HP Finally Offers Pre-Installed Desktop Linux
By: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 01:36:57 PM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6612/1/
HP's SLED Desktop
For years, HP has been slowly edging towards releasing a pre-installed Linux for general users. Today, December 10th, the company finally announced that it would be releasing Novell's SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 SP 2 on its low-priced business class HP Compaq dc5850.
This new desktop offering is aimed at SMB (small-to-medium sized businesses) and education users. Anyone interested in a Linux-powered work desktop, though, will be able to put the SLED-powered dc5850 to use. While HP would sell you desktop Linux on a business PC in the past, it had to be 'ordered.' Now, you'll be able to get it 'off-the-rack.'
The dc5850 is a small form-factor desktop. It comes with a wide variety of AMD processors. These range from the 2.2GHz AMD Sempron LE-1250 processor to the quad-processor 2.3GHz AMD Phenom X4 9600B processor. The system can hold up to 8GBs of RAM, but typically comes with 512MB to 2GBs of RAM.
You also get a variety of choices for your graphics. These include integrated AMD Radeon 3100 Graphics; NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS or the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT. You also have many hard drives to choose from. The one thing the drives have in common is that they're all fast. At the low end, there's a 80GB 7,200 rpm drive and you can go up to a 500GB 7,200 rpm drive or a smaller, but faster, 160GB 10,000 rpm drive. You an also pick from one of three removable SATA drives.
Why has HP finally taken the pre-installed Linux desktop plunge? Because, Lance Stevens, software product marketing manager for business PCs at HP, explained in a Linux Planet interview, "You're right. The Linux desktop option has been on the table at HP for several years. We evaluate the market, the customer requirements and competitive situation on an ongoing basis. We talked to educational customers in particular and it became apparent to us that now was the appropriate time to roll this product out."
Customers Want Linux
In other words, customers were asking
for Linux. Grant Ho, Novell's senior product marketing manager
for
SLED, added, "We're very excited about this release. Desktop Linux
in education very clearly meets the need to help meet the pain point
in security, value and cost savings." With today's economy, SMBs
can certainly use that same help.
Besides SLED's usual assortment of programs, such as Firefox for Web browsing, Evolution for e-mail and OpenOffice for office work, Novell and HP will be jointly offering a repository of more than 40 open-source applications, including math, art and word games, to improve student learning. In addition, applications for school administration and instruction will be available for teachers and administrators. This repository will be available in early January.
Stevens said that that the delay is
because Novell and HP are still certifying this set of education
programs for use with this particular platform. What this means for
you is that when you call HP for first and second-tier support,
they'll not only be able to help you with SLED on the PC, but with
these applications as well. To the best of my knowledge, this is the
first time a PC company is offering free and open-source software
support, beyond the operating system and Web browsers, to customers.
In a statement, Roger Levy, senior vice president and general
manager of Open Platform Solutions, for Novell said, "We are
excited to expand our work with HP to take advantage of the
high-growth desktop Linux space. As the best-engineered and most
interoperable Linux desktop, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop helps
customers increase security and improve productivity. With the focus
on educational users, this affordable joint offering delivers a solid
learning platform and prepares students with 21st-century technology
skills."
The HP Compaq dc5850 with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is expected to be available Dec. 15 in North America at a U.S. street price of $519 via HP's Web site. The systems will also be available through educational and SMB VARs. Customers will be able to buy totally pre-configured, "Smart Buy" systems or pick and choose their own hardware configuration.
Novell/HP Open-Source Education
|
Application Name |
Description (from project web site) |
|
Art of Illusion |
a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio |
|
Blender |
free open source 3D content creation suite |
|
Celestia |
free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. |
|
Audacity |
a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder |
|
Azureus |
Azureus implements the BitTorrent protocol using java language and comes bundled with many invaluable features |
|
AbiWord |
an award winning, small, fast, featureful and crossplatform word processor |
|
Open Admin for Schools |
a School Administration Program. |
|
openCentre |
a free student information system for public and non-public schools. |
|
Little Wizard |
a development environment for children. It is intended to be used by primary school children to learn about the main elements of real computer languages. |
|
Multiplication Station |
Multiplication Station will teach your child to add, subtract and multiply |
|
Childsplay |
a suite of educational games for young children, like gcompris |
|
GCompris |
an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10. |
|
jMemorize |
a free open-source Java application that manages your learning processes by using flashcards and the famous Leitner system. |
|
Tux Typing |
an educational typing tutor for children |
|
TuxMath |
an educational arcade game starring Tux, the Linux mascot! Based on the classic arcade game "Missile Command," Tux must defend his cities. In this case, though, he must do it by solving math problems. |
|
TuxMathScrabble |
a math version of the classic word game "Scrabble" |
|
TuxWordSmith |
Scrabble in many languages all in one application |
|
FileZilla |
fast and reliable FTP client and server |
|
Scribus |
an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, |
|
RSSOwl |
RSS reader that collects data from RSS-compliant sites |
|
MuseScore |
a free WYSIWYG music score typesetter for Linux |
|
AMANDA |
the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver, is a backup system |
|
Avidemux |
a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks |
|
CamStudio |
record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files |
|
Cinelerra |
Cinelerra does primarily 3 things: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample level accuracy. It's a movie studio in a box. |
|
VLC Media Player |
a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats |
|
OpenVPN |
a full-featured SSL VPN solution which can accomodate a wide range of configurations, including remote access, site-to-site VPNs, WiFi security, and enterprise-scale remote access solutions |
|
eXe |
a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content |
|
Asymptopia Crossword Builder |
a JavaScript education application that runs in any modern internet browser |
|
Claroline |
a Web Based Course Management System. It allows teachers (professors, lecturers...) to create and administer course websites through a browser |
|
ClaSS |
A complete student tracking, reporting and information management system |
|
Koha |
Koha Classic sets the standard in open-source library automation. |
|
Moodle |
a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. |
|
Sakai |
includes many of the features common to course management systems, including document distribution, a gradebook, discussion, live chat, assignment uploads, and online testing. |
|
SchoolTool |
will eventually take care of all aspects of school administration |
|
FET |
open source free software for automatically scheduling the timetable of a school, high-school or university |
|
KeePass |
KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way |
|
TrueCrypt |
Free open-source disk encryption software |
|
GanttProject |
a free and easy to use Gantt chart based project scheduling and management tool |
|
DVDStyler |
a cross-platform DVD authoring application |
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the operating system of choice for PCs and 2BSD Unix was what the cool kids used on their computers.