Macintosh users are often characterized as both cool and independent. A few years ago Apple ran commercials with the tag line “think different.” More recently, the company’s humorous “I’m a Mac / I’m a PC” commercials have juxtaposed a relaxed, lovable Mac character with a frumpy corporate PC guy in an ill-fitting suit. The commercials, and indeed marketplace numbers, make it look like only two choices exist. You can be one of the 8 percent or so of PC users who opt for the Mac “alternative” or be part of the larger herd of Windows PCs. Either way, you’re buying into a company that dictates what your computer experience will be like.
Macs may be cool, but the Mac ecosystem is pretty much controlled by Apple, which decides what machines to build, when to revise the operating system, how much to charge and all other terms of what it means to own a Mac.
Microsoft has plenty of its own faults, including Vista – an operating system no one seems to want. But at least Windows users have a bit of freedom when it comes to hardware. Microsoft partners with multiple PC makers while anyone who wants a Mac has to buy it from Apple.
But when it comes to the real guts of the machine – the software that makes it work – Microsoft Windows users have only two choices: They can get Vista or, as many people do, they can demand a “downgrade” and get the older Windows XP.
But there is an alternative to the Apple/Microsoft duopoly that may soon be ready for prime time.
It’s the open-source Linux operating system, which has been around since 1991 but has scratched only the surface as a desktop operating system with less than 1 percent market share in the United States. That’s not to say it’s obscure. Linux is extremely popular in the server world. Many Web sites, including Google, are powered by Linux. And it’s embedded in plenty of consumer devices ranging from the Motorola Razr to the TiVo personal video recorder. As a desktop operating system, it’s becoming popular in many parts of the world. But in the United States, it’s used mostly by techies who don’t mind having to download and install it themselves.
That may soon change.
Dell, earlier this year, introduced both desktop and notebook machines that run Linux (details at www.dell.com/linux), and Hewlett-Packard offers it on some business machines. Lenovo, which took over the IBM PC brand, already offers it in China and will soon introduce Linux notebooks in the United States.
Last week, Linux got a potential shot in the arm when Everex announced that it will offer a $200 Linux PC through Wal-Mart. The new Everex gPC will feature the gOS operating system based on the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. There are many alternate Linux “distributions,” which are basically versions of the operating system that share the core code but vary when it comes to user interface and bundled software.
While Ubuntu has a pretty straightforward “windows-like” interface, gOS takes user friendliness a step further with an icon-based desktop that even Mac users might find attractive and intuitive. Like many other Linux distributions, it also comes with plenty of free software, including the Open Office productivity suite which offers similar features to Microsoft Office. It also has the Mozilla Firefox browser and the free Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client.
The machine is mainly positioned to get people on the Web, according to an Everex spokesman. He envisions people using it to access Gmail, Google Docs and Spreadsheets and other online applications. The ‘g’ in gOS doesn’t stand for Google but for green, a reflection of the machine’s relatively energy efficient low-end hardware, including a VIA C7-D processor, an 80 gigabyte hard drive and only 512 megabytes of memory. Buying a Windows Vista machine with 512MB would be like driving a Buick with two cylinders, but Linux is lean enough to work fine with that little memory and a low-powered CPU.
There are now two inexpensive Linux notebook PCs. Asus last week introduced the $399 ultralight Eee PC that runs Linux and comes with 512MB of RAM and a 4GB solid state storage drive. The other new Linux laptop is the One Laptop Per Child device that’s designed to be sold to governments in the developing world for less than $200 for use by school children. Starting Nov. 12, North America folks can “give 1 get 1” for $399. You get one of these machines for yourself and buy another one for a kid in a developing country. For details go to laptopgiving.org.
Now that’s cool.
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