Hewlett-Packard Brings Linux To Select Desktops

The world's largest PC manufacturer, Hewlett-Packard, has reportedly announced it will start selling Linux-based PCs aimed at the consumer market. For the time being it appears the HP Linux models will only be available in Australia, with prices starting at $AU600 (just under $500 USD).

The new machines will use AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors and come equipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop, which features OpenOffice, Firefox and Evolution (e-mail) pre-installed.

Max McLaren, General Manager at Red Hat in Australia, tells APC Mag, who broke the news, that “with the cost of proprietary systems continuing to rise, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop minimizes acquisition and ongoing deployment costs, leaving more money and resources for other high-value projects and tasks.” Which is corporate-speak for “Linux is cheaper than Vista.”

The tech support will come from Red Hat’s end in a variety of options, though HP hasn’t said whether additional support for the included free software will be part of the package.

With Dell already on the Linux bandwagon, by popular customer demand (Ubuntu Linux in that case), Linux seems to finally be making in-roads on the desktop, not just with the nerds, but everyday consumers as well.

[via Desktop Linux, photo from APC Mag]

Source :http://blog.wired.com