Intel blasts $100 laptop

[mkrishnan]

TIVO's run Linux?

Pursuant to GPL, they even let you download source: http://www.tivo.com/linux/linux.asp



I have a ReplayTV personally, which I love. Yeah, they never really did have the impact as a company in the UK that they did here. Of course, here, the slow agonizing death thing is sort of happening in a different way.

All kinds of devices, including many routers, run Linux or similar kernals efficiently. But you have to compare OS X to something else that has OS X's versatility. OS X does pretty well for itself compared to most of those things. You can't do nearly as many things on a TiVo box as you can on an iBook. That robustness can carry a cost, because you have to provide many different programs with different ways to do different things.

Now in the case of these computers, I hope that MIT and company are very frugal and make them work really well, really efficiently / snappily, and make them do what they do in a straightforward manner, much more à la TiVo than à la any desktop OS, Linux distros included.

 

[cait-sith]

I've been using linux for many years now, from back when it was "hard".

Distributions like Fedora make installing Linux as easy as installing any other operating system, and using it no more challenging than learning Windows or MacOS.

You should sit down with some Fedora CD's and try it. I bet you can do a ton of work (spreadsheets, word processing, web browsing, music listening, emailing, etc) without needing to read any manuals.

It's no more difficult to figure out how to use KDE or Gnome than it is to figure out MacOS or Windows.

 

[danny_w]

Intel's chairman says that MIT's $100 laptop will be a "$100 gagdet", without practical applications.

I think that's pure FUD-slinging, though I can't imagine what the motive could be. I have yet to think of one reason why the MIT's program is not a good idea....

Sounds like classic Intel to me. Now that Apple has gone Intel, get used to it.