working with, I'll definitely give Xubuntu a shot - I rather
> > like Xfce4 as a lightweight window manager. I've got a K6-2 400 running
> > it on Debian. Then, there's also DSL which runs on almost anything, as
> > does Puppy, and
>
> I'd
>
> > like to try Enlightenment on a Debian base install, just for giggles.
> > I'm currently looking for hardware sources, and I'm willing to do some
> > Dumpster Diving if needed! Most of what I'm finding online is either
> > "Refurbed" with Windows preinstalled, or has been stripped of memory,
> > hard drives w/caddies, batteries, and power supplies.
> >
> > Stu
> > ---------------------------------------------------
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