[Gllug] Lane Fox promises sub £100 PCs - running Linux

[JLMS]

On 17 January 2011 16:25, Andrew Davies <amd_uk at lineone.net> wrote:
> On 17/01/2011 11:47, John Hearns wrote:
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/17/lanefox_pcs_for_all/
>>
>
> Checking ebay for computers you'll find plenty of Pentium 3, Pentium 4
> and equivalent machines for less than £30 (as I write this there are 3
> Compaq P3 SFF units that sold for £46 including postage). I've managed
> to pick up an Athlon X2 4400 base unit for £51, admittedly it had Vista
> but that's not really a concern if you're going to replace it with
> Linux. CRTs are being given away now, LCDs are moderately expensive but
> available and input devices are commonplace.


And the labour?

What an initiative like this brings to the table is a certain economy
of scale, by dealing with standardized architectures support costs are
reduced, and I am sure that a company dedicated to this field could
actually get lots of similar machines free (offering to recycle them
to companies for which old hardware has no longer value) or paying
very little.

They have to make a profit (or at least brake even) in order for all
the parties involved to have an appropriate incentive.


> The tech support line is almost certainly going to be a premium rate
> number and the chances that it'll be routed to India with an intelligent
> person being forced to read from a script are reasonably high.

That is not what the article says:

"The machines, refurbed by Remploy, will come complete with
***telephone support***, monitor, mouse and Linux software." (emphasis
mine)

As for support from India, I as a foreigner, clearly see no problem
with this :-) and as for scripted support, that horse died long time
ago, lets stop beating it.

Of course the devil is on the details, but can't we wait before
throwing the first stone?


> The actual machine itself would probably be required to run a browser
> and possibly an email client (although only web-based email need be
> offered). This specification negates anything fancy from the hardware so
> the software choice available (in this case Linux and applications that
> are packaged with the distribution) is almost any OS that will run on
> that hardware.

Maybe, but non technical people will not install any of the myriad of
free and gratis distros and/or OSes that would make the machines
functional.

That a government advisor is linking Linux specifically with
affordable computing is to be celebrated , isn't it?

>
>
> So £98 for a refurb machine running linux is nothing special,

It is. We live in ivory towers where people build and fix their own
computers and even like Perl.

Look at Android, once the solution is properly packaged people just
don't care. It is about time that the year of Linux for the masses
really arrived on the desktop (although arguably it may be skipped
altogether in preference to smart phones and tablets, I am surprised
how much less I use my desktop since I got an Android phone).

> the interesting area will be the level of support they'll be willing to
> offer. The length of warranty, the cost and quality of the help-line and
> how quickly, if at all, a fitter is available if things go wrong.


Absolutely, but my glass is half full today, in spite of the media
going on and on about today being "blue Monday" (lazy newsrooms...)


> --
> Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
> http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug
>
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug