Linux on Netbooks (NOT!), was: Globe & Mail article on FOSS use by Cdn gov't

[Tyler Aviss]

On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 8:12 AM, D. Hugh Redelmeier<hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> | From: Darryl Moore <darryl-90a536wCiRb3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org>
>
> | On a related note, I came across this link by way of slashdot.
> |
> | http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090619161307529
>
> Very interesting!
>
> I had kind of wondered what was going on when I read a report from
> Computex.  This amplifies my concerns.  I would not say it was a
> proof.
>
> Here's another topic that might be FUD and might not be: return rates
> of Linux netbooks vs WinXP netbooks.
>
> I remmber MSI saying that "The return rate is at least four times
> higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks."
>  http://blog.laptopmag.com/msi-wind-coming-to-major-retailer-new-models-coming-soon
> Apparently the Linux was SuSE.
>
> Apparently Ubuntu confirmed high return rates (but they don't know
> WinXP return rates):
>  http://blog.laptopmag.com/ubuntu-confirms-linux-netbook-returns-higher-than-anticpated
>
> Yet I remember that Dell said that Linux was not worse than WinXP for
> them:
>  http://netbookboards.com/dell/mini-9-netbook-running-ubuntu-returned-less-than-xp/
> They use a version of Ubuntu LTS 8.04.
>
> Here's an interesting article:
>  http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131204
> About the MSI statement, it said:
>    Solis said in a March research note that Taiwan's MSI had not yet
>    shipped a Linux-based Wind at the time of the comment to the magazine.
>    When it did, it did not "adapt" the operating system for the netbook's
>    smaller size -- a key ingredient to Linux's acceptance by consumers,
>    Solis wrote.
> --
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I might be getting confused with another company, but didn't MSI ship
some netbooks which turned out to have some rather irksome driver
issues in Linux (assumedly the drivers were OK in windows)? That might
account for high returns.


Whatever the numbers may be, I'm fairly impressed with the way the
global community has increased 'nix support, especially in the arena
of drivers, etc. NVidia has been well known for good drivers, but
ATI's drivers since the AMD merger are impressive.  Intel has
generally been known for good driver compatibility in most areas, if
not great performance in video hardware etc.

FOSS drivers for wireless have improved, finally snagging a lot of
troublesome broadcomm/B43 cards. My last laptop for the longest time
had to use ndiswrapper, but when the FOSS driver finally was included
in the kernel it worked wonderfully.

My current laptop doesn't have a working FOSS driver (wireless N cards
aren't well supported by B43 yet), but I was very surprised to
discover that broadcomm themselves released a driver (WL). That one
ran like shite when I first tried it early this year, but the current
incarnation has worked without any notable errors.

Heck, even most webcams seem to work nicely, and ditto for
cardreaders, etc. I've *NEVER* found had a machine where bluetooth
required more than minimal configuration.

One area that could probably use a fair bit of improvement though,
seems to be sound. While a lot of soundcards do somewhat work, I've
seen a number of ones based on the IntelHD chipset that have various
issues (volume controls wacky, output detection incorrect, Mic in
doesn't work), but hopefully the ALSA guys will get there eventually.

Good drivers will do a lot to improve support. It's pretty hard to
push the sales of a linux operating system when not all your hardware
works properly.
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists