hp w/suse installed

[bob at rsi.com (Bob Gorman)]

At 09:14 AM 8/5/2004, Eric wrote:
>http://h71016.www7.hp.com/dstore/MiddleFrame.asp?page=config&ProductLineId=435&FamilyId=1893&BaseId=12127&oi=E9CED&BEID=19701&SBLID=&AirTime=False
>You save $50 choosing suse over winblows!  (And countless viruses :)
>Wasn't somebody just looking for a notebook with Linux?  Cool 'eh?

I agree, this is cool.  From the news feeds yesterday HP says it has all devices on the notebook working (fully?) under Linux.  Good for them.  I wonder how much non-SUSE-stock drivers or software is loaded or needed. Probably not much. However...

I went to their support site for the product.  They have a bunch of drivers and such for MS-Windows, but only one for SUSE - a BIOS update.

I went to the documentation section. Look at the Setup Guide, the only OS software it discusses is MS-Windows, no Linux.

Now, I think it is great HP is selling a notebook pre-installed with Linux.  And part of the greatness of this is the notion that the entire HP support infrastructure is behind the product. However, as documented above, this level of support to the end-user just isn't visible for Linux. I wish they would put full/equivalent support into Linux they way they do for MS-Windows.  I can understand that they have much more business on the MS-Windows side of the world, but if they truly want to sell retail-level Linux they should provide the retail-level support to go with it.  

It should be noted, from the news feeds, that HP thinks of this as a test flight, and they'll see how it goes.  I think that they where just trying to be ahead of IBM on releasing a product. Competitive (marketing) forces are work. 

-- 

I create custom Linux business solutions in the Boston area.
mailto:bob(at)rsi.com, http://www.rsi.com/, 617.965.1700