I have been waiting quite a while to write this post. I think it's about time that people who want to write FOSS and support FOSS will also buy hardware from manufacturers that support it. One good way is to buy directly hardware which is designed like that.
So here is a list of stuff I can really recommend or I'd like to buy:
1. Portable Music Player with rockbox:
Sansa Clip+, by itself this little player is not open source or open hardware. However, it is cheap and reliable and runs rockbox. And that is really the best thing about this player. The original firmware comes with pretty limited and dumb interface, it does not support playing OGG or FLAC files, for example. Installing rockbox on this player enables that, further more, rockbox has many cool plugins. A favorite of mine is the simple Stopwatch which allows me to measure times when I jog.
I wish someone in Sandisk would realize how redundant it is to make their own firmware, and they would just adopt rockbox officially. After all, another cool thing about this player is its expansion slot for reading Mini-SD cards.
Rockbox has made me more satisfied with this player, and left me astonished when I saw the user manual, it is maybe the user manual I've seen for an open source project (except maybe the FreeBSD handbook).
2. Router+File Server
I think I am not very wrong, if I say that most people I know has a home wireless network. Good chances that this W-LAN router is running some kind of Linux based OS with a web interface. The advanced users can try and replace this OS with a user friendlier and more capable OS like OpenWRT or DD-WRT.
But what is better than buying a device which is already pre-installed with one? Here is a Linux Friendly router, the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH, this is the Wiki page dedicated to this little router, and there is a very good blog documenting that router what you can do with it.
Right now, my Buffalo is running a File server, and of course the W-Lan and I am very happy with this 40 USD embedded computer. I'm so happy with it, that I might get another one, and install full blown Debian on it.
3. Tablets
It's been a while that I am thinking of buying my own tablet or an e-book reader. However, I'm late to join the crowds and I don't want to pay money for computer that I need to break into to get a root password. There for this rules out 99% of the Android tablets and others.
I just ordered 2 spark devices. These little machines are pure Linux (not Linux with Handcuffs.)
But there are other devices which have Linux on them, such the Smartbook or WeTab.
4. Laptops
Well, there are many by now. And it's good, I've compiled a small list of laptops sold with Linux.
If you have suggestions to this list please let me know!
Showing posts with label Hardware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hardware. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
UEFI Secure booting is good for Linux
Microsoft will block non Windows on the ARM platform. Big deal. It is if installing Linux on any other Laptop is easy. Sure you can install Linux on most Laptops today. But does it really work? Do you get the same battery time with Linux as with Windows? Nope. Do your multimedia Keys work? In 90% of the cases only partially. Does your computer suspend or hibernates as in Windows? in about 50% of the cases the answer is no. Does your Graphics Card works the same as under Windows ? NOPE.
So, the situation is like this: OEM A makes a deal with M$ and writes proper drivers to the hardware and SomeUser Joe gets a hardware which works perfect with Windows 7. Later, SomeUser Joe, installs SomeCrack for SomeCoolSoftware which contains a Trojan which he can't get rid of. After some frustration, he decides to quit with this M$ thingi and give Ubuntu a try, because he heard it's cool. He than tries Ubuntu and discovers some things don't work. Here our little story splits.
First possibility, the Linux Sucks possibility. SomeUser Joe, is frustrated, his computer will freeze every time he resumes it from suspend. Or the graphics card is slow, or the Fan always works loudly. Linux Sucks. Period. SomeUser Joe, bites it, and installs Windows 7. His next computer will be Apple.
Second possibility, the Linux has a cool community, SomeUser Joe, heard about it and wants to join. So, he files another bug, which might be taken seriously, or not, in Ubuntu's bugzilla. This bug might find it's way upstream to the Kernel developers and they might solve it, but the patch will only be in the next release of Ubuntu maybe in 6 months from now. Damn speculations. But Linux works at most. So, in 3 years from now SomeUser Joe, might look for a new Laptop, without the Windows Tax, and will save a scrap of 50 bucks, which he will spend 100 times more money in working hours value digging through forums and IRC channels trying to get he's M$ free Laptop to work.
Third Possibility, SomeUser Joe buy his next Laptop with Linux pre-installed. Hell yes! UEFI is a great thing. I wish all M$ devices would never run Linux. It will force Linux fan boys to see that by saving $50 to $100 dollars buying a Laptop from OEM's which sell Windows, they sleep with the Devil. UEFI is a great opportunity to Linux and FOSS, because we have a great OS in our hands and now we have also Free Hardware like the BeagleBoard, PandaBoard, RaspberryPi and even the GTA04.
There are some small companies the sell Linux laptops which have the latest trends in hardware. If there are just 1 Million Linux users and just one third of them will buy a new device this year, that is about 300,000 laptops sold with Linux. I think this is a huge jump in sales for a small company like ZaReason or System76. They would be then more then able to go out on a broad campaign putting Linux on the main stream student Laptop.
So, please, stop whining about UEFI. Just don't buy laptop from OEM like Dell or Lenovo or Acer or Asus. There are ENOUGH alternatives for Preinstalled Linux Laptops. Here is a short list:
If you happen to know of others, please let me know through a comment!
(P.S. Dell don't count! Dell's Ubuntu offering mock Linux users, offering a free OS with lousy hardware which costs more than the Windows installed laptops with cost cheaper for better hardware. Just because of this mockery, I will never recommend any customer of mine or buy myself any product of Dell).
So, the situation is like this: OEM A makes a deal with M$ and writes proper drivers to the hardware and SomeUser Joe gets a hardware which works perfect with Windows 7. Later, SomeUser Joe, installs SomeCrack for SomeCoolSoftware which contains a Trojan which he can't get rid of. After some frustration, he decides to quit with this M$ thingi and give Ubuntu a try, because he heard it's cool. He than tries Ubuntu and discovers some things don't work. Here our little story splits.
First possibility, the Linux Sucks possibility. SomeUser Joe, is frustrated, his computer will freeze every time he resumes it from suspend. Or the graphics card is slow, or the Fan always works loudly. Linux Sucks. Period. SomeUser Joe, bites it, and installs Windows 7. His next computer will be Apple.
Second possibility, the Linux has a cool community, SomeUser Joe, heard about it and wants to join. So, he files another bug, which might be taken seriously, or not, in Ubuntu's bugzilla. This bug might find it's way upstream to the Kernel developers and they might solve it, but the patch will only be in the next release of Ubuntu maybe in 6 months from now. Damn speculations. But Linux works at most. So, in 3 years from now SomeUser Joe, might look for a new Laptop, without the Windows Tax, and will save a scrap of 50 bucks, which he will spend 100 times more money in working hours value digging through forums and IRC channels trying to get he's M$ free Laptop to work.
Third Possibility, SomeUser Joe buy his next Laptop with Linux pre-installed. Hell yes! UEFI is a great thing. I wish all M$ devices would never run Linux. It will force Linux fan boys to see that by saving $50 to $100 dollars buying a Laptop from OEM's which sell Windows, they sleep with the Devil. UEFI is a great opportunity to Linux and FOSS, because we have a great OS in our hands and now we have also Free Hardware like the BeagleBoard, PandaBoard, RaspberryPi and even the GTA04.
There are some small companies the sell Linux laptops which have the latest trends in hardware. If there are just 1 Million Linux users and just one third of them will buy a new device this year, that is about 300,000 laptops sold with Linux. I think this is a huge jump in sales for a small company like ZaReason or System76. They would be then more then able to go out on a broad campaign putting Linux on the main stream student Laptop.
So, please, stop whining about UEFI. Just don't buy laptop from OEM like Dell or Lenovo or Acer or Asus. There are ENOUGH alternatives for Preinstalled Linux Laptops. Here is a short list:
If you happen to know of others, please let me know through a comment!
(P.S. Dell don't count! Dell's Ubuntu offering mock Linux users, offering a free OS with lousy hardware which costs more than the Windows installed laptops with cost cheaper for better hardware. Just because of this mockery, I will never recommend any customer of mine or buy myself any product of Dell).
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Saving Karo: making a 6 years old laptop alive again...
Karo is the second laptop I got, I bought in my second year of Uni, in 2005. Karo, diamond in Turkish, is an HP Compaq nx6110 business Laptop. I have used it through my Bachelor and my Master studies. During these 5 years, I upgraded its memory from 512MB to 2GB, and replaced the Harddrive a few times from 40GB to 80GB and then to 120GB and finally to 160GB.
On the last year of its business warranty the laptop had problems with the CD-ROM and one of the USB ports died as a result of bad wiring. So, HP took the laptop and installed a whole new motherboard on their expense.
About a year later, when I was between my Master and Bachelor, I was on a very shaky bus ride and Karo fell off the luggage compartment 2m down. Although it was in a special case, the screen splintered and was not readable anymore.
Just going out of school, I was not able to replace the laptop so quickly, so for about 130 Euro, I bought a compatible LCD screen and replaced it myself. To my surprise it worked very nicely. HP have a very nice service manual which accompanied me since then.
So now Karo, had many new parts, and it was not worth buying a new laptop. I started studying a Master, and karo served me well. Until 4 months before I graduated, while I was writing my thesis, karo became extremely noisy.
It's fan was working non stop, and it was never able to cool itself down once it went over 65C degrees. I didn't feel like experimenting so much, and the only thing that bother me about Karo besides the noise was it's damn heavy weight. So I bought yenikaro, a new light weight 14" laptop which was nice and quiet with a weigh of 1.4 Kg.
Karo, moved away from the table, and was seldom turned on. However, this weekend, I decided to revive karo, and see if I can fix the noise problem. I followed HP excellent guide on how to access the fan. Once I open the laptop, lo and behold, karo had between it's fan and the vent I found a huge bulk of fibers and dust, it was so big, I just had to take a photo of it:
I removed the fan, and than carefully cleaned all the insides of the laptop from dust and fibers and other fine particles. Then, I closed it, and rebooted into my Debian again. Karo, is silent again. Now it just needs a new Harddrive replacement for the 3 years old hard drive and it can be used again ...
On the last year of its business warranty the laptop had problems with the CD-ROM and one of the USB ports died as a result of bad wiring. So, HP took the laptop and installed a whole new motherboard on their expense.
About a year later, when I was between my Master and Bachelor, I was on a very shaky bus ride and Karo fell off the luggage compartment 2m down. Although it was in a special case, the screen splintered and was not readable anymore.
Just going out of school, I was not able to replace the laptop so quickly, so for about 130 Euro, I bought a compatible LCD screen and replaced it myself. To my surprise it worked very nicely. HP have a very nice service manual which accompanied me since then.
So now Karo, had many new parts, and it was not worth buying a new laptop. I started studying a Master, and karo served me well. Until 4 months before I graduated, while I was writing my thesis, karo became extremely noisy.
It's fan was working non stop, and it was never able to cool itself down once it went over 65C degrees. I didn't feel like experimenting so much, and the only thing that bother me about Karo besides the noise was it's damn heavy weight. So I bought yenikaro, a new light weight 14" laptop which was nice and quiet with a weigh of 1.4 Kg.
Karo, moved away from the table, and was seldom turned on. However, this weekend, I decided to revive karo, and see if I can fix the noise problem. I followed HP excellent guide on how to access the fan. Once I open the laptop, lo and behold, karo had between it's fan and the vent I found a huge bulk of fibers and dust, it was so big, I just had to take a photo of it:
I removed the fan, and than carefully cleaned all the insides of the laptop from dust and fibers and other fine particles. Then, I closed it, and rebooted into my Debian again. Karo, is silent again. Now it just needs a new Harddrive replacement for the 3 years old hard drive and it can be used again ...
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