An interesting view of the hidden cost of Vista

[Mike O'Dell]

actually, the amount of proprietary hardware in laptops has been going down
precipitously. most are now "white box" ODM products based directly on the
Intel reference designs (or maybe the AMD reference designs). because of this,
the need for "special" hardware on notebooks has been reduced drastically.
Microcenter's entire "PowerSpec" line of machines are all just white-box units
with customization of the enclosures.

biggest problem with Linux on notebooks is the sophistication of the power management
(or lack thereof).  there the variation is not so much proprietary hardware
but variation in which hardware is actually in the notebook. and the new batteries
have made things much more complex. there are microprocessors inside the battery
packs these days that communicate with the mother ship to control charging.
given the latest amusement with Li-Ion battery failures, it's not surprising
people are reticent to do anything but something they can blame on someone else.

	-mo

jsteller at spottydog.us wrote:
>> MicroCenter is now offering lower-priced desktops with Linux. Could this 
>> start a trend ?
>> (Interestingly, there were no laptops pre-loaded with Linux)
>>
>> 73
>> André
> 
> That's because laptops have a lot of proprietary hardware on board.  Getting Linux to run in one can sometimes be a real chore.
> 
> 
> --- JST
> 
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