ZaReason CEO: Better Hardware = Better User Experience

Outperforming the Competition

Cathy Malmrose, the CEO of independent Linux vendor ZaReason, Inc., is has applied to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming FOSDEM conference in Brussels on Feb. 5-6, 2011. FOSDEM bills itself as "the biggest free and non-commercial event organized by and for the community."

Cathy sent us a note about her talk application:

Cathy Malmrose, CEO of ZaReason, Inc. a hardware company similar to Dell, would like to share her company's methods and strategies. Cathy recognizes that it is the computer company's responsibility to showcase the power and strength of the many different distributions available today.

As we all know, getting a computer to work well requires both quality software and quality hardware. When the computer vendor builds hardware that does not work well with Ubuntu (or other distros) the average customer can not tell the difference between a hardware issue and a software issue. It is likely that the customer will think that Ubuntu (or other distro) is bad, when in reality, the hardware company has not worked hard enough to find the hardware that "just works". It is the computer vendor's responsibility to make sure they build the best, most reliable hardware so that the various distributions can perform well.

There are many ways in which we, as developers, industry leaders, and other supporters of F/LOSS can work together to build hardware that outperforms other OSs to such an extent that there is no longer a question as to which OS an individual or company should seek if they want reliable computers. Come hear our ideas and ask your own questions regarding the future of Linux-only hardware.

Carla Schroder is the author of the Linux Cookbook and the Linux Networking Cookbook (O'Reilly Media), the upcoming Book of Audacity (NoStarch Press), a lifelong book lover, and the managing editor of LinuxPlanet and Linux Today.